The other day I was attempting to replace a hand shower attachment. I opened the instruction pamphlet, and it looked like a pretty simple thing to do. When I finished hooking it up, I turned it on, and no water came out. I admit I am not a plumber by trade, but this looked like it should have been an easy job. Well, I did what I should have done in the first place, read the complete instructions. In these instructions it says that when you take off the old hose make sure that you take off the old seal. When I took it apart again not only was there the new rubber washer but there was the old seal that was blocking the water flow. It works fine now.
This reminded me of people who think they can come up with a plan that makes sense to them on how to get into a right relationship with God. They fail to look up how to accomplish this according to the instruction manual that is from the very breath of God, the Bible.
This Bible makes it very clear that the only way to establish a right relationship with the Father is through His Son Jesus Christ. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.
There will be a lot of folks who end up appearing before God and will be devastated because they depended on their own efforts that didn’t work. They didn’t go to the truth source, the instruction manual. He will say, “depart from me because I never knew you”.
The good news is that for anyone still breathing, the instruction manual is readily available and the God who wrote it is waiting with open arms.