I received an interesting email the other day. It contained a table showing the "short cuts" on the key board for "Windows" and "Outlook." Those without computers will have no idea what I am talking about, but that is not important.

Using certain keys on the keyboard one can bypass using the mouse. This is supposed to save time and make "computing" easier. As I was looking at the short cuts a couple of thoughts came to me.

First, there are a number of short cuts. Not just one or two but about 32 or them. Some were pretty handy and I already knew, others I am not so sure about.

Second, it seemed like a lot of memorizing and effort would be required to learn these short cuts. I am not sure they actually save time and effort as much as are a different way of doing the same thing.

Let me make a few spiritual applications. We live in a world where a lot of people are trying to get around what the Bible says. Some are going by a "New Hermeneutic." Instead of going by book, chapter, and verse; we should read the Bible like you would a story book and just get the general gist of the scriptures, is what we are being told.

Our religious neighbors want to leave out part of what it takes to be a Christian. They say a person is saved by faith only, or grace only. This is simply a means to bypass the scriptures that tells us to repent, confess Christ as the Son of God, and be baptized for the remission of sins. I can just see it now; a table that tells us the short cuts to heaven.

Some of my brethren may want to develop their own short cuts. We can make serving God a lot easier if we can just bypass certain scriptures. Hebrews 10.25 and its teaching on "not forsaking the assembling" can be bypassed by going to John 3.16. After all John 3.16 says nothing about our assembling together. Remembering the Lord’s death on the first day of the week and the importance of the Supper as taught in Acts 20.7 and 1 Corinthians 11 can be bypassed by using passages that speak of God’s grace.

I some times wonder why people want to bypass what the Bible says in order to only do part of what God says. Of course I know it is because they want to make it easier to serve God and go to heaven. But is it really worth it? Is it really worth risking your soul? If I am going to make the effort to serve God, I want to make sure I am doing the right thing.

It seems like a lot of effort is being expended to get around doing that which is possible. Don’t get short "cutted" on the way to heaven. D.T.