The Gateway

People visiting the riverfront of my home town, St. Louis, never fail to be impressed by the “ARCH”. It is known as the “Gateway Arch” and is a monument to the pioneer westward expansion of settlers in the 1800 ‘s.
The Arch was completed in 1965, and in 2005 we celebrated its fortieth anniversary.
It has been said that St. Louis is probably the only city that has ever built or will ever erect a monument to all of the people that choose to leave that city!
St. Louis was not only the stepping off point for the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Northwest territory, but the city was the assembly point for Easterners who wanted to go West. These pioneers used St. Louis to construct wagon trains to carry their goods for the trip West.
Do you recall some of the old western movies that Hollywood no longer seems to know how to make, where men and women set out from St. Louis for the unknown West? Their wagons were loaded to overflowing with all the comforts of the East but which were foreign to those living on the frontier.
They set out with high hopes and much the same kind of zeal some of us had in the beginning of our pioneering quest after God. Then came the dry country - or the heat - or the cold. All along the wagon trails heading West could be found discards of that life they had sought to bring with them. At each place where some precious thing was laid down, it was on this basis - either lay it down or suffer with it, or even perish with it.
The people heading West were moving out to be dependent on the West. But at the same time, they were carrying their favorite “tokens of independence” from their previous life in the East. These were the things that they grew up attached to and felt a desire to preserve.
But as the trail West got harder, they had to begin to give up these attachments and leave them along the way. One by one, they eliminated the remnants of the East and began to subsist on what the West had to offer.
When a person comes to see Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, there is often a zeal and zest for living that has been called the “first love”.
But as new Christians, we carry much old baggage. As we head West on our Christian adventure, we, like the American pioneers, try to take along things that we have valued from the past. We have lived a life of
independent thinking and have many specific areas of independence which have to be discarded one by one along the way. The “trail” of the Christian life is one of growing in dependence on the life of Christ within us. Some tokens of independence we see that we can do without immediately. So we don’t even pack them in the wagon. But other types of independent thinking, we bring along with us to reminisce over at times.
As we proceed day by day along the trail, we come to realize that these areas of independence are actually hindrances to the journey. One by one, they must be discarded and eliminated so that they don’t weight us down on the trip.
We grow in awareness on a daily basis of our total dependence on the guidance and power of Christ to stay on the trail, to have protection from the dangers around us, and to make it to our glorious “Western” destination.
It is admittedly somewhat hard to swallow at the outset of our journey to release areas of independence that we have grown up to be cozy with. But after a time it begins to go down more smoothly until we see on the not too distant horizon, the glory of a new day in the West. What a spring such a vision should put into our step! What a renewed willingness there ought to be to follow Christ wherever He may lead!

Pioneer Christians

There were many more left behind in St. Louis than those who dared to venture out into a new land….at first. But after it had been spear-headed by those first hearty souls, then came many, many more upon their heels, upon the trail they had blazed.
Those first pioneers sent back word to St. Louis that they had arrived in a virgin land of such beauty as we may only imagine. And others steadily began to leave the East for the West.
The Church, the Body of Christ, which is made up of all true Christians up to the present age, is a PIONEER Church. We are called to make our way West and then to send word back to others in the East about the Good News of Westward expansion.
Most of the population is still East spiritually, and need to hear about the wonders of the West. There are pioneers of the heavenly way. The Church is the first budding organism that will go on to propagate and cover the face of this fading creation with that new and radiant glory of the LIFE OF CHRIST. A born again Christian is part of that organism.
Those who are willing to leave their “St. Louis” and all that their former lives consisted of, will find in the new land of their inheritance that there is gold there just waiting for the taking. And not just natural, perishing gold, but the gold of God’s divine nature.
In fact, the merchants of St. Louis would be very much at a loss as to how to transact in that new, foreign land. There the coin of the realm is faith and dependence - a supernatural faith causing a natural dependence on God. We can reach into God’s inexhaustible storehouse of creative power for any and all necessities. This is the privilege of those who answer God’s call to come West and join His children.
Yes, as I stand halfway up the steps between the Mississippi river and the Gateway Arch, I have two panoramas in view.
I can look toward the river to the East and see the tokens of materialism - the busy flashing gambling boats. They represent the present world’s kind of living - live for today and GET what you can. The majority of human beings have lived in the spiritual “East”; they feel rather comfortable and settled there. They just do not realize what lies out West.
Or I can turn around (“repent” means to turn around) and face West looking upward through the Arch at the sweeping vista of heavenly clouds in the sky. Yes, I am looking to the spiritual West - the Family house of God - God’s territory. You can start your Western journey by making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life.

St. Louis has always been my home.
And, like Lewis and Clark, it has been my Gateway to the West.
As in the 1800’s, I say again:
GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST!

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