Is Your Door Open?

From cover to cover God tells us, in his Word, the Bible, of his longing to be fully with, walking and talking, sharing and caring, supporting and encouraging, loving and teaching, and guiding and directing us.  Stop and think about what I just told you.  If that statement is true, and it is, then I suggest you re-read it one more time, thinking about what that might be like.  What thoughts come to your mind when you read it?  What emotions well up inside you?

There are living today hundreds of thousands of people who could testify to the truth of God’s activity in their lives moment by moment.  Are you one of them?  Sadly, there are more people alive today who have had no such experience. If you are one of those, I am here to tell you it does not have to be so.  God longs with all his being to be active in your life.  He wants to be with you in the highs and lows of life.  He wants to guide you, encourage you, teach you, and love you.  He promises to carry our loads and fill us with peace and joy.  He never promises we will live our lives free of problems and pain, but he does promise to walk with us through those times.  Once you know that God is with you, not just some powerful being in the sky, you will truly live a whole new life.  It is transforming beyond what words can describe.  It is a journey of growth that brings more love, more joy, more peace, more strength, more hope, more courage, and more excitement with the passing of time.  It is a journey that never ends, but gets better all the time.  It is a journey that starts with a door, the door to your heart.

Before I go on, let me clarify “heart.”  When the Bible talks about “heart,” and when I mention “heart,” it is not meant to mean one’s emotions or feelings. It means the very core of one’s being.  The heart of a person is that from which their life springs, it is the place you find their life purpose and meaning.  We all have this place, and it is our heart that directs our words, thoughts, and actions.  God wants you to open the door of your heart to him.  When we open the door, Christ enters into our lives in a way that refreshes and feeds us with new life.  “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” Revelation 3:19-21.

This is the difference between religion and Christianity. The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men” Isaiah 29:12-14.

Christ followers are found in churches everywhere, but not all church goers are Christ followers.  If you are turned off by religion, it is understandable.  Religion is rules made up by people, often with the best intentions, but which cannot all be followed and leave the heart cold.  A relationship with God, where you have asked him into your heart, your core, opens up the freedom of living with mistakes that are forgiven and a past that is washed clean.  We can know we are accepted even when we fail.  We can know we have help to pull ourselves up again, but are not condemned for the fall.

Until you have opened the door and welcomed Jesus in the core of your being, you can only know of Jesus, but you cannot know him.  Until you have opened the core of your being and asked God to draw near to you, you can only know of God, you cannot know God.

God WANTS to be known by you.  “Come near to God and he will come near to you” James 4:8.  He has tried from the beginning of time to make that clear to his people.  The Bible tells us one long story of God seeking to be welcomed by, loved by, and worshiped by his people.  We read times when the people understood and opened their lives to God, like Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and many, many more. We also read about the times the people pushed God out of their lives and the prophets God sent to call out to them. The Bible is quite clear about the outcomes of both, be it blessing or not.  The Bible starts with God walking in the garden, and ends with Jesus.  In the end, no matter how good our lives have been, if God has not been invited through the door and into our hearts, then these words, as hard as they are to hear, will be truthful and therefore fair, “Later the others also came, ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said, ‘Open the door for us!’  But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you’” Matthew 25:11-12.

We must open the door, and we must do so before it is too late.

Lord, my prayer is for this reader.  Please fill them with a desire to know you.  May they open their door, and even if it is just a crack Lord, I ask you to send the rays of your life-giving light into their heart.  Let there be no doubt, Lord, that you have come through the door.  Fill them with a new hope which overflows with your joy and your peace.  Let this new member of the Church universal, which spans all time, bring you glory, honor, and worship forever and ever.  Amen