As we begin the second season of Pure Refreshment, I'd like to ask you a rather odd question:
How many doors do you open and pass through on any given day?
During a typical work week, I perform this task more often than I realize. There are the doors inside the house. There are the car doors that I open to get in and out. There are the doors to the office complex and the doors to the company I work for. If I go out of the office for lunch, there are the doors to the restaurant. If my family goes to a friend's house in the evening, there are doors that have to be opened there. There are so many that in the final analysis, I'm really not sure!
Although we open and pass through many doors in our lifetime, there are only two doors that truly matter.
God has an incredible desire to see all people come to know him. Yet he didn't construct humanity from steel, aluminum, and silicon. He made us from the ground and provided us the ability to make our own choices about any and everything. As a result, we find that our lives have a door in them that, when opened, will lead us to God himself. At least that's what we think. Little do we know that God also has a door that we have to walk through in order to experience him and the life and love only he can provide.
This presents a problem of sorts. If getting to God means walking through more than one door, there exists the possibility that his door may be closed or, worse yet, locked. Then how can we get to him?
Some people try the following option: they open their door and then attempt to open the door separating them from God. This sounds pretty simple, but they soon find out that no matter how strong they are, they cannot get his door open. Going back to the early sentences of the Bible, we find out why this is the case. Adam and Eve were both perfect, but the crafty snake in the garden convinced Eve to eat the fruit of a tree she was expressly told not to. So for a time, there existed on earth two humans, one who had made a mistake, and one who was still perfect. Too bad Adam enjoyed the snack as well, as we all carry the effects in our mortal bodies today (see Genesis 3:1-7).
If the story were to end there, it would be a sad sight as humanity found themselves knocking on the door of heaven, only to never see it open. Yet God's love for his creation was too strong too see such an event occur. At this point in the story, Jesus takes his place on stage and proceeds to live a life of hope and love mingled with peril and death—his own. In all of this, the life Jesus lived was one without fault or mistake and served to do something none of us could do with our baggage of sin.
That life opened the door to God.
And so Jesus stands at the door, ready to open it for anyone who asks him to forgive all their mistakes and wrongdoings and chooses to make him their Leader for life. It's vitally important to note that if we haven't made this declaration of faith in and to him, we find that the door to God will be closed and locked shut. But Jesus made it clear that it doesn't have to be that way. And what is wonderful, mysterious, and scary is that he lets us make the decision.
A few days ago, I was thinking about this idea of doors opening and closing when a section of Paul's letter to some Christians in Rome came to mind. Consider what he says:
"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus" (Romans 5:1 [Message]).
Then he adds the fascinating truth of the two doors:
"And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise" (Romans 5:2 [Message]; italics mine).
Where else would be a better place to be?
And so the questions arise: What is the door situation in your life today? Are you standing in the middle of God's grace and glory? Are you standing by your door, hesitant or maybe unwilling to open it? Have you opened your door, only to find God's door closed due to mistakes, faults, and unbelief? Or are you ready to knock on God's door, asking Jesus to open up and change you in the way only his death and return to life only could?
Whatever your answer, may you never see doors the same way again. And as God refreshes you this week, may you in turn go and refresh others.
"But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure."
--Psalm 71:14-15 (NIV)
"Sin is a refusal to 'let God be God in you.'"
--Gerald Hughes 1
1 Hughes, Gerald W. God of Surprises. Darrow, Longman, and Todd, London: 1985. Quoted by
Leonard Sweet in Out of the Question . . . Into the Mystery (Waterbrook Press, Colorado
Springs CO: 1984, p. 145.)
