Doors and Gateways

César Manrique’s entrance to Coste Teguise, Lanzarote - by Paul Collings

Proverbs 8:34

Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.

Notice how we are blessed if we watch and wait for Him daily at his doors. We may need to ask, “Do I seek Him daily at His doorway? Do I take time away from my busy schedule to seek Him? Let’s face it, time is a precious commodity. What do I spend it on?

But there is more than just idly waiting, we have to intentionally wait and do so with an ear tuned into God.

It was Charles Spurgeon, that great baptist preacher who said, “If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord's people have always been a waiting people”

Waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator, a group of applicants paid little attention to the sound of the dots and dashes which began coming over a loudspeaker. Suddenly one of them rushed into the employer’s office. Soon he returned smiling. "I got it!" he exclaimed."How did you get ahead of us?" they asked.

"You might have been considered if you hadn’t been so busy talking that you didn’t hear the manager’s coded message tapped out in morse code on the pipes of the office hearing system," he replied. "It said, ‘The one need must always be attentive and listening for any incoming message.”

Elaine Orabona Foster  advises that, “God speaks in a soft voice I can hear better when I resolve to listen and stop putting words in His mouth.” 

Listening God, you hear us when we cannot speak,
When despair and turmoil leave us faint and weak.
In love you call us back to you again
And your grace reminds is how you feel our pain.

Marjorie Dobson  (Singing the Faith 524)

Doors and Gateways

Gatehouse to Lanhydrock House, Cornwall by Paul Collings

Revelation 3:20-21 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.”

The idea of Jesus standing at a door and knocking is often used as an illustration of Jesus’ offer of salvation to individuals: if you would only “open your heart’s door” and let Jesus into your life, all will be well. But in Revelation 3:20, Jesus is not pleading with an individual to be saved; He’s seeking admittance to a church! It’s alarming to think of Jesus standing outside of the church and knocking, but that’s the position He was in. The Laodicean church had shut the door on the Head of the church; they were smug in their prosperity, but Jesus was left standing in the cold. He was an outsider to the hearts of the entire congregation.

Three quotes to start this week.

William Booth - “The chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

John Dyer - “Someone may go to heaven without health, without riches, without honours, without learning, without friends; but he can never go there without Christ.”

It is Jesus I need, it is Jesus indeed
Who can make it all possible in me;
Without Jesus I find I am so often blind
To the truth He is wanting me to see.

O Jesus, Jesus,
You are the One who can make my life complete.
O Jesus, my peace restore.
It’s Jesus I need, Jesus indeed,
Jesus in me, more and more.

It is Jesus I need, it is Jesus indeed
Who will make my faith beautiful and bold;
And with Jesus in me I need no longer be
So afraid of what future days may hold.

Joy Webb

Doors and Gateways

Dartmouth Castle and Church by Paul Collings

Colossians 4:2-3 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;”

Paul would never write a letter without urging the duty and the privilege of prayer on his friends.

He tells them to persevere in prayer. Even for the best of us, there come times when prayer seems to be unavailing and to penetrate no farther than the walls of the room in which we pray. At such a time the remedy is not to stop but to go on praying; for in the one who prays spiritual dryness cannot last.

It isn’t a matter of if God opens doors, it’s the matter of what doors He opens and if we are willing to walk through the door. Sometimes God opens a door for us and we aren’t willing to be obedient. Other times we may not understand what God is doing but if we are willing to do His will, then we must walk by faith and not by sight. 

Heavenly Father, Open your door and pour out a blessing on me that I may not have room to contain it but overflow with the love that you give me in Jesus. You promised in your word that you will direct my path, so I surrender my will to you. Give me discernment of spirit that I may be able to see what is coming from you. Amen.

Doors and Gateways

Doorway to Powderham Castle by Paul Collings

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Prayer-time is never wasted. Good things come in prayer even if they are maybe not what we asked for. Prayer opens the heart for good things from God. Be grateful at the end of prayer for time spent with the God of all goodness. Prayer time is always productive by making us people of more love. True prayer brings peace of mind and heart. It also brings the peace of knowing we are loved and of being called into following the Lord.

I recently read of a single mother who has just taken a low-paid and exhausting job so that she can make life a bit happier for her two children. This means of course that she is now less available to her kids, and this makes them upset and insecure. She is caught between a rock and a hard place.

But when she turns to God, which she does, what does God think of her? Does God blame her or try to find help for her? What does Christian community mean in this woman’s life? Maybe, just maybe, God is knocking on my door, calling out my generosity…? I am, after all, called to imitate the generosity of God.  

Heavenly Father, thank You for laying out so clearly the principles and practices that should govern our lives as we die to self and live for God. Thank You that my salvation does not rely on what I have done but on what Christ has done on my account. Lord, at times I have tried to do things in my own strength, only to fail. Help me to live aright and pray according to Your Word and will. Give me an understanding heart and the desire to live and work and pray in a manner that honours Your holy name. I praise and thank You that You are my sole Provider. May I pray according to Your will, seek to grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and submit to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN. 

Doors and Gateways

Mdina City Gate, Malta by Paul Collings

Psalm 84:10

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Where is your favourite place, the place where you feel complete and fully what God intended for you. Here the psalmist seems to be content to stand at the entrance to the house of the Lord. Threshold, it’s an interesting word, linked to the notion the threshing place at the entrance of the home. Elsewhere, other translations speak of door-keeping. 

Among the jobs of the Levites in Old Testament times, being keepers of the thresholds of the tent was one of the lowliest because you were not inside but outside of the holy temple. The closer you were to the Holy of Holies, the more important your job seemed to be.

In this psalm the contrast was between being outside at the edge of God's house and being inside the house of the wicked. King David the psalmist seemed to be talking about the lowly job of guarding at the entrance of God's house than enjoying the comfort of inside the house of the wicked.

We are back with the Christian Characteristic of Humility.

Here are three helpful quotes for today.

St Augustine - “If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility.”

Francis de Sales - “Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”

Dwight L. Mood - “A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.”

Prayer

Thank you Father that You want me to be Your doorkeeper. Thank you for giving me access to Your Holy Presence 24/7. Give me Your grace and courage to carry Your presence to the world around me. Put people on my path daily that need to know more of Your presence and give me Your words and discernment as I minister Your presence to them. Amen.

Doors and Gateways

Open Doorway at Wells Cathedral Bishop’s Palace by Paul Collings

Revelation 3:8

‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

Jesus provides favourable conditions for serving him. In the face of adversaries, He gives opportunities to serve Him. The words “have set” literally mean given. Open doors are something that Jesus gives out of His grace. We do not earn or deserve the right to serve Him. Our opportunities for service are unadulterated gifts of grace from the Lord Jesus.

The word “open” is a verb and means a door that Jesus opened in the past with the result that the door still stands open.

A story is told of a mother whose daughter ran away and lived a wayward life. For a long time, no one knew where she was, but she finally came back, turned to Christ in repentance, and believed in Him. Someone asked the mother what she had done to bring her daughter back and she replied, “I prayed for her day and night.”

But that was not all.

She went on to say how she always left the front door unlocked, even at night. She didn’t want her daughter to come home in the middle of the night and find the door locked. And it just so happened that one night the girl came home, tried the door, found it open, and went in, never to go out  again.

That open door is a beautiful picture of God’s heart toward us. It’s open for us to come to Him!

Open our eyes Lord

I want to see Jesus

To reach out and touch Him

And say that i love Him

Open my ears Lord

And Help me to listen

Open my eyes Lord

I want to see Jesus

Amen

Doors and Gateways

The Old South Gate, Exeter by Paul Collings

Psalm 24:7

Lift up your heads, O gates,

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

That the King of glory may come in!

On first reading this verse seems quite strange doesn’t - gates lifting the heads and doors that lifted up. We need to remember this is a poet’s interpretation found within a Temple hymn. In the period of this psalm, the Ark of the Covenant was deemed to focus and embody the presence of God among the people. On this occasion, the Ark of the Covenant is being returned to the temple.

When the Queen Elizabeth wishes to enter the city of London, through the Temple Bar, the gate is closed against her, and then the herald demands entrance. ‘Open the gate.’ From within a voice is heard, ‘Who is there?’ The herald answers, ‘The Queen of England!’ The gate is at once opened, and the king passes, amidst the joyful acclamations of his people.

This is what is happening in our psalm and the hymn continues 

Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.

The question for us is how open are we to welcome the King of Glory?

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.