The Daily Word

 

Do you remember the days when if we wanted to know how someone was or just to talk to them, we walked or got on a bus, or a bike, if we were young, and went to see them, instead of now texting or sending a Facebook message? It was pot luck whether they were in or not, but apart from work and maybe going out socialising once a week, normally weekends, people were generally at home. But we visited, we knocked on the door and hoped. Many times, because people needed to be less security conscious in those days, you might knock and then try the door and if it was open, just shout to them to tell them you were there. But the initial step when you got there was to knock on the door.

In the book of Revelation, there is a verse which has also been the subject of a famous picture, which I believe hangs in one of the cathedrals of this country. The verse is “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”. The context of the verse is Jesus comment on one of the messages to the seven churches. But the artist’s picture, I believe, shows Jesus as a man with a lantern, standing in front of a closed and weed-infested door that does not have a handle on the outside.

This verse has been used many times by many preachers as a call to the unsaved to accept Jesus as their Saviour, and that is absolutely valid and has been used by the Lord I’m sure to bring many people to salvation, picturing the door as our spiritual heart, closed by sin. But the original context was Jesus talking to those already in the church, those who are already saved! And that is also true! Even as Christians we can shut the Lord out of areas of our life and forbid Him entry. So Jesus continues to knock at our heart’s door to have greater fellowship with Him. If we feel that tug of conscience or feel estranged from Him, then let us open that door and fill us with His blessing.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church