WHAT CLOSES DOORS?
As a youth director you become acquainted with the parents of the kids that attend your church. I remember sharing a meal with one of these families. During the evening visit, we learned that the father use to attend church when he was a young man. He became discouraged when he learned that the pastor/elder was helping himself to the till, so he quit going. The church is full of hypocrites, he said. He closed the door to the church, until his wife saw the need for having their children in the Sunday School and subsequently, the 'youth group'. He still was reluctant and while holding back, discovered that many are hypocrites but the rest are being transformed into what God wants them to be.

One of the grandest of ladies in my Sunday School class always came by herself. None of the elders or the preacher were allowed to call upon her or her husband. I would drop off the worship schedule which included the songs because she was the organist and I was the pianist. He would sometimes answer the door and even once or twice invited me in. If Jim delivered the schedule he would take it at the door but never allowed her to answer the door nor was he ever invited in. My friends husband use to attend church with her until it was discovered the pastor of their church was having an affair with the secretary. He closed the door to the church and as far as I know, the only time he set foot in our church, was at her memorial service. This man never felt he could trust any man in the church because they were all hypocrites.

Many close the doors because they either want an excuse to not be drawn into God's ways, or because they are so discouraged that they will not allow the log to be removed long enough from their own eyes to forgive those who continue to sin. I have heard it said that the church is a hospital for sick people and that is why we are there. Sin makes us sick! So sick that we become contagious! Don't shut the door to the church! We know that not all who are within the church are who they say they are. But that is God's department, not ours. Our room within the walls of the church is called the 'transformation room'. That is where we learn to; "not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our mind, that we may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

I don't where this saying came from but it seems to fit here; "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face!" Don't shut the door on God and His church; Don't shut the door on those who care about you; Don't walk away from the promise of eternal life by refusing to look at his creation through eyes of expectancy. The principal in Jeremiah 29:12-14a still stands today; "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your yeart. I will be found by you, says the Lord."

No matter where we are and what we are doing, when we seek God we will find Him. When we call His name, He will stop and turn to us because He has promised that when we do this, we will find Him. What a promise! What a comfort! What a Savior and what a Father! "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blashemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." What closes the door is when we turn away from and reject the prompting of the Holy Spirit till the day we die. The most important opportunity in our whole existence is when we find Jesus and take His hand. He leads us through green pastures and restores our souls! What closes doors is our attitude and the unwillingness to seek God's face and His people. Jane Ann