AS FAR as I am concerned doors are a good thing. I like having doors on the rooms in my home. I like being able to close a door and be in a room by myself. I like opening the front door to welcome guests into my home and being able to close it when they leave. It is fashionable now days, to not have a door on your bathroom. But then I have never considered myself to be fashionable.
IN THE 60's, my sister-in-law Eleanor went dressed in costume, in hopes she would be chosen to be one of the contestants on “The Price is Right” with Monty Hall. I never did get to see the show but she was chosen and she was asked all the questions and was willing to give up what she won for what was behind curtains #1, #2 or #3. I don’t remember which one she chose but she was thrilled with what she won. A 16ft speed boat! She loved to fish and in her mind this boat was going to take her out fishing. And it did, for a time!
HAVE YOU ever wondered what was on the other side of the door? Have you ever cautiously opened a door, not knowing what would be on the other side? Were you relieved, puzzled or even frightened? Sometimes we use the word door as a metaphor; transferring its meaning to infer a different directional sense. For instance Jesus said; ”Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” John 10:7 In other words Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the door!
IN MY life time I have seen and heard about many doors. I visited a very large church in Los Angeles that was called “The Church of the Open Door!” It wasn’t until I was much older did I understand that it wasn’t just opened on Saturday nights for everyone to come and hear great Christian artists, but it was talking about Jesus.
MARIJUANA is a door to drugs. Hard work is a door to satisfaction. A good cook is a door to good eats. Perseverance is a door to success. Alcohol is a door to a life of sadness and a bad liver. Thievery is a door to deceit and a room behind bars. Going the way of the world is a door to destruction. Paul says the church is a door to declare the mystery of Christ. Many use facebook on their computers, as a door to vent their frustrations and misguided ideas.
AS JESUS went about teaching, he was asked; “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Jesus answered and said; “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:23-24 Another time Jesus said; “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 The world offers big doors with big promises but as you look back over your choices those promises were full of deceit and calamity.
BEFORE the church began, you and I would have been considered gentiles. We would have been considered heathens; idol worshipers. Paul was a Jew who had been sent to the Gentiles. He returned to Antioch; “And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” Acts 14:27 That door has been opened to us! A door of faith! A door that leads to Jesus Christ!
WE HAVE choices! Sometimes we make good ones and sometimes bad ones. Recently I have been looking at forgiveness. I have discovered that life is so much better when I choose to forgive! God said that we must forgive, if we expect Him to forgive us. Those are not just words, they are a door unto salvation. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men, your Father will not forgive you.” Matthew 6:14-15
I AM THE DOOR; if any one enters by me, He will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:9 I choose the door that is Jesus Christ! I choose to forgive! Is this path, easy? Can I stay on track? I don’t have to guess which door to choose because Jesus said; “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me!” By Jane Ann Crenshaw 12/1/12
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