Jesus is knocking

Jesus is Knocking at Your Door

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 KJV

I enjoy watching Police Dramas and the popular show Bluebloods is my favorite. I especially love scenes when Detective Danny Reagan stands outside the bad guy’s door shouting. “Police! Open Up or we’re coming in!” Then two seconds later he kicks the door open yelling, “Put your hands where I can see them!”

Photo by kat wilcox on Pexels.com

In some ways Jesus Christ is like Danny. He has collected all the evidence against us and has obtained a search warrant from the Judge of the universe. But there the similarity ends, because Jesus hasn’t come to arrest us and His plan is not to slap us in handcuffs and drag us down to the station. Even though He is able to knock down even the heaviest door, Jesus chooses to stand outside and knock. That gives us hope in three ways. First, we know that God has our address. He knows where we are and cares enough to come to our door. He has not forgotten us. Secondly, Jesus wants to enter our home. He has been knocking since He came to the manger of Bethlehem and He kept at it all the way to the cross of Calvary. Now He wants to sit down at our table – the one with a few spaghetti sauce stains and a chip or two on its corners. He didn’t come to see how perfect our house is. He came for us, and He is waiting just outside this morning to see if we will hear His voice and open our door.

Knock – Knock

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 ESV

“Knock knock – who’s there?” go the opening lines of some of my favorite childhood jokes but I almost never could guess what the person asking me was going to say. In the Bible Jesus says two things about knocking that leave me scratching our heads for answers.

KIMG1580

He begins talking about prayer as if it were like a visit to a friend’s house. It all sounds great in the Bible; that all I have to do is ask, or go looking for something or knock on a door and boom…I get what I want. But what about those times when we asked and nobody answered. What is God telling us when we sometimes seek for years and still don’t find. Or does he even hear me when I have struggled just to find the door and when I got there it seemed to be locked?

But the teaching of Jesus is true. God always listens to His children, but His pause before the answer is usually longer than we like. He has been watching as we looking in all the wrong places; waiting patiently for us to come to Him. He has not locked us out, and in fact He has left His own home and stands outside our door knocking. He has made it our choice to open to invite Him in to stay.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 KJV

The Battle is the Lord’s

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

All of us have battles from time to time. Most of us also can testify that some of them we have lost – but be encouraged: the war isn’t over! Before David became king he faced a battle with Goliath. At the beginning of the fight Goliath loudly spouts off about how great his strength is and how weak and puny David seems. Goliath boasted because he had never come face to face with the power of God.

David waited patiently for the giant  to finish his flowery speech. He was completely assured of victory going into his fight because he had walked with God while he took care of his father’s sheep. He didn’t need special training or special equipment to prepare him. His experience of trusting God when nobody was looking had taught him that God always came through in a crisis. So when David replied it was not just a boast. He simply and unashamedly told the truth. His battle belonged to the Lord.

We often think of Jesus entering in our hearts at the time of salvation. Maybe we think of it as a completed transaction. But Jesus is knocking at our heart’s door every day. Our choice is whether we will we invite Him in to take control. If we ask Him to take charge of every detail of our lives, we will discover that our battles also belong to Him.

Whatever you are facing today remember that Jesus is still knocking. When you open your door to Him, He will fight any giant and give the victory and peace to your heart right now!

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4

 

1547030528929_image.jpg