You Can Forget To Lock Up

Over the years I become very concerned with making sure the church doors are locked. You might think church buildings are crime free and undisturbed but this just isn’t the case. At every work I been at (with the exception of Hope) I had my office at the church building robbed without someone “breaking in”. Even when the situation didn’t involve theft, I had many other strange encounters that involved someone being in the building when they shouldn’t have been. It has made me well aware of checking to make sure things are secure after we use the facilities. I know at one place it was almost a grantee if I didn’t check the doors after a funeral or event, I would be dealing with someone coming in unawares. It wasn’t that we didn’t want people at the building; we just wanted to know who was there and why they were there. The insecurity of the unlocked door came from the folks who were only there for nefarious purposes.

It has made me reflect of the description of heaven found in Revelation 21. In verse 25 it tells us that “its gates will never be closed”. Closing the gate is akin to locking a door. It is to keep out those that don’t belong; those that are attempting to steal and destroy. In heaven you won’t have to lock the doors. Why?

In Revelation 21:27 we see the answer:

and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

No one who is not supposed to be there will be there. You won’t live in worry about the other guy and what he might be doing. The only people there will be God’s people.

Revelation 22:14-15

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

We often use the phrase “You don’t have to lock your doors” for a community that feels safe and secure. Heaven will be the ultimate place of safety and security. There will be no worries about the thief, the murder, the con man working coming in a ruing the safe haven. Only the peace that comes in when sin in kept away!

Comments

Until Midnight

In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Gift You Give Yourself

I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me. There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15). I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven. So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives. When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission. It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog