"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20 (NASB)
That was the Scripture for the morning message at New Church today. It's also one of those Scripture verses that can be found on the bottom of an In 'n' Out Burger cup. It's a Scripture that is typically used as an invective to follow Jesus, a popular evangelical tool to proclaim the desire of God to come into our lives and dwell.
I'm not a Revelation reading kind of gal. Oh, I read the whole Left Behind Series and enjoyed that work of FICTION but I don't spend a lot of time reading through Revelation. I respect the book as part of the words revealed by God to John, I just don't spend a lot of time looking into the literal impact of Revelation or trying to figure out when the "end times" started/will start/will end. Not my cup o' tea.
Anyway, this one verse tends to be used to call new believers to Christ. This morning the Pastor pointed out that this particular verse in Scripture was actually talking to the church. In the Pastor's words, Jesus/God was standing outside the church trying to get in. Read that again. Jesus/God was standing outside the church door, wanting to get in.
That particular statement hit me in the gut with a vengeance today. There is a lot of talk about Christianity and churches and how to get people to church and so on and so forth. I've been a part of those discussions, I've contemplated those issues. In the back of my mind all along has been this thought...what if the church is not where Jesus is? What if the church as we know it today is so far away from what Jesus/God envisioned that they aren't even present in the building? What if we Christians are so far away from the heart of God/Jesus that we don't even recognize they aren't with us anymore but standing outside the walls of our hearts, our churches knocking on the door wanting to get in and going unanswered?
As I've thought about that today, I realized that there may indeed be churches where Jesus/God is standing on the outside of the door, knocking and no one can hear it, no one recognizes that Jesus/God isn't inside anymore. My hope and prayer is that it is rare. I have no doubt that there are many "Christians" that have lost sight of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit. The good news is that there is always hope. God/Jesus doesn't just walk away after knocking once or twice...they just keep knocking. The question is, are we listening? Are we answering?
Just a few thoughts today.
