Good Morning Friends,
Our God loves partnerships engaged in the divine purpose and we see exactly that in today’s scripture passages. It is like the covenant sealed in a rainbow…beautiful and vibrant and the affirmation of a believer. Given the challenges of a world, many may not know a living Jesus. But if you do know Jesus you also know that it is our responsibility to introduce others to him. It is about having a personal, meaningful, expressive, and intentional relationship with the divine. And here we see that God is revealed in the life of Jesus and provides a plan that cannot only save us but also transform us all. It is a relationship of the eternal and perpetual Son of God in the person of Jesus, one with the Father and the Spirit, routing a solution to the problems of the world. So, you can research the Covenants on your own, but for now think about the first covenant that was made in the Garden of Eden. And the second covenant found in Genesis 3:14-19, the first promise of a Redeemer. And the third where God makes a covenant with Noah and his descendants. And the covenant of faith between God and Abram that begins to extend the blessings to the whole world. But then we are to embrace the new covenant Jesus established for you and me. Friends, God has made a meaningful covenant with every Christian manifested in the communion we share with each other. Jesus prayed we would be one in this regard. Let us not disappoint God. We are to answer the call to be fruitful and to affirm our belief that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.So, Are You Living The Life Of The New Covenant By Standing At The Door Inviting People To Meet Jesus?
Scripture: God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life. Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind. And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.” Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Genesis 9:1-13 (NRSV)
My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blasphemed the excellent name that was invoked over you? You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
James 2:1-9 (NRSV)
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Mark 8:27-33 (NRSV)
“I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Revelation 3:8 (NRSV)
Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
Revelation 3:20 (NRSV)
I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
John 10:9 (NRSV)
for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
1 Corinthians 16:9 (NRSV)
“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
Matthew 7:7 (NRSV)
Message: Life is full of questions, what am I going to do with my life? What will I become? What will tomorrow bring? Will my children turn out right? There are also questions concerning our spiritual life. Is there a God and if so what kind of God? Am I saved for a purpose? When I die will I go to heaven, or do I have to wait? However, the most important question in the world is related to our affirmation of who Jesus is and the covenant offered to us through his life, death and resurrection. You know John 3:16. But the world questions or even denies its premise. You can speak of Jesus as prophet, holy man, teacher, or spiritual leader, and few will object. But speak of Him as Son of God, divine, of the same nature as the Father, and people will line up to express their disapproval. A billion Muslims will say: “Prophet, yes. God, no!” Jews scattered around the world will say: “Teacher, yes. Messiah, no!” And among liberal Protestant theologians as well, the divinity of Christ has been an open question in theological discussions. In many circles, both clergy and laity express a kind of faithless familiarity that keeps people from being forthright in answering in the affirmative as to Jesus’ divinity. So, who do you say Jesus is? C.S. Lewis focused on the issue sharply: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic-on the level of a man who says he is a poached egg-or else he’d be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” Friends, in our society we have been watering down the gospels and the name of Jesus for quite some time. To not offend other people or their religion we choose not to speak of Jesus. We accept the idea of God, and we admit to trusting Him but then we go our separate way. We believe we can control our own destiny, but in the process may gain the world and lose our lives.
And So, who do you say Jesus is? And if you say God, do you have a covenant relationship with the divine. Friends, Christianity, if false is of no importance and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is lukewarm. We must have the passion to love with the love of Christ in us. Our vision of the Kingdom of God hinges on a covenant of loving each other. And to do that there are some things that we have to give up or even destroy in order to survive. The door to the Ark determined whether people lived or died. The Door to God determines whether we live or die. The following writing by Sam Shoemaker says it well.
I Stand at the Door
By Sam Shoemaker (from the Oxford Group)
I stand by the door.
I neither go to far in, nor stay to far out.
The door is the most important door in the world –
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door – the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch – the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it – live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.
Go in great saints; go all the way in –
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.
There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. ‘Let me out!’ they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving – preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.
Where? Outside the door –
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But – more important for me –
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
‘I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.
Pray we realize it takes a supernatural revelation to conclude that Jesus is the incarnation of God. Pray that we realize it takes an act of the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth. Pray we believe in Jesus. Pray we have our priorities straight. Pray we realize that in our deepest hopes and hurts…our fondest dreams and desires and actions and anxieties is an answer to life’s ultimate question. Pray that we be who we are so others can learn to be who they are. Pray that we do not deny our own beliefs to solicitously be accepting of others. Pray we exhibit the characteristics showing forth to others what a real Christian is. Pray we realize that people do not want to be excluded from the Christian experience. Pray we realize that Christ both comforts and confronts. Pray we are called on an exhilarating adventure of dynamic discipleship. Pray we realize that how we answer the question of Jesus determines our ability to live the abundant life promised and our ability to receive and to give forgiveness. Pray we say yes to the Christ of Glory in us. Pray that our affirmation of Christ gives us courage to face death and life. Pray that the depth of his love heals us and makes us unselfish lovers of people. Pray his joy radiates from us. Pray we have a profound peace of mind that controls our thinking and makes us peacemakers joining with God in the life intended from the start. Pray that the Lord’s patience gives us calmness in our struggles. Pray we experience a surge of kindness that makes us affirmers of people as well as affirmers of Christ in a covenant of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 