Good Morning Friends,
There is a door through which we enter to find Jesus. Sam Shoemaker’s poem captures this beautifully, and it echoes the themes we’ve been sitting with from John’s Gospel. Shepherds and doors—two images that remind us that Jesus not only leads us but prepares a place for us. But the deeper question for ministry is this: Will we shepherd the people we want to spend eternity with—and the people we wouldn’t choose at all?
Scripture (Summarized)
Acts 11:1–18 Peter explains to skeptical believers that God has welcomed Gentiles. Through a vision and the Spirit’s prompting, Peter learns not to call unclean what God has made clean. When the Spirit falls on Gentiles just as on the apostles, the church realizes God is opening salvation to all.
John 10:11–18 Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep, lays down His life for them, and gathers sheep beyond the original fold so that there will be one flock under one Shepherd.
2 Timothy 4:6–8 Paul, nearing death, reflects that he has fought the good fight and trusts the Lord to give him the crown of righteousness.
1 Corinthians 2:9 God has prepared unimaginable things for those who love Him.
1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul urges believers to imitate him as he imitates Christ.
Message: We all know the phrase, “They’re not our kind of people.” It creates an insider/outsider world that feels safe but shrinks the gospel. Israel struggled with this, and the early church did too. But God keeps breaking down the walls we build. Acts 11 shows a turning point: God refuses to let His people decide who is “in.” The Spirit falls on those Peter least expected. The Shepherd is gathering a flock far more diverse than anyone imagined. Jesus’ image of the Shepherd and the door clarifies why. The Shepherd stands at the only entrance—protecting, guiding, calling each sheep by name. He leads from the front, not from behind. And He lays down His life so that all kinds of people—those like us and those nothing like us—can enter. Leadership in the church is meant to reflect that Shepherd. Not perfect, not powerful, not self‑interested—but sacrificial, attentive, and willing to go before the flock. True shepherding means loving people we didn’t choose, welcoming those we don’t understand, and trusting that the Spirit is already at work in them.
And So, eternity will be more diverse than we expect. The question is whether we will live now in a way that prepares us for that reality—loving, welcoming, and guiding others toward the door who is Christ.
Pray we recognize Christ as our Shepherd King. Pray we become good sheep—wise, humble, and ready to follow. Pray we welcome those unlike us and seek the lost with compassion. Pray we hear God’s voice and respond. Pray we stand at the door with Jesus, helping others find their way home.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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
Daily Devotionals 