OPENING AND CLOSING A DOOR

Have you ever thought about the number of times you open a door in one day?  It took opening/closing ten doors just to go get my driver’s license renewed.  I cannot imagine what that number would be if I counted all day.  Cabinet, bathroom, closet, appliances, and car doors.  Doors when I go shopping.  The front and back doors, of the house.  The garage door.  That is a lot of doors!

Opening a door is simple.  You put your hand on the door knob and turn it.  Then out or in you go.  Simple unless the door is one of the tricky ones.  Do you push or do you pull?  Sometimes you have to look for the door, because it is hidden in the wall.  The big thing now is barn type doors on rollers.  All through life we are opening and closing doors.

OPENING AND CLOSING A DOOR – BUT WHICH DOOR?

I remember watching “Let’s Make A Deal.”  The contestant had to make a choice between Door 1, Door 2, or Door 3.  They couldn’t see what was behind the doors, but usually one door contained a joke prize.  Zero value.  How to decide?  The doors were all pretty colors and sometimes decorated with ribbons and bows.  Choices.  Choices.  Choices.

In life, opening or closing a door often requires making a choice.  Choices are not always easy and some do not turn out so great. 

Eglon made a choice to send his attendants away and to stay in a room with Ehud.  Later the servants found the doors locked so they waited and waited and … finally unlocked the doors.  Oh my.  Oh my.  The king of Moab lay on the floor dead.  (Taken from Judges 3:19-25)

Guess he should not have chosen to close those doors.  Our choices are influenced by what voice we listen to and too often we are not able to hear the voice of Jesus because we listen to Satan.  We listen to the devil who has no truth in him.  “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  part of John 8:44  Maybe we are blinded by the light of Satan when he masquerades as an angel of light.  2 Corinthians 11:14

In life, opening or closing a door often requires making a choice.  Sometimes those choices are spot on.

At the ripe age of twenty-five years old, Hezekiah became king and it says right there that “he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.”  My goodness!  No question about it.  He would have won the big prize on Let’s Make A Deal.  Not wasting any time, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them.  Then he made others get their act together.  He told them to remove all (not just some) defilement from the sanctuary and told them to roll up the sleeves of their garments and get to it.  So the service of the temple of the LORD was reestablished.  (Taken from 2 Chronicles 29)

Hezekiah made the correct choice and opened the right door.  “This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.  In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly.  And so he prospered.    2 Chronicles 31:20-21

OPENING AND CLOSING A DOOR – BUT WHICH DOOR?

In life, opening or closing a door often requires making a choice.  Do you want to hear, “Were you born in a barn?” or “If you open it, you close it.”  Very simple.  Close the door.  Other times, we listen to the liar.  Your mother asks, “Are adults going to be at the party?” and “Yes.” comes out of our mouths when we know the answer is no.  Sometimes, well sometimes,

we open a door and …… there stands a Shepherd.

Jesus answered,

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

John 10:27

“Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock. 

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

Revelation 3:20

Would you recognize the Shepherd’s voice?  Would you throw the door open …. or … would you listen to the liar and stand there staring at a closed door?