Here’s today’s big lesson: If we will do
something different towards Jesus, Jesus will do something different towards us.
Someone has described insanity as doing
things the exact same way while continually expecting different results. God
counters such insanity by showing us that there is a way to respond to him
differently that leads to different results.
Through a series of blessed events I found
myself in Revelation 3 where I am looking at Jesus’ ministry to the lukewarm
Laodicean church.[1] I
arrived here a day or so ago as I considered what it would look like for Jesus to
come in and share a meal with us. I wondered what that would be like when
people feel inner trauma that has never seemed to know him in such a way.
What stood out today is that Jesus said, “So, because you are
lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”[2] Based on the present condition of that church, Jesus had already
decided what he WILL do. If nothing changes with the church, nothing will
change with Jesus’ discipline.
However, when Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to
him and eat with him, and he with me”,[3] he presents another possibility. Instead of him spitting us out, he
would come in and share a meal with us.
Although I have preached on this passage
numerous times, all ending with a church choosing to stay the same instead of
changing, I have never noticed how strongly it connects the pictures of Jesus spitting
us out and Jesus sitting down to share a meal with us. What a contrast!
To spare us the negative emotions of
thinking that whatever Jesus would do for us depends on what we do for him,
everything is in the context of the salvation we have already received by grace
through faith (Jesus is speaking to one of his churches), and, the
encouragement to do something different is simply in response to our discovery
that Jesus is standing at the door already knocking.
In other words, no matter how we look at
this, things do not begin with what we do. However, what happens after we
discover something Jesus is doing does affect what happens next.
Our part is not to make something happen,
but to respond to what is happening. If we respond by saying no to opening the
door, we become vomit. If we respond by opening the door as encouraged by the
Spirit, we become host to Jesus sharing fellowship with us over a meal.
It is interesting that Jesus does not
identify the “door” on which he is knocking. It is just a metaphor after all.
However, yesterday I caught a glimpse of Jesus knocking on the door that has
hidden away the worthless orphan-minded child part of myself and asking that
part of my soul if I would like to fellowship with him like friends over a
meal. I knew the answer was yes.
Today Jesus wants me to see another
situation in which the door handle is on my side and he is knocking from his
side. It is the one who hears his voice and opens the door who will receive the
waves of grace that will satisfy us with his unfailing love.
After enjoying the blessing of what the
Spirit was teaching this morning, I realized that God is preparing me for situations
up ahead that will require me to be in fellowship with him in my inner being,
especially when circumstances would shout out that I am a worthless orphan
after all. This makes it even clearer that keeping in step with him each day
will make me all the more ready for divine appointments than if I keep dragging
my feet on whatever he gives me each day.
Somehow, if my experience of Jesus in my
inner being was like an orphan-minded child who is being transformed through
the newness of mind I have in Jesus, my fellowship with Jesus will not only
help me to proclaim “him” to people
as I have been learning,[4]
but will give me righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit no matter what
anyone else chooses to do.[5]
© 2018 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
[1] Revelation 3:14-22
[2] Revelation 3:16
[3] Revelation 3:20
[4] Colossians 1:28 (context: Colossians 1:27-29)
[5] Romans 14:17
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