Open the Door

"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

It's almost 1 a.m.

Sunday Morning. 

I had a headache, it's gone now, however I am wide awake.

I napped a bit yesterday afternoon. I thought I was coming down with some kind of flu or something yesterday. I think it was the allergy meds I started taking.  I didn't take the dose for yesterday. 

I don't think I will take any more doses of that medication. 

 

When I woke up from my nap, I heard Charles Stanley talking. I love his sermons. They are always so uplifting and I always learn something new or feel like the Lord is talking to me when I listen to him speak.

Of all the topics in the world as I laid on my couch under my blanket,  head still throbbing  he says something about  God healing us first.  

Then he went on to say something to the effect of,  "God doesn't always heal us. Look at Paul, he had some sort of illness and prayed several times for God to heal him and He didn't...."

"Um, excuse me but what was that? Umm....", I was thinking , as I lay on my couch, eyes closed trying to absorb all the words and scripture he is sharing in this message.  Then I started to think, "Is this God telling me that I may not get rid of this headache today? Or tomorrow? Or my FIRST DAY BACK TO WORK AFTER A WEEK LONG VACATION?!"

This was not good for me at all. I felt like my head was hurting worse now that he had said that.  Do you know why it hurt more? 

 

Because I started to worry. I started thinking that I really will have this headache for a while. Or it's covid or it's some stupid flu. Try holding thoughts captive when you don't feel well, it isn't easy. But eventually, spiritual godly sanity kicked in and  I just kept telling God that I know he (literally) has my head in His hands. 

I prayed I would find the somewhat newly purchased bottle of Ibuprofen that I had in this place I call home. Somewhere that bottle was just smirking and laughing and giggling playing hide and seek on me. I found it and did thank God for helping me do that. 

I was even more grateful when my daughter asked me  if on her way to work, we could hit the drive thru at Starbucks. I had a gift card, she had her card it was a win win situation. Whether it was the coffee, the Ibuprofen and the hand of God I was still singing praises when that stupid headache finally left my body. I was so excited to get back home and begin my Bible and writing studies.

I have started taking an online writing class. I am enjoying this class very much.  It's a lot of reading of scripture and a lot of writing and meditating on God's word. I cried tonight. I won't say why, but I cried so hard. I am surprised I don't look like a raisin at this point. I cried at small group, I cried with the Lord, I don't think I have many tears left to cry anymore.

I wish fat cells went away with every tear we cried, I would be the thinnest girl on the planet.

Anyway,  getting back to my point here,  the tears flowed but so did the story ideas. I even had an idea for a children's book! That came totally out of left field(obviously from the Lord), completely unexpected. But I hurriedly scribbled it down in one of the sections of the workbook I printed out. We'll talk about the printer another day. That is a blog of it's own. 

Moving on here, I want to ask you all a question(all 3 of you that read my blog ha ha ha...I am laughing out loud here at 1:30 a.m.). My question is, Why don't some people who are Christian not read their Bible? Why won't a non-believer even try and read the bible? Even if they thought it was fiction. Why is it that people think you just need to be a good person who is nice to people and donates to charity or, gives money to the church, that they will go to Heaven? 

Those are all great things, but why don't they know

you NEED a relationship with Jesus to get to Heaven? Why don't they want to read for themselves the amazing stories of David and Moses and Noah and Ruth and Esther and Paul's journeys and the Gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John? Why don't they want to read the actual stories of Jesus and his miracles and of His disciples? Why don't they want to read it and LIVE it and FEEL God in those stories and not just hear it second hand or not at all??

Jesus is knocking on their door. 

Nobody wants to let Him in these days.

See that picture above?

That brown chair is Jesus.

The blue chair, that's the world, the unbeliever, the Christian who refuses to open their bible because they rely only on a pastor or priest to tell them  what to do, I have met quite a few people who are Christian but have told me they don't need to read their bibles because their pastor reads it for them. 

They turned their back on  Jesus.   My dear sweet friend reading this, 

You need to read your Bible. 

You do.

You cannot live without Jesus, and I promise you that you surely don't want to die without Jesus.

You also cannot solely rely on man to tell you how to have a relationship with Jesus.  You need to listen to God  through His Word and let HIM show you how to have a relationship with Jesus. 

Look at our world today.

It's chaos, and fear and immorality, selfishness and bitterness.

"People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control,  brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited,  lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God..." - 2 Timothy 3:-4

"Woe to them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20

We need to pray friends.

We need to pray over our children, we need to pray over our families, we need to pray over our country and the world. satan is on the prowl wanting to kill to steal and to destroy all that God loves and all He created.  satan will not win the war. He may get a couple of battles here and there, but read Revelation ALL THE WAY THROUGH! 

GOD WINS THE WAR PEOPLE!

But until Jesus comes back, we need to be on our knees in prayer and in sitting in and absorbing and meditating on God's Word.

 

I met a woman the other day while I was sitting at the doctor's office. She noticed a book in my bag I was carrying and set on the chair between us. "What are you reading?" She asked me, "The Power of Prayer" I said and I pulled it out of the bag and showed it to her. 

"Oh!"

"What church do you go to?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't do any of those organized religions. I am spiritual. I believe in God. I am not one of those born again Jesus people, I was raised Catholic though but I'm not anymore.  Where do you go?" 

I grinned a little, thinking "I'm one of those born-again Jesus people" (I wear that "label" with pride by the way😉). I told her where I attend, showed her a summer pamphlet from our church and all the events and then proceeded to tell her how our pastor doesn't tell us how to live, he tells us how the bible tells us how to live. 

"Oh, I don't need to read the Bible."

I said, "Well, sure you do. I read mine as much as I can. And if I am having a bad day, I try to read a Psalm or two, because, well, it calms me. It makes the chaos around me not so chaotic. And I feel God's presence calming me down even if I'm having a bad day or stuck in traffic."

"Well, that's good for you. I'm glad it makes you calm. But I don't need it."

 

Then the nurse called her in for her exam.

She had cancer. 

Maybe she was bitter about the cancer. I don't know her whole story. I just know that God placed her there for a purpose. Maybe it wasn't her I was suppose to minister to, maybe it was someone else who was sitting in that office who heard me talking to her that needed to be ministered to.

I'm not ashamed of Jesus. 

I'll talk about Him any time, any where. 

Ask me anything, if I know it I'll tell you. If I don't, I will be more than happy to get back to you after I find the scripture or ask someone who knows the answer. Or I will direct you to my pastor, or a deacon or someone who has more answers than I do. 

No Christian is perfect, and no Christian has all the answers. 

And we never will until we get to Heaven. 

All of us sins, including me. All I know is, we all need Jesus, including me.  

So, in the meantime, I am fine ministering to people by whatever means possible so they will let Jesus into their lives removing whatever, fence, wall or door is keeping them away from Him if it's in His will and for His Glory.