LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Every house or building I’ve ever been in has an entrance somewhere. Rooms inside the building also have entrances. Typically, most entrances are covered by some kind of door that can be opened, closed, and locked. Doors provide security by limiting access points. People who don’t use the door are usually called thieves.

When I was in 8^th grade in Oscoda, Michigan, I broke into a school room once. It was right after lunch, and the teacher was late. The classroom door was locked. I told all of my classmates that I would crawl through the open window outside and let them all in, and we would all sit at our desks quietly and surprise the teacher when he arrived.

I spent the rest of the day in the principal’s office. My leadership skills were negated by the test on the teacher’s desk. He assumed we had all cheated.

Doors are designed to keep those inside safe, to provide safe passage in and out, and to keep the unsafe out when necessary.

Twice Jesus said that in His Kingdom, He is the Door.

John 10:7-9 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Jesus is the Door of the sheep. We are His sheep if we have believed on Him for the forgiveness of sin and the gracious gift of eternal life. There is only one doorway into eternal relationship with God – it is Jesus. When we come into His sheepfold, which is His everyday analogy for eternal relationship with God, He shuts the door and secures us from the darkness. We are protected from the thieves (false teachers and religious error). Jesus said in John 10:1 that anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the door is a thief and a robber. The Door cannot be broken down. We are secure in Jesus.

Jesus opens the door to the light so we can find abundance of life. We are free in the light to go in and out through all the days of our lives and find abundance. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Spiritual abundance. Relational abundance. Emotional abundance. Identity abundance. Life can be abundant for the one who walks only on the paths of life that are in the light and lead to the right Door.

We spend a lot of time knocking on good-looking doors. We believe that behind one of them we will finally discover the meaning of life. Every door is designed to attract us, but when we open it we find ourselves in an ugly room filled with other people who are still looking for abundance. The only voice we heard telling us to knock on that door was our own.

But there is a Door behind which lies the wealth of eternity and the satisfaction of every human desire. The voice you hear calling out from the Door is the voice of Jesus inviting you to knock, and the Door will be opened. Through this door we find the abundance of life, because we find the original Designer of life waiting to embrace us with eternity.

Go ahead. Knock.

Pastor John