Do you hear the knocking at the door?

Jesus Himself is the Door.

You often leave your home for your job or shopping and many other reasons.  When you return home why don’t you knock at the door of your house?  Because there is no reason for an owner to knock at the door of a house he owns and occupies.  Then why (Revelation 3:20) is Jesus knocking at the door of His Church?  It is the Church (Matthew 16:18) He is building, the Church (Ephesians 5:23) of which He is the Head.  Jesus Himself is the Door (John 10:9) of entry into His Church so why is He outside the Church? 

Is it because the people inside (Ephesians 5:14) are so sound asleep that they are dead to the knocking?  Or because they are (2 Timothy 4:10) so involved in the things of this world that they deliberately ignore His knocking?  I personally believe that there are 2 reasons for the worsening calamities all over the world.  One is the knocking of Jesus to awaken Christians (Matthew 16:3) to the signs of the times and our responsibility to spread the Gospel. The other is (Mark 13:8) the birth pangs of sorrow, the build-up to the intolerable anguish of the Great Tribulation.  Jesus is knocking and the times are worsening.  Will our response be obedience based on our love for the Lord or disobedience based on selfish indifference and love for the things of the world?  Many will (1 Timothy 4:1) depart from the Faith.  If you are heading in a self-chosen wrong direction God can arrange other transportation going the right way.  Maybe a huge fish (Jonah 1:17, 2:3) to carry you through terrifying waves and billows.

Jesus said (Matthew 24:33) when you see all these things happening together at the same time, you will know His coming is near, even at the very doors.  The Rapture of the Church will be (1 Thessalonians 4:17. Revelation 4:1, Revelation 3:10) just before the Tribulation.

A Beast (Revelation 13:1) who is the Antichrist will come out of the sea of nations.  A second Beast (Revelation 13:11) who is the Jewish False Prophet will come out of the land of Israel.  In the midst of growing horrors where the poison grapes of blasphemous lies are forced on people, with dire consequences of brutality for refusal, there is another grapevine.  There will be (Revelation 14:1) 144,000 Jewish witnesses from Israel who have God’s seal on their foreheads.  They give warning and offer good grapes which are the life-giving fruit of holy Truth and eternal salvation.  When Jesus swings His sickle (Revelation 14:16) He cuts off from the earth all those who worshiped the Antichrist and his statue and received His mark.  When the angel swings his sickle (Revelation 14:19) he will cut off from the earth the 4,300 false religions, those who brutally and violently enforce their Satan-inspired teaching with extremely painful consequences for those who are steadfastly loyal to Jesus.  All who teach lies in contradiction of God’s holy Word and against God’s Worthy Lamb and of course all who persecute Christians will no longer inhabit the world.

Listen!  Our Sovereign God on His throne is telling us (Revelation 21:5) that He will make all things new.  We will forever live in a magnificent city where nothing offensive will ever enter and only holiness, righteousness, love will pervade; like a gentle breeze making everything fragrant.  Our coming unending joy will be (Revelation 22:4) that we shall see His face and have His Name inscribed on us.

For some reason the thought of the primary colours came to mind.  RED, BLUE, YELLOW and with the correct combinations of these we can get all the colours.  Then I thought about how the primary colours could represent the primary characteristics of a Christian.  RED – undaunted courage, BLUE – steadfast loyalty, YELLOW – continuous unwavering hope, trust and absolute assurance that we are secure in God’s Sovereignty and our glorious future is guaranteed.

From these primary characteristics other Christ-like characteristics develop and grow.  If we possess the RED badge of courage, we will not disobey the Lord in any circumstance.  If we are TRUE BLUE loyal to Jesus, we will never deny Him no matter the consequences.  If we nurture our sunshine YELLOW hope, trust and assurance within us, we will never doubt Him. 

Disobedience, disloyalty and doubt are strangers to the primary Christian characteristics.  Of course, this is not accomplished by our own efforts but by the outliving of the indwelling Lord Jesus.  His very life is to be reproduced by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.  Our guaranteed future with its citizenship, magnificent culture and so much more, it’s like - - - a GIC with an astronomical interest rate.

When it comes to maturity it will have breath-taking value, beyond anything we could even begin to imagine.  In the last couple of days, I have had a major physical setback, but this morning the Holy Spirit took me from the primary colours to the GIC.  He gave me fresh insight regarding physical downers.  When my lifespan bank account is depleted, my earth visa will expire and my citizenship in heaven will be enacted on my behalf but I need to get there.  Now I see and receive physical setbacks as the materials needed to build my exit ramp from earth to heaven at God’s exact and perfect timing.  I enjoyed the trip with the Holy Spirit even more, the trip from to primary colours of earth to the GIC of heaven, because I am always (Deuteronomy 33:27) sheltered in the loving arms of my beloved heavenly Father and I know that every day I am nearer HOME.

We know that (Matthew 28:18) Jesus has all power in heaven and in earth and we are safe and secure in Him.  It has been well and wisely said that if we truly believe that Jesus is reigning up there in heaven above, we will have no reason – ever – to fear anything that happens down here on the earth below.  It is the incomprehensible worthiness of the Lamb of God that is the incredible cleansing power of the precious shed Blood of Jesus. The worthiness of the Lamb that was slain makes the poured-out Blood of Jesus priceless beyond all price and beyond all calculation of price.  Because His worthiness exceeds and is far greater than all the sin of the world, He and only He is qualified to take away sin, to save us (Romans 5:9) from wrath and He has (Revelation 5:9) redeemed us unto God.  Consider this, the human body of an unsaved person is actually (Matthew 23:27) a grave encasing a dead human spirit.  When we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, our bodies are transformed into resurrection ground. 

The Holy Spirit Who is (Romans 8:2) the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, enters into and inhabits forever our human spirit and we come alive spiritually with God’s gift of eternal life.  But there is even more to our resurrection transformation.  Our human bodies also (Philippians 3:21) will be raised, changed and made like Christ’s own glorious imperishable body.

Are we following John’s timeless advice (John 1:29) to behold the Lamb of God and to keep our focus fixed on Him?

                         JESUS - - take time to inhale the

                         fragrance of His wonderful glorious NAME

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