A door is a means of getting into somewhere or getting out of a building. There are different kind of doors – some are big, some (as in Alice in Wonderland) very small; some open in both directions (as in restaurants, allowing easy access in and out of the kitchen); some are elaborate and ornate, others are functional and plain.

Doors feature in the Bible too: from the door of prayer (see Matt 7:8) to the ‘door for effective work’ (1 Cor 16:9) to the open door placed before us by Jesus (see Rev 3:7-9).

Stephen preached on the ‘door of faith’ (Acts 14:27) last night, talking about how faith can be different sizes, just as doors can. The door (or for sci-fi fans, the portal!) is a threshold from one area to another and faith is first of all the means of our entrance into God’s kingdom. We are born again into God’s family not through our natural heritage or through circumcision, but through faith. We enter by faith through THE door, Jesus (John 10:9), for ‘if anyone enters through me, he will be saved.’

Faith, however, is also the means of God’s entrance into our hearts. God seeks to be involved in our lives, but we have to allow Him access. We can keep the door shut on Him if we want. But if we allow Him entrance, the King of glory wants to be part of our lives!
“Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory.” (Ps 24:7-10)

Faith is also the means of entrance of the Kingdom into us. If Christ comes in, He enters with gifts. The measure of the blessing that we know in our lives depends to a large extent on how wide we open the door of our hearts to allow the King of Glory to come in.

Just as the Tardis door opens to reveal an area much bigger than would appear possible from the outside, just as a tap can be opened slightly to allow a trickle of water through or can be opened fully to allow the water to gush out, so we know the fullness of God’s blessing in our lives largely by how wide we open the door to allow Him to enter. God delights to bless His children; He has good gifts to lavish upon us. We are the ones who decide if we want to be ‘full on’ in God or not.

The Christian life is a race. The London Marathon was run on 17th April 2011… a race where we see all kinds of people participate in what is a huge test of endurance. The Christian life is like a marathon. How we finish is as important as how we start, and we need to understand that the door of faith is important throughout our lives, for faith is an essential ingredient in pleasing God and in unlocking His blessings in our lives.

We had two more birthdays to celebrate this Sunday – one family obviously has an expensive week ahead!

My son was not the right age to benefit from the children’s TV series ‘Bob the Builder’, but I saw a few episodes and loved the character and the catchy theme tune (‘Can we fix it? Yes, we can!… Bob and the gang have so much fun, working together, they get the job done!’) Apparently this programme first aired in the UK in 1999 and is now broadcast in over 240 territories and in 45 languages. It can be seen in the UK on BBC2, CBeebies and Nick Jr.

Mark preached from 1 Corinthians 3 on Sunday morning about God the builder. This chapter tells us that we are God’s field, God’s building and God’s temple (1 Cor 3:9, 16-17). God is building His kingdom and that involves building the church, a task Jesus said He would do (Matt 16:18)

Moving on from children’s TV programmes, there are plenty of ‘makeover’ programmes on TV that transform houses from piles of rubble to exciting places in which to live. Programmes like ‘Grand Design’ and ’60 Minute Makeover’ show how things can be transformed when you have a designer who knows how to motivate and plan, when you have a team of workmen who are capable of effecting the changes needed and when you have willing workers (Bob the Builder teaches children about ‘teamwork and follow through’, apparently – catch ’em young and these principles will last for life!)

In all building work, the foundations are essential. Ps 127:1 reminds us that “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain.” We have to build on the right foundations in church work and Christ is the foundation, our plumbline and guide. We have to be sure we are teaching sound doctrine and rightly handling God’s word. He is our ‘precious cornerstone… sure foundation.’ (Is 28:16)

Problems arose in the Corinthian church (and in many others) when people decided to follow leaders, rather than following Christ. (1 Cor 3:1-5). Paul reminds the people that no matter what different roles leaders have in church life, it is God who makes things grow. Moreover, we have to be careful not only what we build with (there’s no substitute for good materials), but how we build. God is the master architect, designer and expert builder, but He graciously involves us in His building work. Our job is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and our ears open to listen to God so that we can be sure we are building in the right way and that our building work will stand the test of time.

The building work God is involved in will involve numerical growth, but it’s about more than all the outward trappings of successful church life. Building the church is God’s idea, not ours, and we need to be sure that we listen to God’s instruction and teaching on building in the right way. (Is 28:16, 23-26)

Following on from the Bible study’s discussion on hearing God’s voice and being guided by the Holy Spirit, I have been pondering on the voices we hear (you have to do something while swimming… it’s a lonely sport!)

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterised by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness, often manifested by auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganised speech and thinking. And yet there are always different voices vying for our attention every day, even if we don’t class ourselves as mentally ill or schizophrenic! What are those voices? How do we discern between them? How do we learn to train ourselves to be godly?

Our own voice, our own thoughts
Though we may not talk to ourselves in an audible voice, there are thoughts running through our minds all the time which shape our beliefs and actions. We have a soundtrack going on in our minds constantly, sometimes turned down so low we fail to recognise it. Generally speaking, depending on our personality and upbringing and the different circumstances we face, the voice can be saying good things or bad things, true things or lies.

There are basically two extremes we can fall into with this voice. The first is to have an over-inflated opinion of ourselves, believing ourselves to be pretty good, not really in need of much change, rather like Prince Edward in the film ‘Enchanted’ who, when asked if he liked himself, says smugly “What’s not to like?” Paul warns against this attitude when he says “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3) If our voice is always raising ourselves up and putting other people down, there could well be a problem.

The other extreme is to have too low an opinion of ourselves, a “Woe is me!” mentality, a false humility, poor self-esteem, no regard for ourselves at all. People with this kind of ‘voice’ typically run themselves down all the time, never believing they can do anything good at all. This voice can seem very persuasively spiritual, since humility is a Biblical concept, but there is a world of difference between true humility and the insincere, needy, desperate-for-affirmation lowliness of never believing yourself to be worth anything at all, when God clearly values us, despite our sins and failings, enough to send Christ to die for us.

Other people
Every day other people say things to us and about us and it can be hard to distinguish between truth and lies here as well. If we are fortunate, we have people around us who will build us up and encourage us whilst also being truthful. All too often, though, the voices of others confirm either our own arrogance or our own desperation; they tear down rather than building up. As Casting Crowns vividly say in their powerful song ‘Voice of Truth’,
‘But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me time and time again:
“Boy, you never win,
You never win.” ‘

In addition to the voice of people we actually know (friends, family, colleagues, neighbours), there are all those other voices out there: celebrities, advertising, authors, actors and so on. It can be hard not to be bombarded by all these voices, all telling us different things, all clamouring for our attention.

The enemy
Christians have an enemy, whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. Peter tells us “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet 5:8) One way that he seeks to devour us is through that insidious voice, sowing seeds of doubt, discouragement and despair into our minds. Just as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden, asking that apparently innocent question, “Did God really say…?”, the devil asks uncomfortable questions and seeks to undermine faith and trust at every opportunity. His voice can be very persuasive and seem very truthful, but ultimately we have to understand that he is a liar and the Father of lies (John 8:44) When he lies, Jesus says, he is speaking his native language. We have to learn to discern those lies, to weigh up what we hear and not be deceived. When the devil used God’s own Word to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus could defeat his lies by the truth, knowing the full context of the Scriptures, knowing God’s will and heart for his life so that the plausible-sounding words did not divert Him from doing the Father’s will.

God’s Voice
Finally, the voice we need to hear and long to hear is God’s voice. We have the promise that His sheep will hear and know His voice (John 10:16). We have the assurance that God’s Spirit will lead us (Rom 8:14) Several times in the early chapters of Revelation comes the phrase “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev 2:7, 11) Clearly, God can and does speak to His people – in dreams, in visions, in impressions, in words, in an audible voice at times. Moreover, because of the very character of God, we know that what He says is true. He is truth and what He says is true. He is good and what He says will do us good. He is love and what He says is said out of love.

That’s not to say that it is easy to hear God’s voice or that what He says always makes sense to us! (We can waste a lot of time trying to make sense of it at times!) But as we pray, meditate, read God’s Word, and ultimately learn to listen, we will hear that Voice of Truth, telling us a different story, telling us ‘Do not be afraid!’ (hundreds of time in the Bible) and we can learn the joy of fellowship with the Spirit.

Casting Crowns say
“Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth”

We have a choice as to which voice we listen to. That’s what training ourselves to be godly is really about. May we learn to listen more to the Voice of Truth than to all the other voices calling out to us.

Listen to the song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaVg0cWkgAw

The Bible study moved on to Romans 7:1-6 last night, looking at the extent and limits of the law – the ‘long arm of the law’, as Garry put it! The extent of the law is that it only applies to those living; Paul goes on to explain the difference between a woman who marries another man while her husband is alive and one who re-marries on her husband’s death. In the first case, the law of marriage still extends to her and she is therefore an adulteress (Rom 7:3); in the second, the law of marriage has ceased to extend to her and she can re-marry legally.

Just as Christ died for us and we died in Him (ideas explored in Romans 6), so therefore we have been freed from the long arm of the law. Christ’s death has seen the law satisfied or fulfilled; the demands of the law have been met (it can only reach the grave!) But that does not mean we now live in anarchy. We are still, in many ways, following the law – led by the Spirit of God, however, not by a fearful compulsion that by following the law we succeed in ‘earning’ our place with God. As one commentary put it, “while the law still fulfils its function of guiding us to know God’s moral standard, we are free from enslavement to it as a way of righteousness.”

The law could be compared to a map, guiding us to a good destination, but putting the responsibility on us to use it wisely to reach that destination. God’s Spirit is a little like a Sat-Nav, actually speaking to us to guide us to a good destination. The Holy Spirit speaks, directs, instructs and corrects us and we are motivated to follow by the new law written on our hearts (Jer 31:33)

Listening to the Spirit – a topic developed later on in Romans – is not as easy as perhaps listening to the persistent (and sometimes irritating) voice on a Sat-Nav, however! Our own voices can also be heard; the enemy also speaks to us, whispering words of doubt and discouragement. How do we learn to recognise the “Voice of Truth” which guides us?

1 Tim 4:7 urges us to “have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” Training requires effort, hard work, perseverance and determination. Romans 7 reminds us that there is no such thing as absolute freedom; we will serve either the flesh or the Spirit; we will either ‘bear fruit for God’ (Rom 7:4) or for death. (Rom 7:5) Sometimes what God says us to us may seem ridiculous, challenging or dangerous (think of Hosea, urged to marry a prostitute or Gideon, told to reduce his army to the paltry number of 300 men, or Abraham, told to sacrifice his son, even though God abhorred child sacrifice). It takes practice, training, wrestling to discern God’s voice and often we will need to seek corroboration, asking for confirmation, even as Gideon did with his ‘fleece’. God is not afraid of our questions or doubts or our need for confirmation; the only thing that angers Him is our downright disobedience.

As we grow in faith and in our knowledge of the Shepherd, we learn to recognise His voice. (John 10:1-18) We want to please Him. The Holy Spirit gives power to obey God, a power the law by itself could never give. We have a new way of serving, “the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Rom 7:6)

We have been released from the law so that we may whole-heartedly serve God!

Yan Handley preached from Ephesians 3:19 last night, talking about ‘being filled to the measure of all the fulness of God’. We were challenged to enlarge our vision of God, seeing Him as He really is. That kind of revelation of God will always change us. Revelation brings transformation: think of Isaiah in the temple, gazing on the Lord (Isaiah 6), being transformed from a compromising priest to a compelling prophet; think of Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), being transformed from a religious bigot to a radical believer; think of John on the island of Patmos (Rev 1), being transformed from an exiled missionary to an elated visionary. The revelation of God brings transformation.

God has a provision of abundance available for our lives. The land the Israelites were given was a ‘land flowing with milk and honey.’ Jesus talked about ‘life in all its fulness’. Life is about so much more than the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15). God crowns ‘the year with your bounty and your carts overflow with abundance’ (Ps 65:11); as Malachi says, God will open the floodgates of heaven to pour out blessing on those who honour Him; the blessing of God is ‘pressed down, shaken together, running over’ (Luke 6:38).

The blessings of God are abundant, like a banquet (Song of Songs 2:4, Ps 23:5). The table prepared for us is prepared ‘in the presence of my enemies’. The enemies of fear, doubt, insecurity, failure, frustration and torment can seek to rob us of God’s blessing, but His blessings of deliverance, joy, peace and rest are available to us. He is the great ‘I AM’ and is able to reward all those who diligently seek Him.

In order to approach God and receive His blessings, we need:
1) Passion
2) Priority
3) Purity

1) Passion
Ps 37:4 urges us to ‘delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.’ Matthew 5 urges us to hunger and thirst for righteousness; we need that thirst for God which Jesus talked about in John 7. As the deer pants for the water, so our souls must long for God with the passion of an intimate relationship.

2) Priority
God has to be first in our lives. We need to keep Him as the ‘centre and substance of our being’ (see Ps 16:8, 11). Jesus was very clear about our need to have God as the first priority in our lives:
“seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)
So often we get our priorities muddled and try to get the ‘other things’ sorted first; Jesus tells us that we need to put God first and He will then sort out all the ‘other things’ that are essential to life.

3) Purity
Compromise and impurity will inevitably affect our relationship with God. Ps 24 talks about the need for “clean hands and a pure heart,who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god” (Ps 24:4). Jesus told us that the pure in heart will see God (Matt 5:8). There is no substitute for purity of thoughts, motives, attitudes and behaviour.

When we make God our passion and priority and have purity in our lives, we can be an effective witness to the power and provision of the Lord. We have to admit our need, believe His promise and respond and receive from God in faith.