Behold, I stand at the door and knock!

Long ago, I attended a youth retreat, and in that retreat, the main speaker challenged everyone to share the gospel with others.  He demonstrated how we could strike up a conversation, talk about our sinful state, the need for a Saviour and then present Christ as the Saviour.  To help us through this process, he gave us seven Bible verses.  If someone is ready to read the Bible, we can take them through by following those seven verses!  I used it diligently many times! That set ended with Rev 3:20, where it says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me."  If we looked only at this verse, we would understand it in terms of someone asking Jesus into their life for the first time.  I was also under the same impression until I took time to read and study the book of Revelation many years later!

The letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation are addressed to believers, who is the Church, the body of Christ!  This verse is actually addressed to the Laodicean Church (Rev 3:14-22), who needed to repent from their sin and return to God.  The Laodicean Church was full of the world, and their Church was a religious ritual.  The Laodiceans did not hunger for God or desire His presence.  They felt no conviction to obey Him or live for Him. They were content, complacent, and disgustingly lukewarm.  That is why Jesus said that He knew their works, that they were neither cold nor hot, and that He will vomit them out of His mouth!  Does it sound familiar? We cannot follow the Lord Jesus Christ halfway or half-heartedly.  On the day of judgment, we have to account for everything and answer for our life.  The Lord's advice to the lukewarm Christians is, "Therefore be zealous and repent."(Rev. 3:19)

My friend, today, this warning is coming to each one of us.  Has our love for God become cold?  We may be very busy with many religious and social activities, but do we thirst for His presence and earnestly try to live a life pleasing to God?   Jesus is asking us to be zealous and repent for the Bible says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."(Rev  3:22)

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