"After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'" (Revelation 4:1, NIV)
Right after warnings, rebukes, and affirmations to the seven churches, we encounter, "a door standing open in heaven." It is a great "leaving-behind." The warnings, the rebukes have been issued. Then comes, "That Day," the Second Advent, when Revelation 4-22 will manifest. What are you and I about in such an hour as this?
This "open door" is an invitation. This "open door" is only in and through the Blood and Cross of Jesus. In chapter 3 we read a glorious promise to those who have been, as chapter 1 verse 5 says, "....washed...from our sins in His Own Blood," those who Follow Jesus, "I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before My Father and His angels....I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut....Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown."
Then in a little bit we read, "....Before me was a door standing open in heaven." Maybe a reason so many "churches" fail is that they have been so consumed with selling a get-it-all-now "gospel" (I wonder if it is also "get out of jail free") that they have left people with no hope. There is no, "door standing open in heaven," for many congregations today. They look around and see sicknesses, marital breakups, financial difficulties, broken hearts, "unanswered" prayers, countries such as the US now which are just full of hate and revenge. Humanity needs, "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven." Go ahead, cynics, and call this "pie in the sky." At least I have "pie." What do you have?
My weary traveler, is the reality of today's text not worth whatever we go through in this sojourn?!? Instead of, "Look around," I call us to look "beyond."
Father, in Jesus' Name, Your Words cannot be matched. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
