{"id":1893,"date":"2022-08-17T06:13:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T10:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2022-08-17T06:14:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T10:14:40","slug":"the-open-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/17\/the-open-door\/","title":{"rendered":"The Open Door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Throughout the month of August, we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.  They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d  <\/em>
 
At the midpoint of Paul\u2019s remarkable run-on declaration concerning where Christians stand with God, all the verbs have had one thing in common.
 
God is always the subject. 
 
He is the one who blesses, chooses, redeems, loves, and forgives.   
 
So how exactly do we get in on all of this?   We need to respond.  All of a sudden we encounter three verbs that belong to us<\/u><\/em>.  Paul speaks of those who hope <\/strong>in Christ (verse 12), who hear <\/strong>the word of truth (verse 13), and who therefore believe<\/strong> (verse 14).  God has done all the heavy lifting \u2013 the creating, the choosing, the adopting.  God offers all the blessings \u2013 the joy, the assurance, the grace. 
 
Our response is to hope, to hear, and to believe.   
 
As Bible commentator Klyne Snodgrass puts it, \u201cSalvation is entirely a work of God in which humans are totally involved.\u201d  Both parties have to be \u201call in.\u201d  But God always goes first.  And we don\u2019t have to spend years pounding on the gates of heaven, hoping for a response.  God in his grace has already opened every door.
 
Richard Blackaby, a pastor in Canada, remembers the day that he and his wife Lisa decided to visit a frame shop in their hometown. 
 
They were armed with a 50%-off coupon for any picture-framing project.  It was a busy day for the Blackabys.  Knowing that the store opened at 10:00 am, they decided to get there a few minutes early so they could be the first customers in line.
 
They pulled up at 9:49. It was a bitterly cold Canadian winter morning.  The lights were already on.  The sign on the door indeed said that the store would open at 10:00, but Richard suggested to Lisa that if she stood outside and looked sufficiently pathetic, perhaps they could get in a few minutes early.
 
Lisa hopped out of the car and walked up to the glass, peered inside, and noticed the shopkeeper.  Lisa smiled at her.  The shopkeeper smiled back, then went on with her work. 
 
Lisa began pacing back and forth in front of the store trying to look like a seriously big spender.  Whenever the proprietor looked up at her, Lisa smiled enthusiastically.  But the shopkeeper never came to the door.
 
As her body approached the point of freezing, Lisa returned to the car and said to Richard, \u201cDon\u2019t just sit there, help me!\u201d  Richard, who is a fairly big guy, got out of the car wearing a black trench coat and mirrored sunglasses.  He assumed that the woman working in the store might show him<\/em> a little bit more respect.  He opened the trunk of his car to take out the painting \u2013 just to demonstrate that they really did intend to make a purchase \u2013 but then noticed that the shopkeeper was on the phone.
 
At 10:03 am Lisa had had enough. \u201cLet\u2019s go to another store,\u201d she said.  \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d Richard asked. \u201cSurely she\u2019ll open up now.  It\u2019s after 10:00.\u201d 
 
\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d said Lisa.  \u201cI refuse to do business with these people.  Any store that makes customers stand in the bitter cold for ten minutes just because their store hours haven\u2019t officially begun is not going to get my business.  That\u2019s a principle with me.\u201d 
 
Richard answered, \u201cLisa, I know you are a person of principle, but I\u2019d like to appeal to a higher principle.\u201d  While she may have been expecting something from the Sermon on the Mount, he pointed out instead, \u201cWe have a 50%-off coupon at this <\/em>place and not for any other frame store.\u201d  She retorted, \u201cI\u2019d rather pay twice as much elsewhere than to get it done here for free.\u201d
 
Realizing that their entire morning was now in danger of running off the rails emotionally, Richard asked, \u201cSo what happened when you tried the door?\u201d 
 
What followed was an awkward silence.  Lisa wordlessly exited the car, walked up to the door, and pulled it wide open.  It had been unlocked the entire time. 
 
When they both walked inside they found the shopkeeper visibly shaken.  She said to Lisa, \u201cYou kept staring at me and smiling at me, but you would never come in the store.\u201d  She said to Richard, \u201cYou<\/em> looked like a mobster!  I thought you were going to your trunk to pull out a sawed-off shotgun.  I called my sister and told her I had two lunatics outside my store and to be ready to dial 911.\u201d
 
Lisa and Richard honestly believed they understood the facts of the situation, but they didn\u2019t have a clue. 
 
They spent 15 minutes peering in at the very things they needed but never opened the door to receive them. 
 
You can applaud God from afar.  You can write a term paper on the Trinity.  You can memorize the first chapter of Ephesians. 
 
But at some point you\u2019ll need to walk through the door \u2013 the one he has already unlocked for you<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the month of August, we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.  They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d   At the midpoint of Paul\u2019s remarkable run-on declaration concerning where Christians stand with God, all the verbs have had… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[480,141],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ephesians","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}