5-Doors and Windows
The sheriff never caught us, all the many times we climbed in the rear window of the church. Concord Community Chapel was a very old community building in rural Ohio. That window entry was something that just had to be done... and each week too! The old building had its two-holer facilities down the path. There was no insulation in the walls where the honey bees lived, and only one door. That was part of the problem. The door lock only worked from the inside. Someone had to enter through the window and unlock the door. But when the piano playing began, everyone forgot about the cold, about our hard flat planks to sit on, and lean back against. And, the comments you've heard over the years about a proverbial church mouse... well... we had a live one.
There was no soundproof door entrance to our nursery. It was just a corner of the one room, sectioned off with boxes to keep the 'crawlers' corralled. Oh but when we'd gather around the old upright piano with many of its white key-caps missing, the spirit of unity couldn't have been stronger, and the doors and windows issues in one's life, were pushed aside. Jesus made a rich place of worship for us, at Concord Community Chapel.
I think a lot about doors... the variety of them, and what they tell me. Often a little sign will hint to us what is beyond the door, and if we should enter or not. Refrigerator doors, car doors, restroom doors, hospital doors begin an almost endless list. You and I know we must give heed to certain doors and how we should respond to them.
I can't tell you how many times over the years, I've seen proof that God guides me along His will for my life, each day, with road blocks, open doors etc. I'm sure He does others also. The Apostle Paul had these 'closed door' instances of God leading him along.
Some of the closed doors God has put in front of me were of a health/sickness nature. This has happened so many times, I often ask myself if God is leading the person I've just learned about, in some way. Fanny Crosby, totally blind most all of her life, wrote thousands of hymns of praise to God, that we all sing today. If she were not blind, she might not have given us the rich songs that she has. We can say much the same things about the quadriplegic Joni Erickson Tadda.
While most church prayer lists get longer and include people not known by the church family, I learn much about the spiritual growth of those that participate in it. Don't get-me-wrong. We should always be reminded of those with various levels of health issues. But I believe we should not rush to ask God to make them well, without asking God to use those issues to make them and us live and worship ever closer to Him; the Great Physician.
My heart also seeks to put the names of those that are not saved and serving close to the top of the list, along with the military and missionaries.
But even above the military, missionaries, and unsaved, we ought to voice our praise for the great God that He is. This sets the tone of all our requests that follow... about those doors and windows.
The Apostle Paul and Silas were locked behind a door of prison doors, with unspeakable filth. But God had a high purpose. In God's good timing the door was opened, that filled the jailer's mind with great fear. But in the process he and his family all believed in God and were saved.
Over the years our maturing in the Lord's will and work, we must be mindful that God is working in the lives of the healthy and those who are not. Always pray beginning with praise and finish with, “thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.” Then God blesses beyond our dreams and wishes. [~]
