For years our family celebrated Thanksgiving at my father’s house. The meal was always abundant and delicious – turkey with dressing and gravy, ham, green beans . . . my mouth waters just thinking about it! But the highlight of Thanksgiving was not the food, or the televised football games, or the fun. The highlight was always the fellowship around the dining room table. As we sipped our coffee and gorged on one last piece of pie, my father presided at the head of the table as each person shared what he or she was most thankful for, which was the highlight of our time together.
One day, in My Father’s House, the table will be set and supper will be ready. One day you and I and all of the Father’s children will be seated around that table. One day our Father will preside as He gathers us to Himself, listening intently and lovingly as we share our love for each other and our love for Him. One day My Father’s House will be filled with His family, and it won’t get any better than that!
The Shepherd’s call has echoed down through the centuries. It’s a clarion call to all sheep, offering freedom and salvation to those who are willing to come out of the . . .
denominationalism,
traditionalism,
ritualism,
agnosticism
of their religion and enter into a personal relationship with God. It’s an authoritative command to turn away from sin and selfishness and walk through the open Door of salvation into the fold of a personal, permanent, love relationship with the Creator Who became our Savior.
Just as there was one door that led into God’s presence in Eden and one door that led into the safety of the ark and one door that led into the inner sanctuary of the temple, a personal relationship with God is only accessed through one Door Who is Jesus Himself.
Do you know someone who maintains that a loving God would never send anyone to hell? That a loving God will let everyone into heaven? Ask Noah! He was there when God shut the door of the ark. And although technically God doesn’t send anyone to hell, you and I are condemned to go there if we refuse to enter through the “door” of the Cross into the safety of the “ark,” which is Christ.
God didn’t want anyone to perish. He wanted all to repent of their sins and rebellion and enter into the safety of the ark. But the people refused.
The God Who saved Noah from His judgment by providing an ark is the same God Who so loved the world that He sent His only Son as an Ark-a hiding place from the storm of God’s wrath. Whosoever believes in Jesus as God’s gracious provision for salvation will not perish or come under God’s judgment but will be saved and receive eternal life. But you have to believe or you will perish.
