achan's door

sunday am our sermon was titled "a door of hope in the valley of trouble". i got to have a rockin conversation with my friend about the sermons implication. you see Achan stole some stuff and hid it, but we can't hide our sin from God and so long story short Achan gets called to the carpet. in a last minute effort to stay his execution date he "confesses" to the crime, which ammounts to no more than stating the obvious- he'd already been caught. read joshua chapter 7 for the whole thing.

but the lesson we walked away from this with was mainly about the"door". you see during the long story part, Achan had opportunity after opportunity to come clean, but he didn't. that is the same as Achan standing outside a door that has a sign on it stating, "come on in with your sin and you'll come out sin free, forgiven and changed forever by a gracious God". For any number of reasons Achan chose to not walk through that door. we came up with maybe he liked his stuff more than he liked the idea of being forgiven but not having his stuff anymore, or maybe he thought the sign on the door was a trick or a lie. but whatever his reasons he died in his sin and never walked through the perverbial door.

what does this have to do with our lives?

1. for me i realize I've been through the door, i've been saved. but what i forget sometimes is that as i load down my back with everyday sin i can unload that inside the door too. salvation is a one time deal but sin dumping is an everyday activity. when i don't dump my sin it gets heavier and heavier. this is what we see in the "hypocrites" in the church- you know how everyone says "the church is full of' hypocrites so why'd i wanna join that group?" that leads to point 2...

2. a friend of mine asked me once, "why would i want to be a christian i know a bunch and i know they cry themselves to sleep everynight empty just like the rest of the world only they have to get up on sunday and pretend they don't." what my friend saw was a bunch of christians heavy laden with sin the've not confessed, sin they haven't walked through the door with. they are just like the world. but i told my friend, "don't judge my God for his followers not following His directions. God has told us His burden is light. none of us should walk around hunched over we should all be dancing."

3. we have another group to look at in relation to the door... they are like kids lighting bags of poop on fire, ringing the door bell and running away. these are those of us, who before understanding salvation see the door, see the sign and want to test it but not commit to it, maybe even say a prayer in hopes it'll get us out of going to hell. so we drop our sin near the door, ring the bell and wait to see what happens. when noone answers the bell, we assume noone is home to see our flaming poop, therefore the sign on the door was indeed a lie. but this is not the case, the sign is true the sign is Jesus-" I am the way the truth and the life..." we just aren't reading it right- we need to go in the door.

4. this brings us the last group, my favourite group, a group i pray i am a part of now and as long as i breath... while the kid is sitting dejected watching his poop bag burn out a girl with a small bag (sin of the last minute, day, hour or whatever) walks through the door, the door closes then reopens. she emerges. she is now empty handed and dancing. she shines like a light in the world and the poop by her feet is of no concern to her it is just darkness. the kid who put the poop there is astonished and decides to pick up his bag and go through, having seen the door work he knows it's not a lie and he knows what's on the other side is way better than his bag of poop. he goes through, comes back out and he is dancing and smiling. the girl tells him, now don't forget where this door is, come back to it every time you sin and you can have this joy over and over. he asks her if he can go with her to her house so she can tell him more, she points a foot away to a house and says, "this is where i live. He told me to abide in Him and He'd abide in me, so i built my house as close to the door as i could. when you're ready, me and my friend can help you build here too.

this my friends is true christianity! i am so glad i heard that sermon. i am so glad i was able to talk it through with my friend. i am so glad the door is there and it is real. and i am praying i will keep my bag very small by going to Him in prayer everytime and never letting it get to the point where i am so heavy i can't walk. i have been there and He has forgiven me and i am here to walk with my head held high giving glory to God.