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There Is Always an Open Door, December 9
I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no
man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word,
and hast not denied my name.
Revelation 3:8
.
Those who shall be overcomers are to be highly exalted before God and
before His angels. Christ has promised that He will confess their names
before His Father and before the holy angels of heaven. He has given us
abundant promises to encourage us to be overcomers. The True Witness has
given us the assurance that He has set before us an open door, which no man
can shut.
Those who are seeking to be faithful to God may be denied many of the
privileges of the world; their way may be hedged up and their work hindered
by the enemies of truth; but there is no power that can close the door of
communication between God and their souls. The Christian himself may
close this door by indulgence in sin, or by rejection of heaven’s light. He may
turn away his ears from hearing the message of truth, and in this way sever
the connection between God and his soul.
You may have ears, and not hear. You may have eyes, and not see the light,
nor receive the illumination that God has provided for you. You may close
the door to light as effectually as the Pharisees closed the door to Christ when
He taught among them. They would not receive the light and knowledge He
brought, because it did not come in the way they had expected it to come.
Christ was the Light of the world, and if they had received the light He
graciously brought to them, it would have resulted in their salvation, but they
rejected the Holy One of Israel.
Christ said of them that they “loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (
John 3:19, 20
). He
said, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (
John 5:40
). The
way was open; but by their own course of action they closed the door, and
severed their connection with Christ. We may do the same by rejecting light
and truth.—
The Review and Herald, March 26, 1889
.
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