Thursday, December 15, 2011
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We have a wide variety of people that come to our front door. The salesmen; oh they're basically asked to stay on the front steps and give us their little pitch. And then there are those neighborhood kids who are, well, they are raising money. Well, they usually get inside the door; we'll let them in to the welcome mat, and we'll deal with them there. Now we have a lot of acquaintances and friends who we will just immediately invite into our living room to sit down and stay as long as they want. And sometimes at the door is a relative or real close friend, and they come in and they go straight to the refrigerator and help themselves. They go to the telephone without asking, they call whoever they need to call, they use the bathroom. So you can tell how close we are by how far a person is allowed into our house.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stuck On the Welcome Mat."
Well, our word for today from the Word of God: Colossians 2:6. God says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord..." Now, let's stop for a minute. You remember how that was when you received Him. Jesus described it once as "knocking on the door." You go to the door, you open it and you let Him in. Well, that's how you received Him. You invited Him in; He came in by invitation.
"So then as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him." In other words, the way to follow Christ, to be a Christian from the moment of conversion on, is to do what you did to get started with Jesus. And that is you keep on inviting. Not inviting Him in; He's in to stay. But you invite Him into more and more of the rooms of your life house so to speak. Continue to live in Him just the way you invited Him in.
Now, you keep on inviting. You say, "Well, right now my life house is a mess." Well, I have to tell you, I've been asked many times, "Ron, you know, I became a Christian. I invited Christ in. How come I still feel so lonely?" Or, "Why do I still feel so depressed?" Or, "I still feel so defeated by some of my old problems." One reason might be this: You might have invited Jesus in, but maybe you left Him on the welcome mat. Oh, He's in, but you're not inviting Him into any more rooms.
It's like a lot of people who have a spiritual wedding. They begin with Christ. They had a wonderful conversion and a testimony of how Christ saved them, but they haven't had much of a marriage since then. They just got Him in and thought that was it. It's more than a wedding. Well, Christ will only improve that which is consciously turned over to Him, and He only goes where He's invited.
Now, if you let Christ into let's say ten percent of your life, then 90 percent will still be as much of a mess as if you hadn't invited Him in. You may be missing much of the love, the peace, maybe the meaning that you came to Christ to get, because you've never asked Him past the welcome mat. Remember, He only goes where He's invited.
What specific part of your life did you invite Jesus Christ to rule today? See, that's always the question, or it should be, on any given day, "Into what specific part of you did you invite Jesus today?" It's only into that percentage of your life where you actively invited Him that you'll begin to know His peace, know His love, and know His answers.
So, keep on inviting Jesus deeper and deeper into what matters to you. You can tell how close you are to Him by how far you allow Him into your house.