The Light of the World

A couple of Sundays ago we had a guest speaker at church named Jeff Bucknam. He spoke on Revelation 3:14 - 20 which says:

14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, he faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

He talked a lot about being lukewarm and how do you act when the "cameras" aren't on you. He said that everyone has a hole inside that they need to fill and that everyone is drawn to a higher power. Evidence for that is when something bad happens to people, they automatically cry out to God to help them. It's a normal reaction. And then he talked about verse 20 and how God stands at the door and knocks. He doesn't pressure us, but lets us make our own decisions. He used an amazing illustration that totally hit me.



This is a painting entitled, The Light of the World, by Holman Hunt. He said that it's a painting of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. When he showed it to his friend, his friend said, "This painting is wrong. There's no latch on this door." Holman Hunt replied, "It's not wrong. The door Jesus stands at can only be opened from the inside."


Wow, what a great reminder that Jesus is always waiting outside our door and only we can let Him in.