TURNING THE KNOB

I recently heard a “preacher’s story” of a boy who coming home from school found no cars in the driveway. Realizing no one was home he simply sat down on the front steps.

Soon it began to rain and the boy just sat there getting soaked. Finally his mother arrived home and questioned the boy as to why he sat out in the rain. He said, “You   weren’t home, how could I go in?” To which the mom asked, “Did you try turning the knob? I left the door unlocked.”

Sometimes we can unfortunately be a little like this boy in how we approach spiritual growth and understanding. I often come across people who will proclaim “the         scriptures are just too difficult for them to understand.” They make this claim while rarely if ever opening their   bible to search God’s ways, or opening their hearts to seek God’s wisdom through prayer.

Often when I run across people who proclaim God’s Word to be difficult I find the common approach of only seeking Him through what their preacher tells them. There is sometimes a belief that if I just listen to what someone else has to say on the subject I will learn all I need to know. The problem being, when we take this approach we miss out on listening to what God has to say on all these particular subjects through His inspired and inherent Word.

In the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his beloved Timothy, someone Paul sees as a son, Paul encourages Timothy to continue to learn from scripture those things he has been learning since childhood. Paul even tells Timothy doing so will make him “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Paul ultimately tells Timothy that reading, studying, learning, and applying God’s Word for ourselves will make us complete and equipped for every good work (cf. 2 Timothy 3:14-17).

The door to the gospel is unlocked. Try turning the knob.