Life is a building with three doors. There is the Entrance door – where everything in your life comes in, the Exit door – where everything leaves, and the Emergency door – waiting to be used in case of a risky situation. As individuals we, are the gate-men at the entrance doors of our lives. It is upon us to listen, watch and smell or inhale everything around us. We can choose what and who we let into our lives. We might not block others from exiting our lives, but we have the power to exit their lives. We can let them go, we can open the exit door and let them leave at pleasure instead of locking them in when they want to leave.
We must be careful with the exit door, because as people and stuff leaves our lives, we are reminded that one day we will exit this life too. We must also be the fireman and the fire extinguishers at the emergency door. The emergency door teaches us that in life, there are issues to be treated as important and other issues to be treated as urgent. We must know who and which people are important in our lives, and who should be treated with urgency. Let me give you a stunning example:
Your boss is Urgent but your family is Important. If you are with your family and your boss calls you, please run and attend to the urgency. Learning the concept of the DOOR, and concluding that there are three doors on the building known as LIFE, has helped my Sociology.
Always play a minus and plus card with people. It helps you and them as well. Be a door that lets people in and lets those who want to leave, go. Stop treating people like things, don’t just pile them up. Even with stuff, we de-junk that which is not useful, and give it to those who are dying to get it. That is how majority of us end-up with second hand clothes. People should not be piled-up, they should be sent away on a mission. Let them go, where they can be useful.
Let them go and pursue their dreams. Let them go and find people who can love and appreciate them better. Let them off the hook, do not pile them up. Where I come from, we raise cattle in big numbers, but even with cattle, we divide them into different ranches and assign each herd a specific herdsman. Let people go and realize their potential. We do not own people, and neither do they own us. We relate with them and we ought to relate purposely.
Just like you do not let any person enter your house, or if they entered, just like they don’t access every room, do not let anyone enter and access the house and every room of your life. Don’t let them in, easily and always let them out easily. Do not give-up on people easily. In fact, the only reason to give-up on people is when they are naturally created not to fit in what and who you are.
The reason we have friends in life is to fulfill us, if people you consider friends are not the missing parts of the puzzle of your life, then let them go find their puzzle. Never try to change people, don’t make them fit. If they don’t fit, then it is because they are not part of this puzzle. And neither were they created and designed for you. Let them go find that puzzle.
When I think about all that I have said, my mind goes to the concept of a DOOR. A door is a motional structure with an inbuilt locking system that is patterned to that in the fixed frame in the wall where the door always fits. Because of this locking system together with its natural structure, the door is used to block off, and allow access to, an entrance to or within an enclosed space, such as a building or vehicle.
I don’t know where you are right now as you listen to this or as you read, but if you can access a door, please take some time and observe it. The longer you look at the door and keep moving it, the more you will understand that your life is a like a building. And all professional and sensible buildings have respect for: Entrance, Exit and Emergency. Every reputable building has an Entrance door, an Exit door and an Emergency door. Your life should have these doors.
Another thing I have observed in life is that there is always serious security to scrutinize the entrants at the entrance. People don’t just enter, they need to be scanned and asked why they need to enter. At some point, they even call those individuals in the offices that they claim to have an appointment with. Entrance is a very important thing. You need to know who is entering your life before you let them in. This does not mean that you will know all the details, but it rather means that you need all the basic information about who is who before they get involved into your building.
The Exit door on a building is there to teach us when to leave. It reminds us that our stay wherever we are is not permanent. It communicates to us inside that whether we want or not, we will leave one day. The Exit door teaches us that we will never leave the way we entered, and if we do then that is absurd. The exit door tells all of us small and big that one day we will exit.
Whether you have been the president for over 40 years, or your family has held the CEO position for that company for the past generations, whether you are the King and your office is never contested, whoever you are, in life, there is always an inevitable exit door. In life we must exit, dead or alive. Like we prepare and plan to enter and how to enter, once we are in, we must always prepare and plan for our exit. The exit door reminds us that we are not here forever. The big question is: HOW? With what? And most importantly, what will we leave behind?
Again, on professional buildings, there is another interesting door known as the Emergency door. This door can be anywhere on the building, depending on the danger evaluation by the engineers. The emergency door can only be used when there is threat to safety and both the Entrance and Exit doors are compromised. In real life, there are moments of emergencies, where we need to flee for our lives and it is important to all of us to know when to run away like Joseph did from Mrs. Potiphar, and when to stand our ground and defend our cause.
Life is a building of three doors; the Entrance, the Exit and the Emergency. However, the most important door of the three is the ENTRANCE DOOR. This door commands importance for two reasons:
- We are all cautious with what comes into our house. That is why we lock ourselves in at night and during day. We close the gate, then close the main entrance, and then lock the doors on our bedrooms. We all don’t just take in anything.
- We are all looking for a breakthrough. We are in some way or another looking for an entrance. We need a way out, an entrance to a different realm.
All people, individually, are praying that some doors may open. The only problem is that majority of the doors we need to open are wrong doors that will usher us into more problems than we are running away from.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the only true door and safe entrance I know is in John 10:9 and it says: I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
I don’t know where you want to enter, but Jesus is the door to wherever you want to go. He is the access to every good thing you know and need, and the good you don’t know that you need. This scripture presents Jesus as a door that gives us two kinds of access and two types of benefits. I will start with the two access points:
- I am the Door You Shall go IN by: Jesus is not a door among other doors but the only door. He said, I am the door, the only door on heaven. Whoever wants to access the kingdom of heaven must go through only one door and that is Jesus Christ. Today, there might be many Jesuses and false messiahs, but the only Jesus who is the door is he who the Bible in John 1:1, 14 says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
We believe in Jesus to be the door because he is the God who was, who is and who will be. The Bible says: No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the son of man. He is the great I am. JESUS CHRIST GOD INCARNATE IS THE ONLY ENTRANCE.
You cannot bomb yourself into heaven like extreme Muslims do. You cannot obey all the laws into heaven like Judaism assumes. You cannot access heaven through bodily purity, all these are good but not the key to the only door. Jesus said: I am the Way and the Truth and the Life no one comes to the Father but by me (John 14:6)
- I am the Door you shall go OUT by: This is not an assumption but the only place that man goes in and cannot exit is the grave. No man in history has ever come out of the grave. We all know that someday we will die and not be able to come back to life. The only person who has the ability to call us out is Jesus Christ. Just like he call Lazarus the dead man out (John 11:43), so will he call those who believe in him. Only Jesus died, was buried and came back to life. It is only by Him that we can go out of our graves. Scriptures say:
Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1Corinthians 15:11-14). Jesus is the exit door on the graves, whoever needs to get out of their grave must access Jesus.
Those are the two access points that are in the text of John 10:9. We finally look at the two benefits in we get from having Jesus as the door.
- Whoever enters shall be SAVED: The primary benefit of this door is Salvation. Charles Spurgeon once said:
“Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of access to God Himself. The fugitive manslayer passed the gate of the city of refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door of the ark, and was secure. None can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls. Entrance through Jesus into peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same door into heaven. Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door; and blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory upon the crucified Redeemer”. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
- Whoever enters shall find PASTURE: The secondary benefit of entering Jesus is the pasture. The Bible says: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. (Mathew 6:33). Pasture here represents every materialistic need of our lives. When we enter Jesus Christ, we will go out to harvest all these things and more. We must understand that God wants us to be well and live a good life. He wants us to have every good thing that life can offer. Jesus wants us to prosper in wealth and health.
However, not here. He wants us to first go out of our graves or even out of the grave yard (Sinful World) and then we can find real pasture (Prosperity). Jesus said in Mathew 6:19-21 that: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.
Miracles are good but not important and the reason is because they are never permanent. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, (Romans 14:17). So don’t run after miracles but focus on the miracle worker. Once you enter Jesus the Door and you exit this sinful world through Jesus Christ the door on every grave and grave yard.
As you can see, there is no emergency in Christ Jesus. I want you to think about entering this door known as Jesus. I don’t care what your religion is or what church you go to or who your pastor is. All these are good for society but not good for your future. JESUS CHRIST ALONE AND ONLY will help you enter life and exit death. You need him.
God bless you; I Invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH.
Am Pr. I.T.White
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 