What to Do When God Closes a Door – Part One
Acts 16: 6 – 10
Have you ever had a vision vanish, a dream die, an aspiration expire, or an ambition annulled? Have you ever had your hopes dashed? Has God ever said “NO,” when you wanted Him to say yes?
Has there ever been a time when you thought you were really doing God’s will and God shut and barred every door you desired to have open?
Has there ever been a time when you saw your plan fold only to see God’s will unfold?
Sometimes God has to lead us to a closed door in order to create within us a willingness to follow Him to another door, the right one. Barred doors can be a blessing in disguise.
In the above text Paul asserted that he wanted to go East toward Asia. He wanted to go to Bithynia for a good reason. He wanted to go preach the gospel. What a noble intent! Notice in verse 6: “…they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit…” God said no. Why?
God always knows more and has stronger love than we. He can see what we can’t comprehend.
On a flight returning from the Bible Land much to our dismay our flight went into a prolonged holding pattern. Amid complaints the flight attendant explained we were in a holding pattern to avert a storm over our desired destination.
He put us in a holding pattern. I didn’t want a holding pattern. He put us in a holding pattern for our good. Why? Because he knew more than we knew and was concerned for our welfare.
Sometimes God puts us in a holding pattern. Why? Because He knows more than we and He wants us to make our connections safely.
God put Paul in a holding pattern. He wanted to go to Asia and God said “NO”. Why? God knew more than Paul and He wanted him to make his connections.
Has God ever put you in a holding pattern? Why? Because He knows more than you and is concerned for your welfare. He wants you to make your connections.
God said, “Paul, Asia is out. Macedonia is your route. Don’t go East, go West, that’s the best.” Why? Because there were some connections about which God knew and Paul didn’t.
God knew Asia would not be open to the gospel. Macedonia was on route to all the fertile fields of Europe. Beyond Europe was the mission field of England and Scotland. God knew what not even Columbus knew when he ventured westward. The door to the East was closed. The door to the West opened and eventually the gospel brought to America a land not even known of at the time God closed the Eastern door. Thank God He pointed Paul in the right direction.
How do you suppose Paul felt at the time it happened? Probably very much like us when God closes a door on us, frustrated.
Can we learn from Paul’s experience? Can we learn to trust God when confronted by closed doors?
Our Transforming God
If you would you like a summary mantra for life try these verses:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name” I Chronicles 29: 11 – 13.
Pause and ask yourself if this is descriptive of the God you profess to believe in. If so, act like it when things seem to go wrong. That kind of God can control things good and bad. Relax and rejoice. When you respond to Him as one having such traits and resources then alacrity replaces anxiety.
An illustration of His willingness and ability is illustrated by author and artist John Ruskin in his book entitled “Modern Painters” he tells of a footprint in a manufacturing town. It was the personification of impurity. It is composed of four elements: clay mixed with soot, a little sand, and water. If the four left to follow their own instinctive qualities of unity would become clear and hard. They gathered light in splendid ways. Gathering only the blue rays of the sun they produced a sapphire.
The sand arranges itself in a mysterious way and infinitely fine particles which when properly aligned reflect the blue, green, purple, and red rays in their greatest beauty called an opal.
The soot becomes one of the hardest substances in the world and is transformed from its blackness into a substance reflecting all the rays of the sun at once. The vivid blaze of reflected light from the solid substance is called a diamond.
The purified water becomes a dew drop or a crystalline star of snow.
If God can refine and redefine the impurities of a footprint surely He can transform the vilest of sinners, and meet the needs of the most disadvantaged of people.
There is a line from an old hymn with the appeal to “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” The relief does not come from taking the burden to the Lord, but in leaving it there.
You may be facing a challenge that suggests a hopeless end. The God who awaits to help you offers endless hope. It is boundless.
His transforming power is available to meet your personal challenges. Your puddle of mud can be transformed into an assortment of attributes.
The concluding verse from the Lord’s Prayer is a summary of this passage. “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” (Matthew 6:13).
Now go back and read once more the paragraph opening this post. Read it as to the Lord.
Abortion: To Be or Not to Be
President Biden made it clear in his State of the Union address that he is heavily relying on the abortion rights supporters for his election. His comments on the subject got the loudest and longest applause. It will doubtlessly be a significant factor in the vote.
In a defense of abortion some resort to when life begins. In a lighter vein three persons were discussing the issue. One said it begins at conception, one at birth, and the third said life begins when the last child goes off to college and the dog dies.
“Webster’s Encyclopedia of Dictionaries” defined abort(ion) as meaning “to fail to come to fruition.” Consider some persons who would not have come to fruition if their mothers had followed through with their initial desire to abort them: Aristotle, Art Linkletter, Faith Hill, Priscilla Presley, President Gerald Ford, President Bill Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Steve Jobs, Dave Thomas, Edgar Allen Poe, George Washington Carver, Nelson Mandela, Nat King Cole, John Lennon, John Hancock, Leo Tolstoy, Tim Tebow, Eric Dickerson, Dante Culpepper, Tim McGraw, Jim Palmer,
What potential talent has been lost due to an abortion!
The Bible defines the impropriety of abortion. The Greek word “brephos” defines life in Scripture. A Greek dictionary defines it as “an unborn child, or a newborn child, a baby, or an infant.” Thus, the preborn is considered a person as is the new born.
The Bible character, doctor Luke, used the Greek word brephos to describe the unborn John the Baptist in his mother’s womb. The Greek word is defined as “a breathing nursing infant.”
Luke later used brephos to describe Jesus at His birth (Luke 2: 12 & 16). He used brephos for an unborn and the same word for an infant at birth.
Modern science gives insight. A preborn is a living nursing infant. It oxygenates (breaths) through the umbilical coming from the placenta.
There is some evidence that a baby in the uterus does do what is considered “breath” or properly makes respirations. However, the only thing going in and out is the amniotic fluid. In this way the oxygen goes in the infant. The central nervous system begins in the pre-birth stage also. This is a common factor with the young infant.
The person going through open heart surgery called cardiopulmonary bypass illustrates this. The lungs are artificially ventilated during the surgery to prevent them from collapsing. The patient gets oxygen through the blood in a manner like the unborn infant.
Jeremiah (20: 17) states a relevant issue: “… that my mother might have been my grave…” Had she not allowed him to fully develop before birth she would have been his grave.
We have inverted so many of our values. You can be fined $5,000 and get jail for one year if you destroy an eagle’s egg. How about the egg (ovary) of a human? This indicates our society values a bird as being worth more than a child.
Just 1% of women obtain an abortion because they became pregnant through rape, and less than 0.5% do so because of incest, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The other 98% are for convenience.
The Old Testament character Micah (6:7) asked a pertinent question: “Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.”
Oh, add Ludwig Van Beethoven and Arthur Rubinstein to the list of those whose mother’s considered an abortion.
Right Is Left and Left Is Right
Is there ever a time when you discover you have had a long standing opinion regarding something only to find you had it backwards? An example is what is a Jonquil and what is a Daffodil. I have a degree in horticulture and had to change my opinion regarding which is what. Not having studied horticulture in a long time there may have been a time I had them right only now to discover I have had them backwards.
Jonquils have smaller stems with more than one flower per stem. The plants are usually smaller and the flowers have a stronger fragrance.
Daffodils are usually larger plants and flowers with one flower per stem. Their blossoms normally have a more trumpet shaped corona than do Jonquils. They are more popular than Jonquils and are more often called a Jonquil.
The misunderstanding is so common some cities are noted as being named for one with the flower of the other actually being grown in their area.
Many people use the terms interchangeably, but they are technically different.
In our society there is often a moral, spiritual, and theological reversal of what is right or wrong.
The prophet Isaiah wrote of the corruption in his society. He wrote a parable using a vineyard to illustrate the mixed-up saying: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5: 20, 21)
The vineyard, that is the people, illustrated by it had many advantages they were at risk of losing. The vineyard belonged to a loving person (my Well-beloved). It was planted on a very fruitful hill. The ground was carefully prepared (dug it up and cleared out its stones). It was planted with good stock (planted it with the choicest vine). It was protected (a tower in its midst). Provision was made for the fruit to be processed (made a winepress in it).
In the parable the “beloved” is God. The “one I love” is the people.
Isaiah wrote of the impending judgment on such a society. “And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it” (Isaiah 5: 5, 6).
Isaiah’s powerful words about social justice would be hard for some of our privileged people to hear and his equally powerful words about God’s judgment upon sin would be hard for some social justice folks to hear.
The only way for the vineyard people to avoid the judgment they have inflicted on themselves is to repent, and thus avoid the “Woe.”
Disobedience Has a Deadline – Part Two
Consider again the case of Jerusalem and God’s discipline. Jerusalem was “Rebellious and polluted;” “thou oppressive city!” The city was in a sinful state of spiritual decadence. Through His prophet Zephaniah God identified four phases of their decadence and warned them of judgment if they did not repent and respond obediently. Of Jerusalem Zephaniah wrote using “She has not” four times: “Jerusalem, the wicked city. Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted . . .
-She has not obeyed His voice, (she heard it, but did not obey it).
-She has not received correction; (she received correction, that is, she interpreted it instead as undeserved discipline and hence rejected it).
-She has not trusted in the Lord, (she did not trust God, but rather man).
-She has not drawn near to her God (she did not repent and return to God).
Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning.” (Zephaniah 3:1-4). The brackets are my added description of what is meant by each of the four depictions of Jerusalem.
“Her princes” is a reference to the rulers. They were venal and greedy, corrupt.
“Her judges” are characterized as a wolf that devours its prey so completely there is not a bone left to be gnawed in the morning. They are “polluted,” referring to her inward moral filth, in spite of her outward ceremonial purity. This is descriptive of corrupt judges. America has just witnessed the corrupted trial of former President Trump. The judgment of guilt against him is important, but the prostituting of the court is even more grave. For our judicial systems to be politicized is to undermine the best judicial system in the world. Hundreds of legal authorities across America have used various terms to emphasize the aspects of misconduct by the judge who campaigned for election on the basis he would “Get Trump.” He thus considered Trump guilty before trial and risked his reputation to manipulate the legal system to gain a guilty verdict.
God warned them definitively to repent or be disciplined. They didn’t and God did. As always He followed His progressive steps: God warns. God waits. God keeps His word. Then came God’s wrath. He disciplined them using the sinful nation to discipline them. They overwhelmed Jerusalem and the people of their land and the Babylonians took them into exile.
There are numerous Bible examples of God disciplining nations. America should not expect to be exempted from God’s judgment as long our response to God’s grace period is negative.
One response of Jerusalem was to think God would “look the other way.” As a result they looked the other way away from God. Today it appears America feels God is a loving God and won’t deal harshly with it. They feel God is too good to punish people individually and/or collectively. Truly God is loving and longsuffering, but He is just, and thus must judge. What loving parent does not discipline his child. God is loving therefore He must judge. Don’t push God.