STRUCK BY LIGHTENING

Rev 3:19-20 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here 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.

Hebrews 12:11 says that the Lord’s chastening is not pleasant while we experience it but it will yield its fruit in time. So the Lord standing at our door and knocking, after we have shut him out, perhaps gets more and more uncomfortable as he must knock harder and harder to get our attention. I have heard many jokes about being struck by lightening by the Lord, but while waiting for my plane from Manila in April it was my first time to meet someone who had been struck by lightening three times, in the same place, and still did not pay attention to the Lord. Finally, he said, there was an accident where a large piece of equipment fell on him, broke his neck and left him paraplegic. Slowly, he had been regaining use of his limbs. Now only some minor functioning of the fingers was deficient, but the pain in his neck was an ever present reminder, and he walked with difficulty because of this pain.

He had been in Davao, Mindinao, to visit his wife. There, they had started works to provide employment and food for the poor. He had met his wife on the internet (I’m meeting many recently, who met like this and are now enjoying healthy, happy relationships, a surprise to me with my prejudice against the principle!). We talked about the wonder of the Lord and the work He calls us to, about how slowly we are to respond, and the variety of methods He employs to call us. He acknowledged that he did believe the three lightening strikes, and the accidents, were indeed all attempts by the Lord to get our attention. He agrees with my understanding that if we don’t repent, as Rev 3:19 clearly says we are called to do, then the knocking gets harder, and more uncomfortable, even painful, until finally we do repent, and pay attention.

This word repent merely means stop going the direction we are going, turn around and go the other direction. In this case the direction toward the Lord and His will and work.

Conclusion: Sheep are really dumb, and slow to understand or respond to the Lord knocking, slow to learn from experience!

Has the Lord been knocking on your door lately?