Instructions on using Keys

Yesterday, when I was at church, a church elder preached. Pastor was gone on vaca, so this elder put in the time.

He preached on prayer. Actually, "Why Pray?"

First of all, we are so blessed to have people to fill in so our pastor can go away with his family.

But most of all, we are so blessed to have more than one man that loves God's Word enough to study up. To fill us up.

He and I were talking afterward about his message, and I was overcome at God's plan. God gave Adam and Eve dominion over this earth, but they didn't even get the chance to enjoy it. They gave dominion over to Satan when they agreed with him that they would not die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They also agreed with Satan that they would be as gods, knowing or deciding for themselves what is good and what is evil. So they took that bite and in that bite, all of heaven and earth moved. The whole earth and all it held; the future and the past came crashing together in a spiritual and moral death, in that one bite. The physical death would come later. The whole earth, and everything in it, was now under Satan's rule.

But that isn't the end of the story. God so loved this world and all it held. He had lovingly created everything in it. Taken time to design the plants each with beauty, usefulness, (well, there is that one weed....), each animal with such detail and thoughtfulness. But when he designed man and woman, He surpassed anything ever made.

God loved us so much, man and woman, the whole earth, that He gave His own Son to die a horrible death, so that we would not perish.

Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of Satan. He literally took the keys of the Kingdom, that Satan had taken from Adam and Eve, back. He took them back.

And what do we do with the keys? We have them in hand if we are born again. (See John 3:3 - if you still have questions, email me!)

For more than 20 years, I walked around, just carrying the keys. Oh, I'd put them on a key chain that had a WWJD line on it. Or I'd safely tuck them away in the pocket of my purse. They had a special hook by the door that I would hang them from.

But did I use them to unlock and set the captives free? (Is. 61:1-4) No.

Did I use them to preach and teach the Good Tidings? Or to open those bound in their prisons?

No, I just walked around with them. "Aren't these pretty?" I'd ask. "Don't they make a neat sound as they sway from my belt? You know that belt of Truth." "Jesus gave me these." "Nope, no I haven't used them for anything..."

It's time that we as Christians take those keys off of our belts and choose a key and plunge it into the lock and turn it until we feel and hear the lock open.

Prisons opened. People set free. Eyes clear and seeing.

How? Ask God. Read His Word. There are instructions in there on how to unlock things.

©BL2007