Through the Keyhole

As we prayed this morning, I found myself looking through a giant keyhole, the kind that takes an ancient castle key. I was looking into a room of palatial grandeur. Gilt and carvings; crystal  chandeliers and elaborate ceiling coving. Highly-polished hardwood floors and Persian carpets of colour and intricate design. French mahogany couches and chairs, upholstered in creamy brocades. Porcelain clocks.

Voluptuous beauty, reminding me of Versailles or the Hermitage. Breathtaking. 

Jesus said he goes ahead to prepare a place for us. There was nobody in this extraordinary room. Yet.

Interesting that I was looking through a keyhole. Jesus gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, going on to give him powers to bind and loosen. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is the key we all have.

Through the keyhole. The television programme invites viewers to snoop round someone’s home and deduce what sort of person lives there and guess who it might be. 

The room I saw this morning is the room of royalty. We are sons and daughters of the King of Kings. We are invited in.

I don’t think of the prayer picture just as a promise of what is to come, but as an encouragement to step into the Kingdom now and to open the door wide so that others may enter too.

Lightning strikes

As I turned to walk back with Dusty this afternoon, I noticed what they call the television ‘mast’ at Durris, a spike stretching into the sky across the Dee Valley from us which transmits the television signals. 

Thirty years ago a lightning strike took out the Durris mast, and it took three months to restore tv reception to the area. With two small children at the time, I found it a fun time of playing more board games and freeing the children from the tyranny of the box.

That Durris mast looked so vulnerable today. And it made me think.

When we put our spiritual aerials up, we make ourselves vulnerable. Vulnerable to the mockery of the world. Just yesterday I heard a four-minute monologue by an atheist who equated religion with ignorance. Basically he asserted that you have to be stupid to believe in God.

It also makes us vulnerable to attack from forces which resist God. Unseen forces. The enemy of Christians – the devil.

Peter warns that the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour. Evil is real, and his aim is to destroy faith in a God who loves his creatures so much that he died to save them. 

So if you’ve put your spiritual antennae up, however tentatively, don’t be surprised when you get interference - when your mind is assailed with doubts, or when others tease or ridicule you. 

Don’t be surprised; be ready. Put on the armour of God mentioned in Ephesians 6. Stand in the strength of Jesus.

Don’t let a lightning strike take out your connection to God. 

Oh, and in case you think I'd forgotten: Happy 4th of July!