There’s a lush field of wildflowers and thorny blackberry vines nearby. In the middle of the field the land curves up and then hesitates. There in the middle are two smallish green and verdant humps of land that are not land at all but actually granite blocks, cut stones as big as suitcases covered with moss and tiny violet flowers. I don’t have pictures. I don't walk with my phone.
Between them the moss on the ground is thick but not thick enough to hide the straight lines only men create. This is the threshold of a dead castle.
This is the very door.
The sky darkens as clouds bend down. The wind falls still. Small goosebumps rise on your arms, hair prickling with awareness. It is a door. If you walk “through” will you find yourself in another time or place? Will you be changed?
How long has this place gone unnoticed? How long has it been since people could recognize it as a home?
You’re standing on the threshold of something immeasurably vast.
And yet, it has been reduced to almost-but-not-quite oblivion.
The clouds move, sunlight filters down, a soft breeze caresses your face and you hear the homely sounds of cows in another field, their tintinnabulation almost like the beginning of a hymn. This once-home-but-no-longer is in need of a Master Carpenter.
May I Knock On Your Heart?
We don’t know the particular sins that ruin others. We just know that we are all sinful, unfit for habitation. I saw you in the field, lumpy perhaps, a glorious ruin for sure, covered over with green and violet.
I stood in awe.
I don’t know what the dimensions of your heart look like, whether God will build you into a hospital or university or barracks or a gentle homely house that always offers food. I don’t know if your front door is azul like the famous ones in Morocco or round like Bilbo’s, whether you have a portcullis or a keyhole.
But I do know He wants to make you fit and whole. Your conscience is where He starts. It’s also where the enemy attacks you first.
There is therefore now no condemnation..
An awakened conscience is a place that lets in the Light of God and enables you to see where you can be proactive –not ashamed and hiding – despite the size of your home or the quality of the walls. You can begin to obey Him in small areas, receive His comforting Presence, and know that He is with you.
He is with you.
Jesus named Himself as Door. It is one of the Names of God.
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9
When you became a Christian you were joined with Him. By surrendering the deed to our “homes” we were instantly transferred over to His immense space, His palace. Our heart is joined with His heart, the chambers of our heart can’t beat without Him, without His life.
Why would you hide? You need Him.
Like double doors in those hotel rooms situated on either side of one wall, He opens His side and waits for us to open ours. He comes down to our level to claim us, to build with us, even if the door to our hearts is small, crooked, damaged, broken, wobbling or two moss-covered lumps in a field.
“This is what’s upsetting me today, O Lord. Create in me a clean heart.”
Our Conscience is the Door to Our Heart
When we “apply” the Blood to our lives it means we are recognizing that –no matter the state of the house– we are transferring the deed over to Him. We’re starting with the door. The door might be round or blue or half-buried or long forgotten but it needs His touch.
For some of us the idea of Him knocking -wanting to come into our habitation- is almost ludicrous.
Why would He choose to move His entire palace down to a field, an apartment in LA, a farm in Texas, a suburb in Maryland, a manger?
Do you know the Master Builder? He loves abundantly.
Cover the Door of Your Neighbor and You Cover Their Whole House
In Exodus the Israelites were commanded to wipe blood on the lintels and doorposts - the top and sides of their doorway - to show in vivid color their allegiance to the One True God. It would be one of the very last things they did before leaving Egypt, forever. If a family chose to believe and act on that belief they had to kill a lamb, use its blood to anoint their lintel and doorposts, cook it and then eat it while standing up. The Israelites obeyed. They were saved.
Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; in proportion to what each one should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12
Your conscience is the first place where you can respond with action.
It can get dented, fractured or broken open. Your conscience can get numbed by tragedy or warped. It's through submitting the conscience to the Blood of the Lamb that we are marked as holy though, whether or not we feel whole, act whole, or even understand wholeness.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22
And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” Acts 23:1
So back to the door. It leads to the house. Maybe the house is in disarray or maybe it's a nice 1950’s slab house or maybe it's an old Victorian musty-smelling place. Maybe it’s made if granite blocks.
Everybody's heart is different.
Maybe your "house" is literally a ruinous place with no walls, no ceiling, no stable floor and yet, the threshold remains. At the threshold of our home we experience Him. That's why baptism is such a big deal and so difficult for some. That’s why you can feel His presence in places you can be sincerely focused on Him with a clear conscience.
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 1 John 3:21
An Appeal To Conscience
Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21).
Corresponding to what?
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” 1 Peter 3:18-22
Are You Willing To Destroy Your House?
Moses was. Paul almost was. They cried out to God on behalf of others. They believed in the importance of prayer so much that they said something like:
“Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”
and
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Imagine that?!? Being so grieved for the state of someone else’s house that you were willing to ruin your own. Imagine that!
Who would do that?
Renovation of Your House
So if you’re a believer then:
Your conscience must be covered by the Blood of the Lamb.
You must be continually willing to be built up in Him and made whole for His glory.
He’s going to change how much you care - the capacity of your heart - for others.
A few months ago, a lady that I don’t know got a call. Her home was on fire. The firefighters were already there. Still, the situation was bad. Before the day was over a large portion of her home had burned and then subsequently received water damage. Calls to friends and family began. They opened up their homes to her and her family. The work of communion and Church family began. They carried her through while she waited for insurance claims and legalities. This week she was finally allowed to return to her own home, not knowing if all her books were destroyed or all her family pictures were destroyed. She is traumatized and in need of prayer.
A friend has been building her home for years and it’s finally finished. She is rejoicing.
Another friend just had to move away from a place she adored into a place she does not.
Another friend recently faced a hypocritical company and a contractual nightmare that ended with her being forcibly removed from her home, with her entire family. She has a place to stay because someone else vacated their own home to offer it up for hers.
I think these are all powerful examples of how hearts can be rearranged.
But in none of them did I ever think or say, “Oh God please destroy my very self, my chance of being in heaven forever, my connection with the Almighty, if it means you will help them!”
Romans 9 Paul Had Unceasing Anguish
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
In Romans 10 he says, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”
Why would Paul be willing to be accursed for his brethren? Why would he pray for people to be saved with that level of fervor?
Can you imagine grieving the sin in another’s life so much that you would pray with that type of passion?
I can’t. But Moses prayed like that too!
Exodus 32 Moses Was Willing To Be Cut Off
Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.
Romans 10
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
And so I pray for your conscience this week, that it may be clean. And I pray for your home. And I encourage you to know the One who rebuilds in ways you don’t expect or want, in order to be glorified and heal you of things you don’t even know are making you sick.