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To: Blogger

"God doesn't ask permission.
Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone opens I will come in and sup with him and he with me." (Revelations 3:20)
There is a question in there? There is an asking of permission. No. There is a statement. Just like Whosoever will may come. But who will? Nobody, unless God draws them. Next."

"The Lord is always knocking at the doors of our hearts, that we may open to Him, that He may enter in and rest in Our souls, and we may wash and anoint His feet, and He may make His abode with us. The Lord in that passage reproaches the man who did not wash His feet; and again He says elsewhere, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man will open unto Me, I shall come in unto him. To this end He endured to suffer many things, giving His own body unto death, and purchasing us out of bondage, in order that He might come to our soul and make His abode with it....His food and His drink, His clothing and shelter and rest is in our souls. Therefore He is always knocking, desiring to enter into us. Let us then receive Him, and bring Him within ourselves; because He is our food and our drink and our eternal life, and every soul that has not now received Him within and given Him rest, or rather found rest in Him, has no inheritance in the kingdom of heaven with the saints, and cannot enter into the heavenly city. But Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, bring us thereunto, glorifying Thy name, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen" +Macarius the Great


7,503 posted on 01/25/2007 4:49:58 PM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Kolokotronis

First, Kolo. As I stated before, God is not asking permission of anyone in that verse in Revelation 3. Second, there is a context to that verse. The context is the church of Laodicea. The verse preceding it reads"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." So again, you have Christ speaking to His church at Laodicea that was backslidden, lukewarm . They have cut off their fellowship with Christ because of being neither cold nor hot for him but lukewarm. He is telling them, if they repent that fellowship will be restored. Two verses later it reads" He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

The Audience is not the lost. The audience is the church. Christ is not asking permission. Christ is telling the church what will happen if they repent.

The verse is not one of evangelism, but of discipleship.


7,510 posted on 01/25/2007 6:47:08 PM PST by Blogger
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