The Key to Unlocking Spiritual Doors


The past few days, I attended Summer Campmeeting at Calvary Pentecostal Tabernacle in Ashland, Virginia. Before going there, I stayed with a pastor and his family in Buffalo, New York. While packing up my stuff, I couldn’t find my portable luggage scale used to avoid baggage fees. A friend who drove me to the Minneapolis airport weeks before offered to get me another one. Since my hosts in Buffalo had a bathroom scale I could use to weigh my bags, I asked for the luggage scale to be sent to my post office box in Ashland. 


It was soon discovered that Amazon wouldn’t deliver packages to PO boxes. Instead, my luggage scale was sent to a set of lockers outside a Wawa convenience store. After arriving in Ashland by train on Wednesday morning, I went to Wawa but didn’t know which locker contained my package nor how to open the door. So I called Amazon’s customer service number. My friend who had placed the order needed to send me a special email, which I received several hours later.


The next morning, another friend drove me from the campground back to Wawa, but I still couldn’t open the locker. I needed to download the Amazon app on my iPhone. So we went to a nearby Panera Bread. Then I remembered my iPhone cannot pick up Panera Bread’s Wi-Fi signal. Using my phone’s data, I downloaded the Amazon app. Then we went back to Wawa. After turning on Bluetooth and pressing the emailed link, one of the locker doors suddenly opened. I finally received my luggage scale.


This incident reminded me of what Jesus said in Matthew 16:


15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates `of Hades shall not prevail against it. 

19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”


Roman Catholics have misinterpreted the above passage. They believe Peter was the first pope and now oversees the entrance to the pearly gates. Instead, the key to receiving eternal life is knowing Jesus as Christ.


Jesus also said in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” People pray in vain when they won’t go through the only way to the Father. Using His name is the key that will unlock spiritual doors. 


“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” - Revelation 1:18


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Gospel Soul Winning Script

Toking the Ghost Revisited

A Tribute to Al Best