Resources > Bible Studies Doorways - The Next Step Posted by Debbie Piper - Associate Minister, Coaching & Equipping on Apr 5, 2009, 18:02

Based on Doorways series

This is the Next Step- It is designed to allow you to take the celebration worship experience at CCC and make some additional discoveries for your adventure of faith.

You can use this study in a variety of ways, read it as a devotional, print it out and fill in your answers on the page, keep a journal and allow the questions to spark additional thought and perhaps additional study. Perhaps this study will create in your head and heart even more questions...jot down what you are thinking about...ask your questions, e-mail them to us at cccreach@aol.com and thanks for being willing to take this study to the Next Step!

Jeff has been speaking about Doorways for the last several weeks. Doorways of faith. Doorways of adventure. Doorways leading into new ways of living. Doorways that invite and welcome. Doorways that open before us.

Scripture speaks a lot about doors and doorways.

The first time we hear the word door in scripture is in Genesis, the book of beginnings—

“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."—Genesis 4:7

God is speaking to the stubborn and resistant Cain, Adam and Eve’s son. The first doorway we have to consider is the doorway into our own hearts. What are we allowing into our hearts? Are we inviting sin into our lives? Or is there a clear path for Jesus to find His way to the door of our hearts?

In Exodus 12, the blood of a lamb was to be placed on the top and sides of the doorway into Hebrew homes as a sign of their faith in the Lord God, providing protection for the family huddled within. Centuries later, John the Baptizer identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God in John 1:29.

A few chapters later, in John 10:9, Jesus claims to be the doorway to life—

“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

In John 20, we find the disciples hiding behind doors after Christ’s resurrection—

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"—John 20:19, 26

Too many Christ-followers today seem to huddle behind locked doors in fear, like the disciples in John 20. Jesus comes to us as He did to them, appearing behind locked doors, wanting to prove to us that He is alive and fear does not need to have a hold on us!

Matthew 27:50, 51 records the splitting in two of the heavy curtain that was the entry into the Most Holy Place of the Jewish temple at the moment of Jesus’ death. Jesus’ sacrifice opened the doorway into God’s presence—

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…—Hebrews 10:19-22

Locked jail doors could not keep the Lord from saving His imprisoned disciples—

But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.—Acts 5:19

Paul sees opportunity in the midst of challenge and commits to persevere in his work at Ephesus, saying—

…a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.—1 Corinthians 16:9

Using the imagery of a door, Jesus offers us intimate relationship and time spent with Him—

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.—Revelation 3:20

John was called to peer into a doorway in heaven—

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”—Revelation 4:1

New doorways await Christ-followers. Some call us to self-examination and humbling ourselves before God. Some call us to receive the life Jesus came to give us, while others call us to recommit ourselves to the task in front of us or to new vistas of faith.

Jesus has made the way. He invites you to enter and discover forgiveness, freedom, life, purpose, challenge, strength, courage, intimacy, and discovery.

What door has God placed in front of you? Will you walk through?

Visit www.touchandchange.com to view the Doorway series of worship celebrations related to this Next Step.