On the Other Side of the Door

“Here, then, is the crucial question which we have been leading up to.  Have we ever opened our door to Christ?  Have we ever invited him in?  This was exactly the question which I needed to have put to me.  For, intellectually speaking, I had believed in Jesus all my life, on the other side of the door.  I had regularly struggled to say my prayers through the key-hole.  I had even pushed pennies under the door in a vain attempt to pacify him.  I had been baptized, yes and confirmed as well.  I went to church, read my Bible, had high ideals, and tried to be good and do good.  But all the time, often without realising it, I was holding Christ at arm’s length, and keeping him outside.  I knew that to open the door might have momentous consequences.  I am profoundly grateful to him for enabling me to open the door.  Looking back now over more than fifty years, I realise that that simple step has changed the entire direction, course and quality of my life.”

            ----John R. W. Stott, 1921-2011