The Great Commission.9

"Whenever you are invited into a house, offer first a blessing, and say: "Peace be to this house." If those in the house are for peace, your blessing will be accepted, and they will be benefited. If not, the benefits of your blessing will return to you." 

--Jesus

Visiting our local high school one day, I couldn't help noticing the large number of youth lounging on the floor outside the cafeteria during lunch.  When I inquired why, the principle sighed and said, "It's the way they eat their meals at home."  I approached a strange situation: a girl, back against the wall, with a boy laying prone on the floor face down in her lap.  Using my foot I rolled the lad over demanding: "What in the world are you doing?"  He looked at me like I was an alien...

The lesson here:

behavior shaped in the home 

shapes the community!

Who shapes the home?

Better yet: who has authority to shape the home?

Answer:
Door Knockers for Jesus!
(How's that for a 40-day spiritual adventure slogan?!) This same Jesus who knocks at the door of every heart, sends his followers to knock on the physical doors of the home in order to find those who are yielding to the gentle knocking of the heart.

As a field rep for the nation's largest small business organization I knock on hundreds of doors weekly looking for a certain kind of businessmen: patriots!  Searching for the "Men of Isaachar" who are described as "men who knew the times and knew what Israel should do."  We match these patriots' desire to change the political environment with the effective activity to accomplish it.

Similarly followers of Jesus are called to go find the "man of peace"; i.e., those who are dissatisfied with their present condition and want to match their desire for life with the knowledge of how to know the Life-Giver!

"Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee."

- Augustine

If we are honest with ourselves, isn't going door-knocking one of the most terrifying experiences of a human being?  "Jesus you don't really expect me to do that...they'll think I'm one of those JW's!"

But if overcoming fear, discouragment, apathy and other "works of the devil", laying down our lives, looking for the lost sheep, bringing the "benefits of blessing": Light, Life and Love into dark places isn't like the Master, what is?  

Our calling into the Kingdom isn't about knowing stuff about Jesus, its about being like him: to look through love eyes, faith eyes, truth eyes into the eyes of those on the other side of the door...

Music Link:
This Is Where The Healing Begins - 10th Ave North