Day 7: Door of hope
There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope (Hosea 2:15).
Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:7, 9-10 – NKJV).
I will place on His shoulder the key to the house of David; what He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open (Isaiah 22:22).
To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: "These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open" (Revelation 3:7).
[Jesus] then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
After this I [John] 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).
Exalted God, Solomon asked in wonder, "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain You..." (1 Kings 8:27).
Yet, in Your divine wisdom and favor, You had planned from the beginning to indeed dwell with humans—to redeem fallen humanity through the gift of Messiah—Immanuel, God with us. And as a shadow of the things that were to come (Colossians 2:17), You established Your Law and Your covenant with a people You called to Yourself, and You promised them:
Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…’” (Exodus 19:5-6).
You established Your tabernacle with them in the wilderness (Exodus 25-27), and later You permitted Solomon to build a temple—a place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there’ (1 Kings 8:29). Yet every detail was only a foreshadow, a pointing to the reality... found in Christ (Colossians 2:17).
And at the appointed time, You opened up the portals of heaven and set an open door between heaven and earth—revealing to all a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven. And the voice of hope went forth into all the world, trumpeting the staggering invitation, "Come up here" (Revelation 11:12), as in a burst of glory heaven delivered the glad tidings—and angels ascending and descending filled the earth with the joyful worship of heaven (Genesis 28:12, Luke 2:8-14).
O Mighty, Exalted God, we join in heaven's worship. To [You] the King eternal, immortal, invisible...God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. (1 Timothy 1:17 - NKJV).
Glory to God in the highest heaven! (Luke 2:14).
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