Locked out!

After eating our evening meal last night I prepared to put up a new bathroom cabinet. My drill is kept in the basement of the "Old Rusty" and so I made my weary way down the 36 steps to the cafe with key in hand only to find that my way was barred. I had less than 2 hours previously locked up after a long day at work. All seemed well at the time, I was involved with a group of men making preparations to set up home for the week in the function room. They are the Walk Cornwall team of whom I will almost certainly speak in a later blog.

Now my key is impotent, the lock is jammed and I cannot function as I ought. I only need my drill and a little door lock prevents me from getting to it!! FRUSTRATING. I have done a thorough job in locking up. No other doors for access, they are securely locked. All windows shut, the only way in is through the door and that is not letting me in.

Ralph is the obvious one to help, he is Mr Fixit as far as the "Old Rusty" is concerned. A phone call and a two way trip up Barbican Hill later and Ralph with big toolbag is working on the lock. His key was as useless as mine, his efforts as impotent.
Door handle removed, lock exposed and still no entry. All of our efforts came to nothing. Butter was tried but there was butterring up of this lock in order that we might grease our way into the coffee shop.

What can we do, we are totally impotent, we have done all that we can and it is now 8:30 pm. We need to open the door for trade in just over 12 hours.

We need an expert! Ralpgh never ceases to amaze me, if he cannot fix it then he knows a man that can! Matthew is the answer he tells me. Ralph is evangelistic in his enthusiasm and recommendation of this man who had previously fitted his wonderful garage door. If anyone can help us in our situation Matthew can Ralph told me. A few phone calls to Clare and Matthew via his wife and a little wait our knight in shining armour arrived at the "Old Rusty" in his trusty white van. Another tool box and Matthew on his knees for an hour and all is fixed and at last we are in. All is now ok. We have a new key that lets us in.

As I was pondering this, the obvious came to mind. How like life this is. We can go through life expecting many things to happen but then suddenly and unexpectedly it all goes "pear shaped!" We cannot do what we want. We need help in some way or another. There is no clearer example of this than our exit from this mortal coil into the next world. Do we have the key that opens the door to heaven or is the door locked?

When I left the coffee shop before this incident I was oblivious to the fact that I could not get back into the cafe. I went on my way believing that all was well, but there was a problem. My entry was barred. That is true for all of us as far as heaven is concerned. We are Locked out of heaven and most of us do not know it. "Locked out of heaven" just happens to be a Bruno Murs song title. I do not know anything about the song but just looking at images on Google about it tells me that the writer thinks of heaven as being in bed with a busty woman. That is the way of man, but heaven is where God is eternally and we are natutally barred from entry.

But surprise; surprise; we may be locked out of heaven but Ralph (and I) knows a man who can unlock the way in! Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes into heaven but by me." (my paraphrase of John 14:6) He is the key for all humans who want to get into heaven. There is no easy fix of the lock, no buttering up of God, no greasing our way in by our own efforts or cunning. There is only one man, the God Man; the Lord Jesus Christ who has paid the price He is the key of heaven.

How do you get there? By simple trust (faith) and repentance. Turning from the sinful efforts of self righteousness to trust in THE MAN that has done it all for you. That is Jesus Christ who is God the Son, sent from heaven to unlock the door of life in order that you enter into heaven.

It only remains for me to thank Ralph who pointed me to the man that can and to Matthew who was not only the man who could but who gave sacrificially of his time in order to save me from my difficulty. That of course is the subject of another blog sometime! But I must also thank all who told me many years ago about Jesus as being the Man who could save me and to Him for sacrificially paying the price that I could not pay myself. If you want to know more of how that happened why not check out:

http://rbcrc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/who-am-ii-am-simply-man-who-by-grace.html