How Many Keys Do You Need?

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

How Many Keys Do You Need?

            Think about this for just a minute – how many keys do you have?  You have car keys, house keys, safe keys, storage building keys, lawnmower keys, and probably many more, and even some you haven’t a clue what they fit!!!  And where do you keep all the keys?  We can’t walk around like my old high school janitor with a key ring on his belt with what looked like a hundred keys on it.  We have to have a place for them, don’t we?

            In my junior high years, I elected to take a summer class for the fun of it.  I elected the pottery course.  The entire course wasn’t just about pottery, but it also included working with plastics.  We took a sheet of special, thick plastic, cut a circle out of it, heated it in the oven, and then placed it on a big mold.  When the heated circle was pressed into the mold, it fluted the edges and created a bowl.  Several years ago my mother found the bowl in a box of my old things and asked if I wanted it.  I have named the bowl my “key bowl.”  When I enter the house, I drop my vehicle keys in the bowl.  After using the tractor, the keys find the same place.  After I put the riding mower back into the storage shed, those keys also find their way into the coveted “key bowl.”  I do all this so I know where to find any key I need to open the myriad of locks or ignitions on the Walker hacienda.

            Jesus asked the disciples who the people were saying He was.  After several answers, Peter spoke up and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus acknowledged this revelation was given to Peter by the Holy Spirit and not from any man.  Then Jesus said, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of Heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.”

            Can you believe we have keys much more powerful than any made on this earth?  Jesus, through whom all things were created, held the keys to bind and loose ANYTHING! When the disciples recognized Jesus to be who He said He was, He gave them these wonderful keys.

When we accept Jesus as the Christ, accept Him as our Savior, and make Him Lord of our life, we too receive the same keys given to the disciples.  Remember, we are warriors for the kingdom of Heaven.  When we call upon the name of Jesus and bind something here on this earth to edify the kingdom of God and not ourselves, it will be bound!  But remember, these are keys not suited for any key bowl.  These are keys that can only be kept in the place inside of you where the Holy Spirit resides.

            If you do not have these keys, find someone who can tell you about the love and grace freely given by Jesus.  He will unlock many mysteries to you through a loving relationship with God the Father.