Welcome to my World
Val and I were in Poppy’s restaurant in Chesterfield, and they were playing 50s and 60s songs. Then one by Jim Reeves came on – Welcome To My World.
There is a secret to this song, but not everyone who hears it picks it up. Welcome to my World is a Christian based song. When you read the words there are many quotes from the Bible and the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.
Let’s look through the lyrics of the song.
Welcome to my world.
Won't you come on in...
God’s World
The world God wants us to step into is not the physical planet we stand on. God wants us in His world, taking comfort in Him, giving your all to Him. David asked God to come to his rescue:
In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and guide me. Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God. Psalm 31:1-5
Knowing God is his fortress and rock, he asks the Lord to lead and guide him. David then commits himself, into God’s hands. Christ’s last words on the cross were “Into your hands I commit my spirit”. We do not have to die to come to God’s world, just commit to Him.
Welcome to my world, says God. Won’t you come on in?
Miracles, I guess,
still happen now and then.
How many times have we prayed for a miracle?
Did one happen? Perhaps it did, but then not as you realised? Perhaps your life has changed because of your love for Jesus. Is that not a miracle? The inner peace that only the love of God can give you? Maybe you’ve wondered why I am at a certain place at a certain time. Why did I come here? Then we read or hear in the news of a person who the medical profession say will never walk again, and they do.
My nephew was born with cerebral palsy. The doctors said he wouldn't live beyond his teens. He is over forty now, living his own life, albeit in a wheelchair. Is that not some kind of miracle? Miracles, I guess, in one form or another, still happen.
Step into my heart,
Leave your cares behind.
The Lord wants us to step into His heart. How do we? By opening our hearts to Him. The Lord knows our every weakness, our failings, our hopes and aspirations, and He knows our fears. These things, although the Lord knows them, we should still bring to God in prayer. By opening our hearts to God we can step into His, and we can be certain that by doing so we leave all our cares behind.
God, your God, will cut away the thick callouses from your heart and your children’s heart, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. Deuteronomy 30:6 (The Message)
From the beginning of time, this is what the Lord wanted from us because he built his world with you and me in mind.
Knock and the door will open,
Seek and you will find,
Ask and you will be given,
The key to this world of mine.
Knock, Ask, Seek
In looking for God, we also have to ask.
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7
Jesus clearly states, knock and the door will be opened. It is a metaphor which describes the action you need to take. If you want something from behind a door, you keep knocking until it is opened and your needs provided for. In this same way we should pray in faith to God and be persistent in prayer, keep knocking and the door will be opened.
In Revelation 3:20 we read:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Not only should we knock on the door for it to be opened, but we should, when the Lord himself knocks, open the door of our hearts to him, and we shall have union with him.
Asking and Seeking
We should use our mouths to petition God for our needs, but we should also praise him and be thankful for what he has given us. Remember, those who ask will receive. Jesus said:
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13
Seeking
In the book of Amos, 5:4-6 and 14 we read:
This is what the Lord says to Israel: Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, seek good not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you.
We can seek with our minds. It is through seeking this way we can focus our hearts on what God wants for us. Seeking God is not too hard, just reach out in prayer, trust the word of God.
It is by knocking, seeking and asking that we can be given the key to God’s heart, to God’s world.
Let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and truth. In the same way, it is good to pray and seek God, but if one does not also act in ways that are pleasing to God, it is then all for nothing. 1 John 13:18
It was not by accident that Jesus said believers should love God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind, words that were also written in Deuteronomy.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
I'll be waiting here,
With my arms unfurled,
Waiting just for you,
Welcome to my world.
These words can be summed up in John
Simon Peter asked him “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied: “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” John 13:36
Then, soon after, we read: Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. John 14:1
Jesus will come to us with his arms unfurled, ready to take us to his Father, to God. Jesus is waiting for us to call on him to open our hearts and minds to him, to love him as he loves us, and when the time is right he will say believer, welcome to my world. Amen
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you said all those years ago to Amos, seek me and live, seek good not evil and live. Lord, I want to live in you and I want you to live in me. I want to be in your world here on earth and, when the time comes, for you to say to me - welcome to my world, my good and faithful servant. Amen
Roger Culverhouse