Chapter 1

Have you ever given your spouse the only set of keys to the house or car? If you have, then you can identify with one of the characters in the following drama.

Wife, digging through her purse: "I can't find the key!" Husband, growing impatient: "You what
Wife: "I can't find the key!
Husband: "Well, where did you put it?"
Wife: "Oh, don't be silly If I knew where I put it, I wouldn't be looking for it, now, would I?"

How many times have you participated in such a conversation? In how many different scenarios? Fumbling fingers in the pale moonlight! Shivering figures on the front door step! Tired travelers by the curbside with a cozy car, so near and yet so far, that defies all efforts to enter!

What is this elusive object that we have so much trouble hanging onto?

The key!

We seek it here, we seek it there, we seek it everywhere! Why is it so important? What does it do?

It locks the door, starts the engine, allows me to enter my own home, prevents the stranger access to private territory, turns a door into a barrier, imprisons a man for life or, with one flick of a finger, allows me to leave rain, cold, storm and dark for warmth, comfort, light and friendship. So small but so vital! I may be only a hundred miles from my destination and in possession of a machine that can eat up the miles, but without a key to enter or start the engine, it is almost impossible to get where I want to go.

Obviously, the key is an essential object.

We use the word key in a variety of expressions: Gibraltar, the key to the Mediterranean; the code, the key to decipher the meaningless message; the key man; the keyword; the key job!
Does God Have a Key?

Does God have a key? If so, what is it? What is it for? So many people are in prison with no key to the solution that would set them free! The inward prison and the inward chains are a thousand times worse than any concrete prison's black despair; they produce a more hopeless helplessness than ever the bare- backed galley slaves experienced when they were chained in rows by ankles and wrists, their cruel taskmasters lashing their bleeding backs as their oars dipped in perfect unison to cut swiftly through the gleaming waters. No blacksmith can forge, no key cutter fashion, a key to open the dungeon of utter numb- ness that is the experience of millions who are in bondage to deadly, vicious habits and fear.

Pile up all your worldly solutions: Psychiatry, drugs, amusement parks, night clubs, bingo house, pep talks and weekend get-aways; then stand back and take a good look. None of these will ever meet man's deepest need and set him free from his failure and his sin! Is there a key to unlock the inward prison?
Consider the man who is consumed by a lust for money, power or women and has made a shambles of his life by pursuing something other than God's will for him, who has exchanged ethics for greed and humility for
self-aggrandizement, who has settled for living a lie rather than dwelling in the truth. Is there a key that will turn his failure into success?

What is it? Where is it? I spent many years of my life looking for it, without knowing what I was seeking. Over and over again, I came up against failure in different areas of my life, until God finally revealed to me the cause of my failure and the key to turning it around.

The key that I was looking for was originally lost in the garden of Eden. God can identify with the spouse who gave away his only set of keys! He once gave a very important key to Adam and Eve, but they lost it in the paradise He had created for them. When they did, they placed the rest of us in a position for failure and set us on a search to find the way out of it.

We are left, like the couple we met earlier, in a fix: 'I can't find the key!'
'Well, where did you put it?" 'Oh, don't be silly! If I knew where I put it, I wouldn't be looking for it, now, would I? In fact, I'm not sure I've ever had it!'

If you can identify with this experience, if you are wondering where to find the key that will release you or someone you know from the bondage of sin and the frustration of failure, read on. Perhaps you can also identify with one of the real-life examples of failure that I discuss in the next chapter.