Good Morning Friends,
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea
write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I
wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -- neither
hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I
have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you
are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold
refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you
can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can
see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 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 him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:14-20)
The church at Laodicea looked good from
outward appearances. It was a wealthy church. It looked like it was being
blessed by God. Instead, it was a church that made God sick!
What sickened God about that church was their
apathy. Like coffee that has sat in the cup too long, they weren’t hot enough or
cold enough to be enjoyable. They were lukewarm, and good for nothing.
The cure for their apathy was to realize how
needy they were and to come to the Lord to meet those needs. As long as they
thought they were O.K., they wouldn’t be. When they recognized that they needed
help they would have made the first, big step toward being healed.
Despite their problems, help was only a
request away. Jesus was ready to help them. He was right at the door. All it
would take was a small step of initiative on their part.
Apathetic describes a huge part of the
American church and a huge number of American Christians. We’re rich and
comfortable and consider those things to be the blessings of God. Perhaps they
are more like a curse. In those blessings, we can easily ignore the fact that
we desperately need God.
We all need to check our temperature. Are you
hot, cold or just lukewarm?
His, by Grace,
Steve
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