My employer provides us with bottled water and I take advantage of this because it is generally a hot work climate. The other day I set out a cold bottle of water to take with me but forgot to do so and when I returned I opened it and took a big drink of the now warm water only to immediately spit it out for there was no refreshing quality about it. I took another sip and it was hard to swallow so I put the cap back on and returned it to the refrigerator. I heard two stories within the past week with an opposite scenario. A new restaurant has opened in our area and different groups of lady friends of my wife's had gone there for supper a week apart. Both came back with the same story. They ordered tea and it was served lukewarm and had to be returned.
Water at least needs a certain amount of coolness to it to be refreshing and it also has to be hot enough to bring out the flavor of the tea. We are given an analogy of this in a metaphor of the church in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation. Seven churches are described to John and he was to write the descriptions down and distribute his writing. Coming where this is in Scripture, at the beginning of God's apocalyptic prophesy of the last of the last days, it would behoove all Christians to seriously meditate upon it.
Five of the first six churches that had letters sent to it received some praise and some very serious criticism but the last of the seven churches received no acknowledgments of anything well done. The church at Laodicea was like the waters I described...neither hot nor cold. Here are John's words in that letter to the Laodicean church from the English Standard Version of God's Holy Word: "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked..."
Every year, for the last thirty or so years, I researched in advance, churches in the town or area that we were to take our summer vacation. I did so again this evening and it is discouraging. The church websites are very well done. Pictures flash across the screen of the church buildings, and congregational gatherings and various ministries. There's a link there for any questions that you might have, and directions to the church are great, but there is usually something missing, a soberness concerning the day and age that we live in, the country that we live in that is now collapsing from narcissistic bulimia and its government that staggers after gorging itself on our freedoms of religion. Surely the sermons would reflect a nation in collapse, but no, they far more too often than not address the felt needs of a citizenry that wants therapy, motivational techniques and a musical uplift, and certainly not preaching on the blood shed on Calvary two thousand years ago before we understood the inner workings of the mind and importance of self-esteem.
We are Laodicea in America. Many churches are not, some are even Philadelphia that received no criticism; and if you take no offense at what my comments are here then you see the same warnings given to us in the second and third chapters of Revelation. In order to see ourselves as Laodicea we need something to compare us to and its not easy to find in today's churches. We need input from others who did not have this technological age with all its trappings to deal with. The Puritans can help for they faced the same type of government. The Reformation can show us the importance of doctrinal truth and the errors in our doctrine today, great preachers of the past can show us what we are missing from the pulpit and the lives of great missionaries, and missionaries today, can offer us a chance to view this world soberly and then prepare.
I suspect that in the years if not days ahead that we, many of us, myself included, will humble ourselves as we see God's prophetic word more clearly as the veils are lifted from our eyes; and our focus will not be on things that perish but on the return of Jesus Christ with His mighty angels in all of His glory and power, and the wiping away of every tear. John's letter to the Laodiceans concluded with this "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Water at least needs a certain amount of coolness to it to be refreshing and it also has to be hot enough to bring out the flavor of the tea. We are given an analogy of this in a metaphor of the church in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation. Seven churches are described to John and he was to write the descriptions down and distribute his writing. Coming where this is in Scripture, at the beginning of God's apocalyptic prophesy of the last of the last days, it would behoove all Christians to seriously meditate upon it.
Five of the first six churches that had letters sent to it received some praise and some very serious criticism but the last of the seven churches received no acknowledgments of anything well done. The church at Laodicea was like the waters I described...neither hot nor cold. Here are John's words in that letter to the Laodicean church from the English Standard Version of God's Holy Word: "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked..."
Every year, for the last thirty or so years, I researched in advance, churches in the town or area that we were to take our summer vacation. I did so again this evening and it is discouraging. The church websites are very well done. Pictures flash across the screen of the church buildings, and congregational gatherings and various ministries. There's a link there for any questions that you might have, and directions to the church are great, but there is usually something missing, a soberness concerning the day and age that we live in, the country that we live in that is now collapsing from narcissistic bulimia and its government that staggers after gorging itself on our freedoms of religion. Surely the sermons would reflect a nation in collapse, but no, they far more too often than not address the felt needs of a citizenry that wants therapy, motivational techniques and a musical uplift, and certainly not preaching on the blood shed on Calvary two thousand years ago before we understood the inner workings of the mind and importance of self-esteem.
We are Laodicea in America. Many churches are not, some are even Philadelphia that received no criticism; and if you take no offense at what my comments are here then you see the same warnings given to us in the second and third chapters of Revelation. In order to see ourselves as Laodicea we need something to compare us to and its not easy to find in today's churches. We need input from others who did not have this technological age with all its trappings to deal with. The Puritans can help for they faced the same type of government. The Reformation can show us the importance of doctrinal truth and the errors in our doctrine today, great preachers of the past can show us what we are missing from the pulpit and the lives of great missionaries, and missionaries today, can offer us a chance to view this world soberly and then prepare.
I suspect that in the years if not days ahead that we, many of us, myself included, will humble ourselves as we see God's prophetic word more clearly as the veils are lifted from our eyes; and our focus will not be on things that perish but on the return of Jesus Christ with His mighty angels in all of His glory and power, and the wiping away of every tear. John's letter to the Laodiceans concluded with this "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
