November 22
DebDay 253: Hot or Cold
Ever wonder about how we might prioritize our time with what remains of this weekend...if we knew the Lord Jesus was bringing the new heavens down with Him. On Monday?
I sense I'd have a very different sense of priorities. I likely wouldn't spend any time at all polishing up my accomplishments. I probably wouldn't devote any energies to adding up whatever monies I had in bank accounts. I wouldn't care how many friends I'd accumulated on Facebook.
I suppose I'd want to know my readiness to greet my Master. I would find myself with a new and much deeper humility while awaiting His arrival. Like everything I otherwise thought mattered now no longer mattered at all.
Revelation chapters 2-3 cover seven letters to seven churches. The letter that seems to cut close to any of us in this age is the final letter to the final church listed; Laodicea.
"I know your works: you are neither cold or hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot or cold, I will spit (vomit) you out of my mouth."
Laodicea was situated between a city that had thermal hot springs, and another city at a river mouth. One with a hot water source. One with a cold water source. Laodicea between the two.
Given their location, and the analogy, the church in Laodicea is to be seen as unpalatable. Neither soothing nor refreshing. Lukewarm. Uninspired faith and practice.
But the letter also tells us why. "For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,' not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked."
Could this be us? The first operative word is "I." I did what I've done, and accomplished what I have, own what I own. With the assumption that the gravy train will continue to rumble down the tracks.
The second operative word is "need," as in I already have what I need, because I already have what I ultimately wanted all along. We think we're rich in our own works, even our sterling personalities, but Jesus calls us poor, even "pitiable" (deserving nothing but pity.)
Having read this on an early Sunday morning, it has me thinking; How do I approach collective worship this day? Do I arrive with a prideful spirit, or one of absolutely dependance on the continuing grace of God?
If this were the last and final Sunday morning before the Lord Jesus returned with the hosts of heaven to gather His saints and judge the world, would I spend anytime at all admiring my accomplishments?
Or would I gather my meager tarnished crowns in order to throw those same crowns at His feet, while He is seated on the throne that at times I thought to be mine?
Oh that we were either hot or cold. Instead of content to be lukewarm. Oh that we were truly poor in spirit, renouncing our sin, realizing our great need for the grace of God through Jesus the Son!
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church Juneau
