I love how Christ identifies Himself to this congregation! "...Amen, faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation." Rev 3:14b
Lukewarm:
"In a sense, complete coldness might have been better; then they might have welcomed the warmth of the gospel."
How might that be true?
"Those who forget their daily need for forgiveness are running the same risk." (of growing lukewarm)
Living out our baptism by daily repentance and a renewed awareness of our need for a Saviour! This is contradictory to the idea that this is only for those first coming to faith. Even for those of us who have spent many, many years as a child of God, we too need to hear and listen to this so that we might not turn lukewarm in our faith!
I really liked how the authors applied this section to today and to our Christmas celebration and focus. While I may have sat in the same pew, in the same church, hearing the same Christmas message from the same pastor (love ya, honey!) every Christmas Day service for the last 12 years, may daily repentance, reflection and forgiveness give me a renewed spirit of thanksgiving and awe of the love of my Saviour!
Modern Christmas traditions in our secular culture draw attention away from the manger (as opposed to away in a manger). Spend some time looking specifically at the traditions you've adopted into your home in the light of God's word. Do they enhance your focus on Jesus or distract? Is there anything that can be "neutral"?
5 comments:
Of the 7 letters to the 7 churches this one always makes me gasp. The critisms in the letters to Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatria are no less serious and tug at my heart as well but to be lukewarm and spiritually blasé about the One who paid an incredible price for me...there just are no words~I know I have been neither hot nor cold at times in my life. Praise God that He is a God of love, that His love and mercy compells Him to rebuke and discipline us. Praise God that we have a Saviour who always comes to repentant lukewarm sinners with the warmth of forgiveness and peace. What comfort on this the 7th day of Advent! Lord, give us a faith that ever burns brightly.
This one gets to the heart of things for many in “first world” economies today. We focus on, we strive for, we take comfort in, our financial security. We have modern technology and conveniences that address so many of the discomforts and inconveniences in life. We have insurance against loss of possessions and health, and even the lives of our loved ones! If there is a potential problem, we have a plan to deal with it, and it usually involves money.
We know what lukewarm Christianity looks like. We give a polite nod to God on Sunday mornings and maybe when we gather and pray before meals, etc., but if we are honest with ourselves, our mind is elsewhere. We don’t “treasure up” the riches the Holy Spirit offers and “ponder them in our hearts” as the physically poor but spiritually rich Mary did (Luke 2:19). The gospel rolls right across our mind like water off a duck’s back.
We like the idea that we are forgiven children of God and we will be in heaven someday, but deep down inside there is a sense that we probably wouldn’t be that bad-off without God’s help. We give lip service to “our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth,” but on closer scrutiny, our attitudes reveal a more accurate description of what we believe: all we have is our own accomplishment – and vice versa.
We need something to ruffle our feathers.
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.” (v19) When we conclude that abundance of physical blessings is a sign of God’s approval, we are dead wrong. The ruler of God’s creation may lovingly send hardship into our posh existence to show us our utter spiritual poverty and helplessness. Both blessing and hardship are expressions of his love for us.
I Need a Guide - I join you in praising God for his love, mercy, forgiveness, peace and comfort!
Inspired by you and Rachel I pray... Holy Spirit, lead me to live out my baptism with daily repentance and recognition of my spiritual poverty before my Lord. Give me a faith that ever burns brightly.
Rachel asks how being completely cold (and therefore, more welcoming to the warmth of the gospel) could be better than being lukewarm…
I might equate being spiritually “cold” with shutting God out of our lives. Eliminating the polite nod to God. Embracing self-sufficiency. To someone living completely apart from the gospel, the idea that forgiveness and salvation are completely free gifts - that we don’t have to pull ourselves up to heaven by our bootstraps – is an obvious contrast. It is welcome relief. By God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, the cold heart passionately grasps onto that relief and becomes “hot.” Meanwhile the lukewarm Christian is still going through the motions. The pilot light is still on, but the furnace doesn’t kick in because the weather is mild.
Evaluating our traditions in light of God’s word… Do they enhance our focus on Jesus or distract?
Whoa. Good questions. Good things to think about as I move through this month of preparation.
Can anything be neutral?
I’m going to say that I think something can be neutral. For example, baking cookies. The trouble comes when a whole lot of neutral things come together and take up our time and energy and yes, focus, during this time of year and squeeze out Jesus. One might argue that this means that each individual thing is not neutral. However, I’m gonna stick with my answer: Yes.
I thought this might be a bit out-dated, since I'm commenting on day 11, but nevertheless...
In my Bible*, there's a graph with columns outlined like this ex: Horizontally= To:, Local Detail, Image of Christ, What Christ sees (good & bad), Call to repent, & Promise to the One who Conquers. This chart has things in all of the columns, except for what Christ sees that is good for the church of Laodicea (YIKES is right!). I have fond it very helpful as a reference. Sometimes I need a visual to help me get the overall idea for all of the books, and this hit the mark for me. I'm sharing it here simply in case somebody could use this info. and let it help them.
*(The Lutheran Study Bible. Edward A. Engelbrecht, gen. ed. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009. Print.)
Thanks for mentioning your helpful Bible reference, cre8ev. I'd like to get my hands on one of those Lutheran study bibles someday...Hey, I could use all the help I can get:)
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