WORD From The Woods
I wrote this devotional on the last Monday of March, two years ago, in the beginning of the pandemic. It’s a great reminder as we reflect back on the last two years.
Revelation 3:14-22
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. “‘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. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 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. The one who conquers, 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.”
I said last week, that I didn’t understand what all was going on in the world. Today, I’m even more confused. We are witnessing our world, our global society running in fear for their lives, from a virus that we don’t really understand or have much control over at all, and totally destroying our economy in the process. It really seems like there is a lot more going on than just a virus. I’m not a big secret conspiracy believer, but this sure looks like there is something more than what we can see. Now, I’m not tying to scare anyone or stir up crazy suspicions. I know that the God who spoke the universe into being is still the God who has all of this under His control. I can’t speak for God, but I think this may be His divine intervention into our world to get our attention. Maybe there is a massive, global, big government conspiracy, if so, God is in control and has decreed leaders to be in the positions that they’re in. I think it’s more likely that this is mostly just mass confusion and hysteria by a world that is so caught up in idolatry and deception from Satan that they can’t even think rationally. I don’t think we should take this virus lightly. This is a nasty bug that is killing people around the world, and we should do all we can to be smart and prevent the spread. But, we still need to figure out how to live in this world in the process. We need to notice that the world is freaking out because their false sense of security is being threatened. And, that goes for the church as well! This passage in Revelation has struck me for a long time, it seems very relevant to the church in todays world, especially in America and other prosperous nations. Most, if not all of us reading this today, have always been wealthy by most standards through out human history. We’ve lived a very prosperous life, and a very healthy life in the sense that we haven’t seen massive global pandemics like many of our ancestors did. In our comfort and excess we’ve never really wanted for much. We’ve placed our faith and trust in all the things of this world, in money, possessions, success, health, really anything and everything but God. We’re all guilty of it to some degree. Well, right now that’s all being threatened, everything we thought we understood in this life is up in the air. And just like this passage says, I can hear Jesus Christ knocking on the door of this life, asking to come in and eat with us. This verse has been used a lot to illustrate God knocking on the door of peoples hearts to come in for salvation. I’ve though for a long time that this isn’t about salvation at all, but about calling the already saved out of their idolatry and into a deeply committed relationship with Christ! This passage was specifically addressed to the church in Laodicea, if they were the church, they were already saved. Right now, as our health is being threatened and our entire financial system hangs over a cliff, Jesus Christ is knocking on our door and asking us to be the people He has called us to be. As so much of the false security we though we had is stripped away. I hope and pray the we a the church will see clearly where our true hope lies and step up in faith and courage and joy and strength, to be a light into this dark and confused world! There are opportunities all around us to share the hope found only in Christ with the word around us. Brothers and Sisters, we need to to decide if we are going to be hot or cold, but enough of this lukewarm Christian life! Get together with the other believers you can at this time, pray with and for each other, rest in Christ, and strengthen each other! Open the door and let Christ in!
God bless and have a great week! -Terry-
I wrote this devotional on the last Monday of March, two years ago, in the beginning of the pandemic. It’s a great reminder as we reflect back on the last two years.
Revelation 3:14-22
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. “‘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. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 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. The one who conquers, 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.”
I said last week, that I didn’t understand what all was going on in the world. Today, I’m even more confused. We are witnessing our world, our global society running in fear for their lives, from a virus that we don’t really understand or have much control over at all, and totally destroying our economy in the process. It really seems like there is a lot more going on than just a virus. I’m not a big secret conspiracy believer, but this sure looks like there is something more than what we can see. Now, I’m not tying to scare anyone or stir up crazy suspicions. I know that the God who spoke the universe into being is still the God who has all of this under His control. I can’t speak for God, but I think this may be His divine intervention into our world to get our attention. Maybe there is a massive, global, big government conspiracy, if so, God is in control and has decreed leaders to be in the positions that they’re in. I think it’s more likely that this is mostly just mass confusion and hysteria by a world that is so caught up in idolatry and deception from Satan that they can’t even think rationally. I don’t think we should take this virus lightly. This is a nasty bug that is killing people around the world, and we should do all we can to be smart and prevent the spread. But, we still need to figure out how to live in this world in the process. We need to notice that the world is freaking out because their false sense of security is being threatened. And, that goes for the church as well! This passage in Revelation has struck me for a long time, it seems very relevant to the church in todays world, especially in America and other prosperous nations. Most, if not all of us reading this today, have always been wealthy by most standards through out human history. We’ve lived a very prosperous life, and a very healthy life in the sense that we haven’t seen massive global pandemics like many of our ancestors did. In our comfort and excess we’ve never really wanted for much. We’ve placed our faith and trust in all the things of this world, in money, possessions, success, health, really anything and everything but God. We’re all guilty of it to some degree. Well, right now that’s all being threatened, everything we thought we understood in this life is up in the air. And just like this passage says, I can hear Jesus Christ knocking on the door of this life, asking to come in and eat with us. This verse has been used a lot to illustrate God knocking on the door of peoples hearts to come in for salvation. I’ve though for a long time that this isn’t about salvation at all, but about calling the already saved out of their idolatry and into a deeply committed relationship with Christ! This passage was specifically addressed to the church in Laodicea, if they were the church, they were already saved. Right now, as our health is being threatened and our entire financial system hangs over a cliff, Jesus Christ is knocking on our door and asking us to be the people He has called us to be. As so much of the false security we though we had is stripped away. I hope and pray the we a the church will see clearly where our true hope lies and step up in faith and courage and joy and strength, to be a light into this dark and confused world! There are opportunities all around us to share the hope found only in Christ with the word around us. Brothers and Sisters, we need to to decide if we are going to be hot or cold, but enough of this lukewarm Christian life! Get together with the other believers you can at this time, pray with and for each other, rest in Christ, and strengthen each other! Open the door and let Christ in!
God bless and have a great week! -Terry-