“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” Rev. 3:15-17.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the condition of the Body of believers, those of us who claim to have some kind of relationship with our Heavenly Father and our Savior. I don’t see much zeal or fire for living the kind of radical, life changing existence that we are called to. Especially here in the United States most of us live a life of ease and comfort. The poorest among us still have access to computers and cell phones, IPODS and flat screen televisions, two cars in every garage and retirement accounts.
We’re concerned about how we dress, what we look like, our Facebook accounts, and who is going to win the Super Bowl. The scriptural idea of, “give us this day our daily bread”, rings hollow for most of us who can hop in one of our vehicles and drive a few minutes to the nearest grocery store to pick from tens of thousands of variety of items. Most of us have never known hunger in any significant way. The paupers among us live better than royalty of a couple centuries ago.
And yet when our Savior walked this earth he lived a far different existence. An existence it seems we are far removed from 2000 years later. He told His followers they had to leave everything to follow Him-families, houses, cars, computers, IPODS, a warm place to sleep, any food above and beyond our daily manna. He told us we had to be willing to give up everything in this physical realm for the buried treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven.
And yet we think we have acquired a divine right to live the American Dream. So we accumulate our possessions, forgetting that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. The things that have become important to us mean nothing to the One that has the power of our life in His hands. So we live in our own lukewarm world, just waiting for Him to spew us out of His mouth in disgust.
I want to be clear that we should never regret, forget, or turn away from the great blessings we have been given, but those blessings are given to us for one purpose-to bring glory and honor to the Almighty Creator that has showered those blessings upon us. There is no desperation in our lifestyle or the message we share with others. We rarely have a thought that, “the earth is Yahweh’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.” We think we have a right to what is ours, but we are just deluding ourselves. None of it is ours. He loans it to us for a time to be caretakers, to be profitable servants with what He gives us. But mostly we squander it for our own satisfaction.
For 3 ½ years our Savior walked this earth, without a home to live in, with only His daily bread, with a few close companions, but mostly hated and disdained for the light He brought to the world. Ultimately willing to die for us after giving up a Heavenly Kingdom.
So here we are, a Body where the tares too often overtake the wheat; a Body where friendship with the world is more important to us then helping the orphan and widow. A place where appearance has become more important to us than the substance of our hearts. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the emptiness of what we have become. It’s time to search out and join with others who have a desire to go all out in service of the Kingdom. No more lip service, no more looking like the world around us, but having a fire inside of us that compels us to share this glorious Kingdom of Heaven with this sick, dying world. Maybe I’m just crazy to think this can really happen, but I’m willing to give it a try and see what road it takes me down. It’s time for us to follow the radical, life saving path we have been chosen to walk.
