I don't want to be lukewarm or cold!

December 13, 2007

Reading in Revelation 3 to 6: Oh Lord, I don’t want to be a person or part of a church that has the “name of being alive, and you are dead… on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God” (3:1-2) “Remember then what you received and heard, keep that, and repent” (v 3). Oh Lord, I don’t want to be one of those in soiled garments, but to be one who walks with You in white, made and kept worthy by You! (vv 3:4-5) I do not want my name blotted out of the book of life, but rather I do want it confessed by You, Jesus, before Your Father and the angels (3:5)

It just seems to be so easy to slip and fall away – and difficult to hang in there faithfully, to be a conqueror, to keep Your name and not deny it, to keep Your word of patient endurance, to hold fast so no one can receive my crown (3:8-12) - but not impossible, for the church in Philadelphia stayed faithful! And I do have You to help me by Your Spirit!!!

And Lord, I do not want to be lukewarm – or cold, for that matter! I want to be hot for You… I never want You to be forced to “spew me out of Your mouth!” (3:15). Oh dear God, please help me, please help all Your people see that truly, in ourselves, in our own non-power, we “are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Oh dear God, please help us always to “buy from You” the true riches, the true treasure. Help us to see Your truth (3:15-18). Help us to “be zealous and repent, to receive with joy Your love that is manifested in Your reproof and chastisement for our sins!~(v19).

Dear God, help us to hear You knocking at our hearts’ door, and help us to joyfully open and invite You in and “sup/ eat” with You! (3:201-21). (Not a co-incidence that before I read this scripture this morning, I received an email telling of a doctor who, when she checks out children, lets them listen to their heart-beat in the stethoscope… and little boy thought it was Jesus knocking on his heart! Oh dear God, help me to be a little child, hearing – and responding to – Your knock on my heart. Help all of us, Your children, Your church, to hear and open, and eat with You! Thank You, Lord.

Dear Father, today I also got an email from Frank Viola, advertising an update of his book “Pagan Christianty” (co-written with George Barna)… and right away I wanted to read it, buy it, share it… Father, he is an advocate of breaking away from the “institutional church” and of starting house churches, other alternative church gatherings, and “intentional communities.” Lord, You know how that last phrase/ idea/ concept grabbed my attention years ago and held on… but in the past year or two I have let go of it, as I have let go of my “dreams,” preferring to just walk daily with You and see where You take me. Father, I would like to read this book… but not unless it is Your will, Your way. Please make Your will and way clear to me – and to others who truly are seeking You! Thank You! Thank You for Your Word!