Church of the Laodiceans By Kye Harris Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; Revelation 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. Look at the church today. I have never seen this verse proven so clearly as it is now. No one, in general, preaches Christ and Him crucified anymore. That may offend someone. We just can't offend anymore. We might lose a church member: of course, that is the only thing that counts today -- How many people do we have in church. No one takes a stand for Christ today. I have a friend in North Carolina, who can't wait until after the service each Sunday so he can pay his $25.00 and get his personal prophecy for the week. A preacher on TV once said, the main thing that is wrong in the world today is 'stress'. Give me a break! The one and only thing wrong in the world today is SIN! The preacher said, we need to get rid of stress in our lives. What should have been said is we need to get Christ in our lives. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh to the Father but by Me". Ridding your life of stress won't open the gates of Heaven, it won't put you in a father son relationship with our Heavenly Father. Only Jesus can do that. Revelation 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. This verse refers to fence sitters. God cannot tolerate this type of a person. Lead, follow or get out of the way, but do something. When you get a drink of water from the running tap, do you wait until it runs cold before you drink? Me too. No one likes the lukewarm water. God is no different. God doesn't want to be rejected, but if you must, reject Him. If you love Him, take a stand for Him. Either way, get off the fence and stand up and be counted. Revelation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: This is a major problem of Christians today. We view God as someone that is sitting waiting until we have a need for Him. We say, we don't need you God, but sit there in case I do need you. We are created for God's glory, not to use God as a servant. God craves praise from His children. How can He receive praise from you if you have Him on the back burner just in case? When God decides it is time to correct someone, it seems He always uses something near and dear so you will sit up and take notice. Thou shalt put no other gods before Me. He means that! If money is put before God, sports, material possessions, anything that you put before God, is a god to you. Can't give God an hour or two on Sunday because you want to go to the beach, take your boat out, what ever, that is your god. That is a sad thing when we can't even afford two hours a week for God. It isn't the church that matters, it is the act of going to worship God that counts. That is one act that increases your faith. Revelation 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. To get purified gold, it first has to pass through a fiery furnace. The impurities float to the top where they can be removed. To get a Pure life in Christ, we have to be tried the same way as gold in fire. Being lukewarm doesn't remove any impurities. Trials and temptations are exactly that, they bring us closer to God. They make us totally dependant on God. Gold has to be heated first before it can be used. We have to go through the fiery trials before we can be used by God. Believe it or not, though salvation is a free gift of God not of anything we have done or can do, God expects to see works when we stand in front of the Judgment Throne. The White Raiment that God counsels us to buy is our works. With no works, we will stand before the Judge of the universe naked. You have read in Paul's writings about the believers that still need the milk of the Gospel? They are the ones that get to Heaven "by the skin of their teeth". They are the ones that mature brothers and sisters have to coddle and try to bring along; Basically wasting time that could be spent winning souls for our Lord. Paul, in many of his writings, talked about striving for his rewards: About running the race to win. What we do for God on this Earth is what counts. Notice, I said, what we do, in other words, works. James said, faith without works is dead. You have to exercise your faith to make it stronger, just like muscles in your body. Back to what I said earlier, sitting on the fence does not accomplish works for God. Sitting dozen't ex cerise anything. Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent This verse is astounding, If God doesn't love you He doesn't chastise you. But, again, He will use the things nearest and dearest to you. You lose your job and can't understand why: Think about it. You lose your wealth and/or possessions, again, think about it. God is trying to wake you up. When you punish a child, do you do it out of hatred for the child? No, because you love the child. You are God's child, He loves you so He punishes you. Just imagine how special you are to our Father, that is just how much He loves us. Many Christians look at the rich sinners with the fancy clothes, new cars, everything people crave, and wonder why God doesn't punish them. They WILL be punished! When the angels cast them into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. A bit off the subject: Hell is hot. But, Hell is actually cold compared to the outer darkness reserved for the Devil and his angels including the unsaved. The hottest heat in this world is black heat. We know, that an orange flame is cooler than a blue flame. White heat is very hot. But, the hottest heat is the black heat. Will there be weeping and wailing because of the heat? Nope. The middle letter in sin is "I". Sinners are selfish therefore the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth is because they are so alone! They were only concerned about "I" on this Earth, so they will be left with "I" alone through eternity. Why are we the Church of Laodicea? because we only care about "I". We don't take a stand for God, why? We, "I", might be embarrassed, we may be looked down on. We are ashamed of our Lord. Why? Because "I" gets in the way. Paul said that "I" die daily. He died daily so Christ could be manifest through his life, not "I". If you don't stand for something, you WILL fall for anything. Don't play Christian. If you have no space in your life for God, be honest enough to tell that to God. Go your own way and don't claim to be a Christian. At any rate, Get OFF THE FENCE. Sitting there will only accomplish one thing, a fall. E-mail the author: Kye Harris ******** Kye Harris is a Vietnam vet and a professing Christian -------------