I rebuke and chasten

Revelation

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
I know thy works,
that thou art neither cold nor hot
I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot,
I will spue thee out of my mouth.
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,
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 eyesalve,
that thou mayest see.
...

I know thy works,
that thou art neither cold nor hot
I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot,
I will spue thee out of my mouth.
...

Jesus says being lukewarm is not a good thing. In the employment world we might call a lukewarm performance weak and unacceptable because we want someone to be energetic about their job. If you submit work to someone and they say it's so-so, what are they telling you? That it's on that borderline between not quite bad enough to say it's bad and not quite good enough to call it good. A lot of people live in that type of existence- getting by without being too bad or too good. We actually silently applaud those who don't get into trouble and understand that not being high achievers is the standard. Being mediocre is the norm in our world. The bright and brilliant the few, the bad too many and the inbetween are just right. A Goldilocks and the Three Bears scenario. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right only in this case it is unacceptable. There is no 'just right'. It's an all or nothing situation and many people don't like that at all because they'd rather just get by. They'd rather just give enough to get by and no more. That isn't how Jesus works. You can't give just enough, you have to give all your heart to Him not just a piece of it. When we give our whole heart to Jesus our lives reflect that- they reflect Christ. Jesus would have us either hot or cold being lukewarm has him spuing us out of His mouth. You ever take a mouthful of a hot liquid only to find it cooled and just want to spit it out? What about taking a mouthful of something you hope to be cold and finding it lukewarm, you want to spue it out right? You can actually hear yourself go ewwwwwwwwwww, right? I know I can. The grimace, the ewww, it's icky and unless you're extremely thirsty you won't drink any more will you?


...
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
...


We boast though, don't we? We try to puff ourselves up even when we know inside that we are nothing. We don't like the idea of being nothing because we hear a constant barage about how special and wonderful we are and how we have to think positive about ourselves. Our lives are geared towards trying to be the best we can be all on our own because no one else can help us. We have to believe we are very special in and of ourselves because people don't like to hear others go on about how awful they are and it's not good at all to agree with someone who says they are awful, we're supposed to turn around and tell them how wonderful they are- it's the good and proper thing to do, isn't it?


As a result of all our self-esteem shoulds being beaten into us it's no wonder we believe we are rich, that we need nothing. It's not necessarily rich in a monetary sense - we believe we are rich in and of ourselves. The poorest person in the world can still believe they have need of no one, right? Sometimes we applaud the poorest person refusing to accept any charity because they have pride. Well, with Christ our pride means nothing.


Christ even says- knowest not. Don't you know? Listen up. You think you are one thing but in truth you're not at all.


You are miserable, you are poor, you are blind, you are naked. This is our condition. This is the condition of mankind in relation to God.

...
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 eyesalve,
that thou mayest see.
...


We are counseld to buy of Christ- gold tried in fire to be rich, to buy white raiment to be clothed and our nakedness doesn't show, and eyesalve to see.


Only in Christ can we find true riches- faith in Him for all our needs. Only Christ's white raiment, Christ's righteousness can cloth our nakedness. We can try as we might to cloth ourselves but nothing we put on will hide out true vile condition, nothing but the righteousness of Christ. And to see, to truly see we need the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to the truth in Christ. Annointed by the Holy Spirit we are no longer blind.


We can't depend upon ourselves and if we try to do that in the least way all we'll hear from Christ is that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked to Him. Depending upon Christ for all things truly is a job for those living in the last times before His return as it is throughout all time. Satan would have us look to ourselves and away from Christ and as long as we are focused on ourselves he has us in his snare.


...
As many as I love,
I rebuke and chasten
be zealous therefore
and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock
if any man hear my voice
and open the door,
I will come in to him,
and will sup with him,
and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne
even as I also overcame
and am set down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
...


We can't think being chastized by God is something extraordinary- it's through His love for us we are tried, we are rebuked, chastened so that we may see the truth in Christ and in Christ alone!


We need to be zealous and repent! Be quick to repent, to recognize our sad state and cling to Christ for all our needs.


Christ stands before us knocking- if we hear Him- if we open the door- He will come into us and sup with us. He will be our all in all, our everything. If we overcome through Him we will sit on His throne. Jesus had to overcome as well and He did so by complete dependence upon His Father. We overcome by complete dependence upon Jesus. Let us listen.


May God Bless and keep us all in Him, only in Him in none other not even ourselves. May our dependence on life be in Him solely now and forever. May our riches be found in Him, may we be clothed with His righteousness, may our eyes be opened to see the truth in Him- only in Him, by His mercy and His grace now and forever.


Amen.