Lukewarm

Excerpt From- Watchman What of the Night (Adventist Laymen's Foundation) William Grotheer Sept. 1978

'The Antediluvians scoffed at the ark and its builders; the flood took them away. Lot's wife could not bring herself to cut loose from Sodom; she lingered. (Gen. 19:26) Her reluctance sealed her fate. A golden wedge entranced Achan; a hail of stones buried him. (Josh. 7:24,25) Two talents of silver and two changes of garments made Gehazi a leper for life (2 King 5:23-27). Samson was beguiled by a heathen girl (Judges 14:3); he became the sport of his enemies. The rich young ruler clung to perishable possessions while in the presence of Him who offers riches imperishable (Luke 18:18-23). Passengers there were on the Titanic who ignored the lifeboats hanging on their davits to take them off the fated liner. They lingered in the lounges and sauntered on her decks trusting in "she cannot sink" - a shibboleth drilled into their ears and minds by an arrogant propaganda. But sink she did - within hours the waters of the Atlantic closed over her.

DEPART YE, DEPART YE FROM THEM, TOUCH NO UNCLEAN THING:

GO YE OUT OF THE MIDST OF HER:

BE YE CLEAN, THAT BEAR THE VESSELS OF THE LORD. (Isa. 52:11)

How earnest, how insistent is this call! Jacob, in the fear of God, buried the idols

p 4 -- of his household under an oak (Gen. 35:1-4). The Ephesians, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, burned their books (Acts 18:18-19). Moses turned his back on the treasures of Egypt, choosing rather to cast his lot with a despised and downtrodden people which were heading for "no-man's land," the wilderness! What about us who claim to believe in the imminence of Christ's second coming? Does our life testify to the genuineness of our profession? Should we not, too, turn away, separate and "come out" from everything that stands in the way between ourselves and the gates of heaven? Should not we, at this late hour, take an intensely earnest look at our intimate self? Then, too, at our furniture, our pantry, our wardrobe, our bank account, our book shelves, our discotheque, our correspondence file, our picture gallery, our social circle, our time schedule, our hobbies and our priorities? How do these square with the "Blessed Hope" which we, as a people, profess? How would the unseen Witness evaluate them? Would your neighbor or the "outsider" who observes discern that "Blessed Hope" in us? Would he feel encouraged to enter with you and me into that blessed experience?

THEREFORE BE YE ALSO READY:

FOR IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE THINK NOT THE SON OF MAN COMETH.

How many a soul has stood on the platform, forlorn, disappointed, defeated, and stunned, watching the last car of the outgoing train disappear behind the curve of the track or the silvery wing of the plane melt into the distant cloudlet! How humiliating, how hopeless, how desperate, how irreversible! It is for that reason that Christ bids us BE READY, not "Get" ready. Between "being ready" and "getting ready" stretches an eternity!

"For all sad words of tongue or pen,

the saddest are these: It might have been."

Look then -- Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. (Heb. 12:1)

Choose then -- And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

Trust then -- Now unto Him that is able to keep you from failing, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God and Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. (Jude 24, 25)

p 5 -- Triumph then -- For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing. (2 Tim. 4:6-8)

*******

My thoughts-  Truly we are Laodiceans…

Rev 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;

Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Rev 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:

Rev 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 eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Rev 3:20  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.

Rev 3:21  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.

Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

WE ARE LUKEWARM!  And we will be spewed out!

We are NOT SPIRITUALLY RICH and even the physically poorest person in all the world can be the spiritually richest person.  Nothing physical should affect our spiritual life. Satan has tied the two together. If things are going well we sink into an apathetic attitude. We like to sit in the boat that is not rocked. We choose to give into the world rather that upset that boat so we don't have to live in a constant state of seasickness. We value our physical comfort, our emotional, our mental comfort WAY over our spiritual rightness with God. We've become LUKEWARM.  We are truly in our way of life living in relative peace and ease, and we begin to forget that we are absolutely spiritually MISERABLE, POOR, BLIND, and NAKED! We do not want to alter our way of life, we are COMFORTABLE! May God wake us Up! May God do WHATEVER it takes, whatever drastic measure we all need so that we will truly shrug off our lukewarmness and be hot, spiritually hot! May God do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING He can to make each of us on fire for HIM, preparing us for HIM and HIS return! Help us God to be ZEALOUS and REPENT! REBUKE US OVER AND OVER AGAIN, we are so, so wretched! PLEASE we would buy of You GOLD TRIED IN FIRE, WHITE RAIMENT, and EYE SALVE! Please SAVE US FROM OURSELVES!