The Puke Pit

¹⁴ “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the ^[a]Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
¹⁵ ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will ^[b]spit you out of My mouth. ¹⁷ 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, ¹⁸ I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ¹⁹ Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹ He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’" Revelation 3:14-22

A recent conversation I had, led me to get into this passage. The discussion was on sharing the Gospel, and following the great commission. We were at opposition, because the person was saying that simply through living right, and being a good person, and treating others well, people see Christ and that is how we share the Gospel. We shouldn't just share Christ with people, that's intrusive and forcing our beliefs on others. Two big issues in this viewpoint. First, and most important in my mind is that Christ, Himself said to go and share the Gospel with the whole world in the Great Commission. Second, Good by what standards? What good is it for me to profess being a christian if I get hammered on the weekends, dip, smoke, look at pornography, go after flesh, and talk about such things with those around me? It brings a lot to memory of how I have been many times in my life, even for periods of years. I would say that at one point we are all guilty of this in one way or another, the most unfortunate part though of this, we can see this church throughout America. 

Laodicea, the church that is ruled by the people rather than God. We see churches trying to stay valid in today's society.  The lack of the Gospel message, the bringing in of openly gay ministers, support of gay marriage, the support of abortion, nothing wrong with sex outside of marriage, belief in evolution as the means of creation, ETC... basically living exactly like the world. And what does this church say, They are rich! "We have amazing buildings, our congregations are huge, look at all that we have attained an achieved by our hand" This is said by church proper and people professing to be Christians. I have been to churches where we literally heard one verse in an hour, and the rest were stories about the pastors week, golf games, care shows, hunting idioms, a 3 point sermon on how to have a happy life. Not once did I hear the Gospel or anything really having to do with scripture. I was at a church for a Christmas service, the only thing I heard and learned was that if I get stuck in a bank vault their is an air shaft so I don't need to worry about running out of air. 

What is the Gospel? It is so simple. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose against the third day according to the scriptures"

I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to this stuff. I lost so many years living for myself rather than Christ, and it cost me dearly. But, Praise God that He restores, and I am justified by His blood and not my works. But, What does Christ say to this church? The bigger whammy is that they are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm so he will spit them out of His mouth. The word spit is literally translated VOMIT! The second is that they are poor. They have a wrong view about themselves, competely the opposite in fact.

Christ calls this church to buy of Him gold refined in the fire. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 "Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,  each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.  If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

Verse 20 while it has been used at altar calls, and is a great verse for that. But, what is the context? 1: it is to the individual. 2: this is speaking of the church, Christ is on the outside trying to get in, He isn't even in the church!

One final rabbit trail that I will touch on, is the promise to the overcomer is within the body of the letter, rather than part of the post. 

Have we fallen so far? We have to stand up, understanding that this is eternal life and death. The line in Gladiator "What we do in life, echos an eternity" How disturbingly true this is and we need to grasp this. Our life is so short in comparison to eternity. We have little time to pursue Christ to the fullest extent, only so many opportunities to sow seed and water then that is it. I plead with you today, forget not your first love. Him who was willing to die for our sake, how much more should we be willing to live for His?