The Truth of it All

I know, I know, it has been awhile since the last time I posted something. But here I am, posting something again. This one doesn’t have to do with any particular revelation, or something superb, just something simple, at least to me.

The other day, I was at One Voice, actually it was a couple of weeks ago. As the worship was proceeding, I just stood their and looked around. observing the people there. There were those with their hands in the pocket, appearing as if they had something better to do, those who were silent and praying, and those who were worshiping with all of their being. As I observed this act of love, and adoration, something struck me. I thought, “What an awesome, special relationship we have with God!” Now this may sound rather obvious, but let me put it into context.

All of these other religions out there have some form or another of god, regardless of whether they acknowledge it. And the majority have some form of worship towards this god. So now the question asked is, what is my point? Well looking at a lot of these religions and their forms of worship we see that the worship is out of respect, and that it should be, but it is also out of obligation AND to some degree fear. A fear that the person may be struck dead, not fulfill the laws of god, not get to a certain level of heaven, etc. But then when I look at Christians, and our worship, I notice something very different. I notice a key element the others are missing, and that is LOVE. The other religions lack this love for their god. Why is this? I believe it is because of the relational element we have with Jesus Christ. We don’t exist merely as pawns to try and please our Creator, or we get eternally punished. We were meant to have a relationship with our Creator. God designed it that way from the beginning with Adam and Eve. It was the sin that destroyed this beautiful relationship and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that restored it. And here we are in our worship, giving thanks for that. Giving our all for that. Showing our love, the best we can, for that. That is what impressed me. The fact that we have a relationship with God, in which we can give back love, in which we can show love, in which we can give our lives for His glory. Tell me, what other religion has this awe and intimacy.  So, next time, when worshiping ,think about not the act, but, rather I guess I would say the significance of this. What does worship show? What does our worship show? Does our worship show fear or love?

Burnt, Frozen, and Still Lukewarm

Tonight I went to this college ministry group called One Voice. Usually I go just because I feel that I HAVE to or, as a time filler when I don’t have much to do. Tonight was something different though. I would have never thought that tonight would have brought forth potential change in my life. Ian, the speaker at the college group taught on Revelation 3:14-22. I had heard this portion of scripture over and over again, but the keyword was heard, I had never listened. What a difference it makes when you listen! The verse that really stuck out to me was verse 15-16 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

Now as I have mentioned earlier, I had heard this a thousand times up to this point, but for some reason, this time it really hit me. The analogy used was that of coffee. Humans (in general) like their coffee hot, or cold, and if it is lukewarm, they don’t like it, they spit it out. And so it is with God, He would rather have us hot and on fire or cold and hating Him, than have us just be so-so about Him. This is typically contrary to our human minds, as Ian so adequately pointed out. We don’t want people to hate us, we would rather have people sorta like us than not like us at all. So as I began to think about this, it was drastically, and most upsettingly pointed out, that I was lukewarm, and had been for some time. Me lukewarm?! I thought it couldn’t be! I mean, I went to church every Sunday, I’m involved in a Christian house, I go to One Voice almost every Thursday, I “read” my Bible, how could I of all people be lukewarm? Then as the night went on, and Ian continued, I realized, it isn’t the actions that make a lukewarm Christian, but the heart. And I realized my heart wasn’t His, my life wasn’t His. I still held on to that tiny bit I wanted to control, or more realistic, I only gave the parts that didn’t matter. It was then that I started fearing being rejected, and spit out, but as the verse continues there is a tremendous promise of grace. It was then that I wanted to change, it was then that I started crying at my lukewarmness. But how to change, I had tried before, but it never worked, things only seem to got worse. After the night was over and I had thought this out, I realized, we can only change with the help of God, and by help, I mean a lot of help. If we try changing by ourselves, more than likely we will burn out and make things worse, we in reality need the transforming grace of God. So what started out as a normal night, in reality rocked my world. Things were revealed to me, that I didn’t necessarily want to be revealed right then, but God hits us when we need it the most, and that is usually the point at which we are complacent, which I was.

When I got home, I also began to think, well, why doesn’t God like lukewarmness? I mean, it seems that a lot of Christians are that way, and that God would seem more pleased with people that sorta wanted intimacy with Him, than those that don’t. Then I realized, it is the lukewarmness of the church that gives the rest of the world the idea of what a “Christian” is. God doesn’t want this perceived image for those that follow Him. He wants us hot, or cold, plain and simple. Mediocrity leads to hypocrisy it seems. The more I think about this idea of lukewarmness giving the rest of the non-believing world the image of “Christianity”, the more it makes sense. I had a teacher in high school, that spent 3 years in Arabia, and he said, the Muslims perspective of Christians, was everybody from the west! Do we truly want that image for the followers of Christ? Do we want to be known as the people who engage in fornication, drugs, murder, etc.? Do we want to be covered in a shroud of mediocrity? I don’t think so. This is why God doesn’t like lukewarmness. Lukewarmness makes people mediocre towards God. Mediocrity towards God leads to compromise. Compromise leads to more sin. And obviously, the sin is of the world. That is it right there, we are to be set apart, not of the world. And if we live in a lukewarm state, we look more and more like the world, more and more of the time, because we really don’t care. Society today is lukewarm, we really don’t care. But fortunately, we have a God who does care about how His people are perceived, and ultimately by us how He is perceived. We don’t want people to think God tolerates sin. We don’t want people to think God tolerates lukewarmness, because that would be a lie. And honestly, our God doesn’t lie, and what a shame it would be for people to find out, that being a true Christian, means sacrifice, not just “Yeah sure, I believe in God” We can’t always expect God to do everything. That is part of the reason for lukewarmness, laziness. If we want God to draw near to us, we have to make the effort to draw near to Him. Then and only then, will the beautiful intimacy between God and creation occur.