{"id":83,"date":"2014-02-12T04:04:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T09:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/?p=83"},"modified":"2014-02-12T04:04:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T09:04:35","slug":"you-make-me-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/?p=83","title":{"rendered":"You make me SICK!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who among us is perfect? \u00a0I can answer that for you…NONE of us! \u00a0Who among us really TRIES to live a sinless life? \u00a0I know that, at least for me, I try, though I fail often. \u00a0I know that although Jesus loves me more than I can ever understand, he must be disappointed in my lack of faith, or more accurately, my lack of execution of my claim that I love Him, too.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Jesus gives John a series of messages for seven churches. \u00a0In chapter 3:14-22, John is instructed to write the following words:<\/p>\n

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God\u2019s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm\u2014neither hot nor cold\u2014I am about to spit you out of my mouth.<\/span> You say, \u2018I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.\u2019 But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I want to focus on verse 6 (in blue above). \u00a0In this letter that Jesus dictated to John, Jesus was addressing a very serious issue within that church. \u00a0While it was written directly to this group of Christians, it applies to us today just as it did to them. \u00a0This blog post is primarily about what a “lukewarm Christian” is and how to avoid being lukewarm toward a loving, merciful God.<\/p>\n

I have written in other posts, such as THIS ONE<\/a>, about the fact that I am a dreadful sinner. \u00a0Like every human on the planet, I fit the description Jesus gave to John about this church of their being “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” \u00a0In truth, without Jesus in my life, I am utterly worthless and without hope. \u00a0Having said that, BECAUSE of Jesus, I am now a Child of the Living God. \u00a0I truly enjoy the opportunity to express my joy about that fact and sharing with people about my relationship with the King of Kings! \u00a0Unfortunately, when I fail to make the proper choices, or if I allow my fleshly desires to rule in my life, I am doing exactly the OPPOSITE of what He desires of me.<\/p>\n

You see, I want the world to see Jesus IN me. \u00a0I want to be a perfect servant. \u00a0It is completely impossible for me to do this. \u00a0In fact, Paul, had the same problem. \u00a0In Romans 7, Paul describes the battle between his spiritual desire to serve God and his fleshly desire to serve himself (and sin). \u00a0We all go through this sort of battle. \u00a0It is only through the power of Christ that we are able to overcome our flesh and win this battle. \u00a0Even then, it is not “won”, but is an ongoing and raging battle. \u00a0 Satan, after all, is prowling about “seeking whom he may devour”.<\/p>\n

That last bit about Satan and HIS desire is what I want to address. \u00a0There are only two types of people in the world. \u00a0There are those who are “saved” (see THIS POST<\/a> if you don’t know what that means) and those who are “unsaved”. \u00a0All of us are sinners and, even as Christians, we all have in our flesh a nature that makes us prone to sinful behaviors. \u00a0Satan will use that \u00a0natural bent to draw us away from Christlike behavior and seduce us back to our fleshly lifestyle. \u00a0In our flesh, we try to justify our actions or make them less than what they are. \u00a0The particulars of the sin are unimportant, as they are different for each of us. \u00a0For some of us, it is pride and for others it may be alcoholism, drug abuse, gossip, \u00a0or homosexuality. \u00a0The reality is that it can be ANYTHING that is sinful. \u00a0Satan tries to lure us away into this lifestyle so that he can destroy us AND our witness for Christ. \u00a0Let me use another verse to draw a line in the sand for you. \u00a0This verse, found in James 4:4 is written to BELIEVERS. \u00a0It is intended for US. \u00a0Here it is:<\/p>\n

You adulterous people, don\u2019t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This verse it not telling us that we should withdraw from the world and only associate with other Christians. \u00a0It is telling us that we SHOULD BE DIFFERENT. \u00a0We need to leave behind the ways of the world. \u00a0In other words, as Christians, we should leave our sinful lifestyles behind as we move toward Christ. \u00a0The very next verse says:<\/p>\n

Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We have been saved from the punishment of our sin because of our decision to accept the free gift of God in the person of Jesus Christ. \u00a0However, we are NOT to continue to live in that sin.<\/p>\n

So, why is that such and important thing? \u00a0First and foremost, it is because those who do not know Christ, will not be inclined to receive him if they see us as no different than they are. \u00a0In other words, their perception is that if it is ok for us to do the same thing they do, why would they involve themselves in what they perceive as foolishness? \u00a0You don’t have to take my word for it. \u00a0Here is what God’s word says about them:<\/p>\n

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (I Corinthians 2:14)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So, you see, the only way they will understand the power of Christ is through OUR changed lives. \u00a0Those who are unsaved do not have the power of Christ in their lives can see Him only through those who DO know Christ. \u00a0 \u00a0As much as I may try to SAY I am a Christian, and describe the power of Christ to another person, he will not simply accept it unless he can SEE it in me.<\/p>\n

What does all of this have to do with the verse I quoted at the beginning of this article? \u00a0The truth is that try as I might, I cannot change the fact that I am a dirty and broken sinner. \u00a0Except for Christ, who gave his live for me and now lives in me, I am worth NOTHING. \u00a0Without him, I am nothing, but because He lives in me, I am a Child of the Living God. \u00a0My task is to reach out to a world that doesn’t know Him. \u00a0I am to be about fulfilling the commission he gave before he ascended into Heaven:<\/p>\n

Then Jesus came to them and said, \u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. \u00a0Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.\u201d (Matthew 28:18-20)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We commonly refer to this passage as “The Great Commission”. \u00a0If I am to completely fulfill this commandment, then I must allow the power of Christ to change me. \u00a0I must be willing to allow Him to override my own sinful desires. \u00a0If I do not do that, then I am behaving in a way that is “lukewarm”. \u00a0I am not “hot” or “cold”. \u00a0I am standing the middle between Christlike and the worldly desires of my heart. \u00a0It brings shame to Him and, as he told the Laodiceans, it makes him want to vomit (that’s what “spew you out of my mouth” means). \u00a0I can say that I NEVER want to bring shame to Christ. \u00a0While I cannot love in the same way he does, I really do love Him for what he has done for me and for what He continues to do every single minute. \u00a0Furthermore, If I can allow him to love others THROUGH me, then He will be able to draw others to Himself because of His power.<\/p>\n

Lord, I pray that you will keep me ever mindful of my own behaviors and help me to make the right choices so that I NEVER bring shame to you. \u00a0Help me to become more like you, so that I am not lukewarm and sicken you. \u00a0I know that I fail often, but I am grateful that your grace is greater than my sin and that you, alone, are worthy of praise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who among us is perfect? \u00a0I can answer that for you…NONE of us! \u00a0Who among us really TRIES to live a sinless life? \u00a0I know that, at least for me, I try, though I fail often. \u00a0I know that although Jesus loves me more than I can ever understand, he must be disappointed in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Mji6-1l","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/musings.butchevans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}