Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Crazy Love - Chapter 4

"15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16)

Have you ever taken a drink of something that was supposed to be hot, like coffee or hot chocolate, and it was just to the point where it was starting to get cold? That happened to me the other day and I had to seriously fight the urge to spit the coffee out. I couldn't help but think about this passage in Revelation...God can't stand it when we are lukewarm.

Unfortunately, I think that today's church (the people not the building) is in a constant struggle with being lukewarm. I don't think that this is an intentional thing for most of us because this is the culture that we have been brought up in. We go to church and read our Bibles and pray and say the right things...but why? Because we were told to...its just what we do. We don't drink, smoke, cuss, or partake in other "sinful" activities...why? Because we were told not to.

I think that Christians as a whole get caught up in the rut of being "lukewarm" and just going through the motions because that is we are so used to doing...or "supposed to do." We need to break the mold of Christianity that is causing so many people to look down on us. We need to stop accepting mediocrity and live up to the standard that Christ has set for us. I believe that there is so much that we are missing out on in this life and we don't even know it because we are caught up in our "lukewarm" faith and content with it. We don't feel the need to grow any closer to Christ because we are close enough.

Here are a list of things that Francis Chan labels as "The Profile of the Lukewarm"

Lukewarm People...
  • attend church fairly regularly
  • give money to charity and to the church as long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living
  • tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in a conflict
  • don't really want to be saved from their sin; they only want to be saved from the penalty of their sin
  • are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act
  • rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends
  • gauge their morality or "goodness" by comparing themselves to the secular world
  • say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives...but only a part
  • love God, but they do not love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength
  • love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves
  • will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give
  • think about life on earth much more than eternity in Heaven
  • are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor
  • do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty
  • are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control
  • do not live by faith; their lives and structured so they never have to
  • probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren't that different from your typical unbeliever
Look over this list and REALLY take a deep look into your life. Are you lukewarm?

Jesus explained in the parable of the sower different levels of people and how they accept the Word of Truth in Matthew 13. The seed flung onto the path is quickly stolen away. The seed tossed onto the rocks do not take root...they appear to grow, but only on a surface level. The seed spread out among the thorns takes root but is soon suffocated by the thorns. The seed that is sown on good soil takes root, grows, and produces fruit.

"Do not assume that you are good soil."

Like I said in previous posts...we serve an amazing God who loves us with an unconditional love. He deserves the absolute best that we have. Not some lukewarm drink that He is going to want to spit out the second it touches His tongue. We need to strive to give Him our all, our best, and our first fruits.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)

1 comment:

  1. Great insight. I was just talking about in my blog that we as a culture become so content with ourselves because we are so richly blessed financially and materialistically in our country. Because of this we stray away from being reliant on God and more on ourselves because we have all of the security that we think we need. I think this is a huge reason why we become so lukewarm. We still know that we need God in our lives but because we seem to be doing fine on our own we don't rely on Him with many parts of our lives. Yeah we might go to church and say we are Christians, but our hearts really don't break for the things that break God's heart because we do not fear Him like we should. We do not fear Him because we don't feel like we need Him as much as we really do. And this is what causes us to become so lukewarm.

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