The Mark of the Laodician Church - Revelation 3:14

When we read Revelation through the various messages that the Lord speaks to the seven churches, it is hard to neglect the strongest message of them all to the Church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22.
This church that is Luke warm, Pitiful, Poor, Blind and Naked is a complete contrast to the city in which it is known. Famous for it's thermal hot springs, a rich trading centre, considered to produce some of the best eye salve in the world and renown for their garment making, Laodicea was seen as one of the greater cities of the then known world.

Most scholars would agree that this is the very picture of the end times church and I would add in particular for the church of the Western world who also appears as revelation 3:17 says "You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." And though we understand this is evident of the organised church and not necessary of individual believers, when we are part of one thing, the ideology and thinking of that organisation will always have an effect upon the individual and how he or she thinks. Proverbs tells us "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he".

Jesus told us Matthew 5:3 that the Kingdom of God belongs to the "poor in spirit", which has often been one of those thought provoking ideas that returns to me over and over again throughout my Christian life. What does it mean to be poor in Spirit? I believe this speaks of those have been broken and humbled by life's experience that they know they have nothing to bring to the table that can compare to what Christ has done for us. Simply, they are humbled to the point that nothing will stand between them and God's loving grace towards them.

Jesus also spoke of the possibility of a rich man making it to heaven, though not being impossible, explained that it compares to a camel passing through the eye of a needle. Referring to a gate entering Jerusalem that required everything to be unloaded from the camel and for it to be on it's knees to be able to pass through the gate. Such an incredible picture for what riches will do in hindering our pursuit of eternal life.

Recently I experienced some of the most testing times in my life! And though I would like to say I passed the test with flying colours, the reality is it once again exposed weakness in my life. It is in these testing times James chapter one explains produces perseverance in our lives. A desperation which acknowledges our weaknesses and causes us to call upon His (Christ's) strength for our lives. In the midst of my trials, I struggled to see God's hand at work, though we know in our minds He is there.

Scripture implores us to seek God when He can be found, Isaiah 55:6. It is in our darkest hours that we seek out God's hand of help for our lives, yet it should be in our times of blessing and provision that we really should acknowledge Him. This I believe is the call for the western church today, seek Him whilst He can be found. Buy from him 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 that you can see.

Be - All Christ Called You To Be Ephesians 2:6

 Be!

Introduction

It’s easy to become fearful when read and hear about the various attacks of Isis, Isal & Dash in the media over recent months. In fact, it seems wherever we look today there is some new attack from alkaida or similar group upon innocent victims somewhere in the world. 1Tim 3:1 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,…”

There is no doubt that this environment is conducive to what Jesus said would take place in the end days Luke 21 “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. "Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory.…”

When we add to this the ongoing natural disasters and environmental mishaps we are seeing it is easy to say the earth is in the “pangs” of birth. “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs” as Jesus said in Matthew 24 says.

What then should be the Churches response to all this if any?...

We naturally can use history to see how the early church responded to such issues, most would know of the persecution of the Church by Nero which ended in the destruction of Rome in AD70, again when the church was persecuted in Acts 6 to 8 which resulted in the church being dispersed throughout the empire.

How did the church react to this persecution? Ultimately they did as they had always done… to pray, break bread together and continue in sharing the good news with those round them. In fact theses very things that Jesus had commanded them to do, they continued to do.

Ephesians 6:10-18 is a powerful chapter for the church under attack, in understanding who the real enemy of God is, how God has equipped us but finally in our last response to attacks from the enemy.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Be-ers Rather than Do-Ers (Mary vs Martha)

So irrespective to the circumstances or situation you can simply say Jesus is commanding is us to continue to BE all He initially commanded us to BE.

Ephesians 2:5-7 says we are seated with Him…

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.…

Romans 8:11 says the Same Spirit in Christ is now in us…

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The same as it has always been…BE in Him

Continue to abide in Him…John 15:4 (He is the true vine), we must get a revelation not only does he desire to live in us, but that we are in Him.

BE Long to him, Paul says in 1Cor 6:20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

The word Belong really is made up of two words Be & Long, when we long to be with Him and in His presence over everything else, then we truly belong to Him.

Be the body of Christ on the earth, see Colossians 18-24 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

I often tell people, you might be the only Jesus that people see today, perhaps ever. Therefore what kind of Jesus are you portraying to the world.

We are the hands, the feet, the arms, the legs, the lungs, the heart of Jesus in this world today. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

Finally

BE the Bride. A clean bride without spot or wrinkle. Ephesians 5:26-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.…

Be - John 14:4

Jesus gave us these words in John 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me." Though these words are very clear and obvious to most, you could even imply simple, it would seem abiding in Christ is far from the hearts and minds of many church goers today.

Today, like most in the world, the body of Christ or the church is so busy keeping up with their neighbours, building their fancy homes and visiting their best restaurants that we no longer have our Lord at the forefront of our hearts and minds. We have become entrapped by the splendour of the age and all it has to offer that understanding that we have been "called out" from the world is a foreign concept for most believers today. The church has become "rich" in the eyes of the world and as a result wants for nothing. And though Jesus promised us in Psalm 23 that He would provide all for us there are very few that can say they identify with Christ in His sufferings.

What then remains for the church? Firstly we must remember who we are and what we are called to in Him. Recently the Lord has been bringing new revelation to my heart and what it means to abide or remain in Him. The simple yet powerful truth of learning to BE is what the Lord has placed on my heart. It is this I wish to reflect upon more...

BE...As believers it is imperative to understand what it means to be believers and followers of our Lord Jesus, not just something we DO on a Sunday or other day throughout the week but that our lives are caught up in Him and are in every facet connected to Him and all He did upon the cross. There must be a sense of BElonging, knowing that we are in Him and as Ephesians points out been "raised up with him and seated in heavenly places". This shines a new light on what we DO, for what we do as believers should be a reflection of who we are and not the reverse of it. The word BELONG is an interesting one, made up of two words BE and LONG indicates that we belong when we firstly long to be, that is be with Him in His presence and have that intimate and close relationship that He so longs to have with us.

When we understand what it is to Be then we may go on from there to gain insight what it is he has called us to Do. But it must always begin with longing to BE with him. Christ must be our only and true desire for this life we live. When we allow other desires to interfere with Him then He is no longer our desire. When he takes second place to work, recreation, friends, even family then He i no longer our priority. This in many ways describes the Church today.

Yet the Church or Body of Christ remains to be the hope for the world today. The body of Christ is still the arms, legs, hands, feet and even the heart of Jesus in the world today. As believers in Christ, we may be the only Jesus that others may see not only today but perhaps even their whole lives.

We must learn to BE in Him, so that He may be seen in all we do!

Remember Who You Are!

It's been sometime since my last blog, we have school holidays here in Australia and though I have continued to work through this period we have also been spending time with our children. Just last week we drove to Dubbo in the Central West of New South Wales to the Western Plains Zoo. A zoo which tries to replicate, with a great deal of success, the environment of the animals of Africa. Whilst at this zoo, I noticed a number of different animals within their very large enclosures. Though these animals were unable to leave their environments they continued to behave as they would normally do in the wild. That is the monkeys played and swung from their trees and the elephants pushed and pulled on logs just as if they were at home.

This started me thinking about the body of Christ, how though we are not within our natural or at least destined environment, we too are called to behave and be who we are! And what are we? We are Christ's body on this earth, a holy priesthood, called and chosen to represent Christ in every way. And yet when the winds of opposition blow against us, it is true to see in our lives this representation at least most of the time.

Ephesians tells us that we have been raised up with Christ, that we are indeed seated with Him in heavenly places. This tells me that we have a heavenly perspective that others simply cannot have. And though we strive and struggle to BE, it is just as important to remember that we ARE! Trying to BE and knowing that we ARE  is probably the hardest battle that any of us we have as believers and the body of Christ. This is because it is a mindset that needs to be changed and within this environment we are continually told to BE this or BE that. Forgetting that Christ has done it all for us.

I like what Jesus says to the Church in Sardis in Revelation chapter 3 ""Be watchful and strengthen what remains..." Though Jesus is speaking to the "dead church" in this verse, I believe it speaks directly to the body of Christ today. Strengthen what remains!!! What is it that remains? We are what remains, we are the remanent or the representation that remains as the light to a dark world and salt to the earth. We must remember to remain in Him, to strengthen our relationship that we have in Christ, establishing continually Christ as the head of the body which we are. Knowing that all comes from Him above and that He continues to be our sustenance and our source for everything.

In conclusion, though we are not in our natural environment, though we are continually battered by our circumstances and forces of another world, we must continue to remember who we are in Christ. We must continue to remain connected not only to Him, but to one another for when a limb is cut off from the body or a branch is cut off from the vine, it withers and dies.

Remember who you ARE!

Neither Hot nor Cold Revelation 3:16

When we think of hot or cold, one thing is certain, they are both relative to our environment. When walking inside our home from a 41 degree Celsius day into a room that was 28 degrees Celsius felt cool to my skin. In fact it stayed cool on my skin for some time, at least till it was time to sleep and it was still 32 degrees outside and 28 degrees inside. Scientist tell us that the most comfortable temperature for the human body is around 22 degrees Celsius. Hence we know by study where about we should adjust our climate controls.

In the same way the environment effects our temperature in the natural it can also be said that it effects us in the spiritual. We know the story of the frog that boiled to death simply because it stayed in water that was slowly increased in temperature, apparently unawares that the increase in temperature can kill it. Jesus speaking to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:16 says "..you are neither hot nor cold..". Jesus speaking of their faith says because of this they had become ineffectual to those around them. I believe we too can become like this if we don't have a spiritual barometer to measure where we are at in our faith. As a result, the church believed they were rich when in fact Jesus said they were poor.

What then is our spiritual barometer? When I was young, my parents had a sauna built not too far from our backyard swimming pool. Especially in winter, we would spend the evenings heating the sauna and finish by throwing ourselves into the cold water of the swimming pool. When we were in the sauna, we would sometimes pour cold water onto the hot rocks of the sauna's heating elements. As a result the water would be changed into steam and produce an intense heat in the small room.

When we use the above analogy, we see that when water is applied to something hot it is transformed into gas or steam. In the same way, when we apply the water of the word of God to our lives, if we are "hot" or have a fire caught up in our bones as Jeremiah spoke of in chapter 20:9, then that water should be transformed. The water of the word of God should become the revelation of God's Spirit in our hearts.

Any person can read the bible and pray, but it is God's Spirit that brings the change. It is this revelation that I believe is our spiritual barometer for our lives and when we are burning with God's Spirit in our hearts and lives it will not be the environment that effects us but we who effect our environment.

God Bless

Engaging the Harvest - Matthew 9:37

As we look around us today, with the threat of Isis and the like, peering down a barrel at our western civilisation, it is easy to think the end is near and indeed as believers we are living in the end of the end times, with many signs pointing to Christ’s imminent return.

And depending upon our eschatology or end times view point, we can have predominantly two different thoughts, that is one Jesus’ return is on us and everything that could be done for humanity has been done and now it is simply a waiting game. Or two, that now like never before has there been an opportunity for the church to arise and reap the great harvest of souls that lies before us.

As politicians argue whether to allow Muslims or not to enter their borders for fear of reprisals, one thing is certain, the great commission of our Lord Jesus continue to ring in our ears and what could be the greatest harvest of souls we have ever seen.

As Jesus said in the Matt 9:37, “The harvest is white but the labourers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest that he may send out labourers.” The harvest is as white today as it was in Jesus’ time, if not more so with more and more choosing to follow the gods of this world rather than the Lord of creation. And with the church busy filling their fancy buildings and thrusting less and less into the harvest, it is no wonder the church seems powerless to many.

Many people ask, why has the church become so weak, where is the power of the Spirit that we once saw and knew of in all of our gatherings? Church has focused on the gathering of the faithful but forgotten that we are called to “go into all the world”. We have become experts at creating comfortable conferences but forgotten that it was to a lost and dying world that we were called in the first place. We have relied on our own abilities and strength to make us look good and forgotten that it is the Holy Spirit’s power that draws all men unto Christ.

What then must we do in these last days? We must return to the source of our strength and to the mandate that Christ left us and then we shall once again see the power of the Spirit return to the Church of Jesus Christ on this earth.

Luke 10:2 - The Harvest is White but Labourers Few

As I was in prayer this morning, I started to meditate on this verse "the harvest is white but the labourers are few". A verse that many would be familiar with and I am sure would accept as true. Especially in recent times, the concept of evangelism has become something seen as the activity of a few and in that those whom we might call professionals or paid workers. Yet this I believe was never God's initial intention. But rather that all those belonging to His Kingdom would be actively engaging in the harvesting of the world.

What is it though that harvesting is all about, is it something that only those few who have been trained and set apart for such work can carry out or is something more that every believer is both able and capable of doing? The short answer to this is in the latter and the example we have in scripture is of cause that of Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 who after being filled with the Spirit stepped forward to speak the word to those he encountered on the street. Four amazing words in this chapter continue to amaze me today, "then Peter stepped forward". Though unremarkable to read, these four words describe the incredible change that Peter had experienced by the power of God's Holy Spirit coming upon him. As a result of this power, Peter stepped forward and over 3,000 souls were added to the Kingdom on that day.

In light of this, it begs the question why more of us don't rely on the power of God's Spirit to do the work of the harvest He has called everyone to. When we examine the concept of harvest from days gone by, it is easy to understand why the disciples who were fully aware of the work involved in harvesting and what would be expected of them. Today those concepts and understandings are somewhat lost as todays generations hop down to the supermarket to collect their foods which are bagged up and ready to consume. Yet in Jesus' time this was not the case, to eat bread required that one would pick or buy the wheat in it's raw and unprocessed form, grind and mill it to flour and spend the time preparing it for baking. In the same way harvesting the fish of the sea came with similar toil. Yet in our generation we have lost the concept of toil and hard work to gain the result of the harvest that we so eagerly desire.

I believe it is often expected that the harvest comes to us, packaged and clean and ready for consumption, so to speak... Yet if we have ever been involved in harvesting souls from the earth for the Kingdom of God this is often not the case. Coming often very unclean and dirty and needing lots of support and help to grasp God's ways and Kingdom principals. This really is what the harvest is all about. Taking us out of our comfort zones and from being focussed on ourselves and our own needs to focusing on those around us and fulfilling the great commission as set before us by our Lord in Matthew 28.

The harvest continues to be white or ready for harvesting, the question is will we of this generation being willing to sacrifice our comforts and time for the lost and dying world around us. This includes the multitudes of unbelievers who are coming to our shores every day as immigrants. Understanding that it does not require learning but rather a willingness and open heart to receive power from the Holy Spirit to accomplish the task set before us.