Day 260: Lukewarm

Revelation 3; Nehemiah 4; Psalm 98

A couple of the churches addressed in Revelation seem to be missing the point. They are dead, empty, lukewarm, asleep, and weak. These churches need to wake up and decide if they are going to be completely devoted to Jesus or not his followers at all. Before I read the book Radical and started reading by Bible, I was asleep, I was lukewarm. These messages could have been written just for me. I was in danger of being caught off guard and spit out of the mouth of God; I thought I was doing ok, and that ok was good enough, but I didn't realize just how far off from the truth I was. I needed to trade in my sin-stained, mediocre, ineffective Christian life for white garments. I needed to open my eyes, decide whether I was going to be hot or cold for Jesus and then hold firmly to that decision. I look around today and I do see a lot of lukewarm churches who are asleep. Revelations says that there will be a "time of testing that everyone in all the world must go through." If we don't trust in Jesus and if we don't know what we believe or how to stand firmly on it, we are not going to "win the victory" and be able to "sit with [Jesus] on his throne."

I love this part of the story in Nehemiah. The Jews are rebuilding the wall, but they don't get to do whistling while they work, smiling, and enjoying their project. There are people hurling insults and curses at them, threatening to attack and kill them. Not exactly a pleasant work environment. These are God's people, shouldn't he be saving them from their enemies? God does protect them, but it doesn't mean that they won't have enemies or have to deal with persecution. Nehemiah is wise and encourages them, reminding them that God will fight for them, and he has the workers build with one hand and carry a weapon in the other. God will fight for them, but they have to be prepared to step in to battle if The Lord calls them to. We will have enemies, people that hate us and insult us because of our beliefs and the work we do for God's kingdom. It is inevitable. But, we should be reminded by this story that if we trust and believe and prepare ourselves, God will fight on our side.

This psalm is a cry to worship. God deserves our worship in any way we can.