Hot or Cold?

Revelation 3:14-20
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s 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—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ 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.

I came across these verses during my Bible studies this past year and last week with a good friend of mine. Again, the message here is discussing people who are "nominal Christians" or lukewarm Christians. They claim they are Christians, but do not live a Christian lifestyle. This is not what God wants. I use to be lukewarm.

I witnessed this all the time during my Samford days. People claiming they were Christians and I saw them going out to bars all the time, getting drunk, sleeping around, cursing, etc etc...read Galatians 5. This was me. I was not living the Christian lifestyle. I knew I was sinning, but I felt that I could always ask for forgiveness. True, God forgives...but only if you truely Repent! I was clearly not living for God. I was clearly not in a repent mode. I struggled and I still struggle to this day. I have a hard time when I'm around friends sometimes or I'm at a happy hour with work or at a party. I try to resist any temptations (physical and mental) and I just try to surround myself around other Christians as much as possible. This is my family. These are my brothers and sisters.

This was the church that John was writing about in Revelation. The church and the believers were content, satisfied, half-full, not giving their life to Christ. And we shouldn't follow God in this manner. We should give Him 100%. Not just 50% or just worship Sundays. We need to give Him our all. Pray every single day. Serve people, serve the community. Read scripture every day. He's always listening to us. Always watching us and we should NOT be lukewarm because this is even worse than being a non-believer. We need to be fired up by the Word, about Christ...we need to be HOT!