Half-Hearted?

[Sue J Love]

Or, Whole-Hearted?

You who claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, are you passionate for him? Are you on fire for God and for the kingdom of heaven and for his holiness and righteousness to be lived out in your life? Do his words burn in you like a fire? And, you cannot hold them inside, but you must give them out?

Or, do you find yourself rather complacent, half-hearted, and unconcerned about your relationship with Jesus Christ? Perhaps you feel like you are saved and going to heaven, so it is no big deal if you keep on sinning, or if you follow the Lord in obedience or not. Does this describe you more?

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

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. ​

Much of the church of today, at least here in America, appears to fit this description here. They are neither completely disinterested in God, in Jesus Christ, nor are they on fire for him, passionate about his Word, and dedicated to holiness and righteous living.

Their lives reflect more of the world than they do of Christ; more of living for self-pleasure, than they do of living to please God in all that they do. They are depleted of the power and witness of the Holy Spirit in their lives, in their gatherings, and in their ministry, and instead, their gatherings are often just Christianized versions of what the world is offering.

This church has been turned into a business, for the most part, and is marketed as such, thus church meetings are often more focused toward attracting the world, with worship services turned into huge stage productions, and pastors turning into clowns and entertainers in order to make the people laugh and to make church fun.

Thus, the gospel has also been diluted to make it more appealing to human flesh, so that people can go on in their sins without guilt or remorse, and in order that the world will want to come back to their meetings.

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.​

But, the sad reality of it all is that most of these half-hearted Christians think they are ok. They think God is pleased with them no matter what they do, or no matter how they live their lives, because that is what they are being taught.

They are being given the impression that our salvation does not require repentance or obedience on our part, but that all we have to do is acknowledge who Jesus Christ is and accept his forgiveness of our sins, and then we are in. We have our ticket to heaven, and nothing we do from this point on effects our salvation one iota. But, that is a lie!

Thus, they do not see their shameful condition. They do not see that God is not pleased with them no matter what they do, and that what they do really does matter to God, a whole lot! He really is not ok with us continuing in willful sin against him and continuing to live for self-pleasure while we barely give him a passing “Hi.” He is not delighting in us when we follow after the lusts of our flesh, instead of being submitted to Christ and his cross. And, he wants his half-hearted church to see this, too.

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.​

Because he loves his church, he will put the heat on, i.e. he will apply pressure and force in order to get his complacent people on fire for him, passionate and zealous for his kingdom work, walking in holiness and righteousness, and passionate about sharing his truths with others so that they, too, can be saved from their sins, snatched from the fire.

He is standing at the doors of our churches which have shut him out, and which have kicked the Holy Spirit out of their gatherings, and which have adopted the ways of the world, instead, in order to attract the world. And, he is knocking, and he is asking to be let back inside into hearts which are largely ignoring him, and into the gatherings of the church which have been given over to the flesh, and which have quenched the Holy Spirit.

He is calling out to his lukewarm, half-hearted people to turn from their idolatry, their spiritual adultery, and their lukewarmness, and to get on fire for the Lord and for his Word and for faithfulness and obedience to him. And, then their fellowship with the Lord, which is now broken or greatly diminished can be restored to its fullness and richness, as God intends.

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.”​

There are blessings for obedience. One of the main ones is that we live and walk in victory over sin’s deceitfulness instead of live as though we were not cleansed from our sins. Jesus died on that cross, not just to free us from the punishment of sin, but to free us from our slavery (addictions) to sin.

It is a wonderful blessing to be able to walk in freedom from sin, and to not be weighed down by the consequences of our own wrong choices. It doesn’t mean we will never sin, but that sin no longer is our master. We are not controlled by it! And, we don’t live by it, i.e. it is no longer our practice. So, we can walk in peace and victory and in the joy of the Lord. Awesome!

It is also wonderful to walk in sweet fellowship with our Lord, in open and honest communion with him, holding nothing back, and to enjoy our times with him in his Word, in worship of him, in singing songs of praise to him, and following him wherever he sends us to do what he wants us to do.

And, one day we will get to be with him forever in glory, to be with him face to face. Oh, what a glorious day that will be!

The Battle for Truth / An Original Work
May 18, 2013 / Based off Malachi 1-4

Truth is marching, truth is marching.

I love you. Honor me.
Tell the truth. You’ll be free.
Sing My praise all your days.
I will give all you need.

Truth is marching, truth is marching.

Turn from sin; cleansed within.
Stand in awe of My Name.
Teach what’s true. Walk in peace.
Follow Christ, in His ways.

Truth is marching, truth is marching.

Show to God faithfulness.
Do not be adult’rous.
Do not shed shallow tears.
Do not be insincere.

Truth is marching, truth is marching.

I have sent messengers,
Who have giv’n my address.
They call for repentance,
And they warn of judgment.

Truth is marching, truth is marching.

I, the Lord, do not change,
So return – blessings gain:
Healing comes; joyfulness;
Freedom from your distress.

Thursday, January 18, 2018, 10:24 p.m. – Thank you, Jesus, for this teaching from your word. May we take it to heart, and may we become passionate people for you and for your heavenly kingdom.

 

[Lanolin]

Sue I am attempting to fire up some lukewarm christians that I know . The hardest thing is to even get these people to go to church where they will hear the Word.

I know they are christians because they told me they were but how come they then dont choose to even fellowship with others?

So I told one if you want to come to church its there each sunday at 10am. Would you like to go with me? He told me I will go to church one day. Well I said you mean Sunday? See you there. Its not far cos he goes most saturdays to a carboot sale held at the church carpark so why not just go on sunday to the same site but go inside? It takes the same amount of effort to get yourself there plus you dont need to buy anything.

He keeps stalling. He goes 'when Im ready' well how long does it take actually take people to get ready? Do you want to go for your funeral?

 

[Sue J Love]

Sue I am attempting to fire up some lukewarm christians that I know . The hardest thing is to even get these people to go to church where they will hear the Word.

I know they are christians because they told me they were but how come they then dont choose to even fellowship with others?

So I told one if you want to come to church its there each sunday at 10am. Would you like to go with me? He told me I will go to church one day. Well I said you mean Sunday? See you there. Its not far cos he goes most saturdays to a carboot sale held at the church carpark so why not just go on sunday to the same site but go inside? It takes the same amount of effort to get yourself there plus you dont need to buy anything.

He keeps stalling. He goes 'when Im ready' well how long does it take actually take people to get ready? Do you want to go for your funeral?

I believe that if we are true followers of Jesus Christ, that we will long to be with other like-minded followers of Christ, and we will want to be in fellowship with them, and will seek out such fellowship wherever God leads us to go. So, if someone professes to believe in Jesus, but has no desire for Christian fellowship, I would be very concerned about that person's confession of faith, but we can't make that judgment.

But, there is a difference between going to church and being the church, which is what we are if we believe in Jesus Christ. We should gather with the church, the body of Christ, but many structures called church are not necessarily a body of believers in Jesus Christ with the mind of Christ they are following after. Many of these are businesses of human making and open to anyone and thus the meetings are often patterned around attracting the world, but not with the gospel, but with worldliness (Christianized) and it doesn't function under the headship of Christ and it doesn't function like the body of Christ is supposed to function, either, but more like businesses.

Just saying here that we have to be careful not to judge people by human standards which say we have to go to some organization in a particular building on a specific day of the week in order to be part of Christ's body and in fellowship with the body of Christ. We can meet with the body of Christ anywhere on any day of the week at any time of day or night and operate as God intended his body to operate, where each part does its work.

 

[Lanolin]

Well he doesn't want to study bible either or even visit me as I asked him several times. Thats the same with other people but church is not a business its just a gathering of believers just happening to meet in one place, not for themselves but for Jesus to hear His word and to worship God. If you can't even make the effort to fellowship even ONCE then what's the point in being friends with them?

I asked another friend who also said they were a believer if she wanted to have a prayer meeting. This can be anywhere, we were going to have it at the beach or a park. With some other sisters. But she was like 'oh one day'. Yea when is that one day? How about now?

Today is the day of salvation. Why do people just put it off. Makes no sense. Is this right or wrong or am I supposed to also be lukewarm about it and go 'well I just shouldn't judge'. It's not right or wrong. Its meh whatever. We can't say whether its right or wrong. How about I just do that about every thing? You don't want to fellowship? OK. It's not for me to judge. You believe but then don't do what Jesus commands? It's not for me to judge.
You want to watch porn or do witchcraft? It's not for me to judge.

Remember these are people who said they were believers. Not unbelievers who don't know God and never heard of Him.