Today I was reading chapter 3 of 'Drawing Near', by John Bevere.
he talks about some churches which have grown lukewarm. Quoting from Revelations 3 - "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold not 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." (v15-16,NIV)
The cause? in the very next verse. "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."(v17) We allow the things of this world to satisfy us. One way to detect this life satisfaction is to listen to what we are excited to talk about. Do we love to talk about the amazing things God is doing in our lives? Or do we get more excited talking about our plans for our ministry? Or do we get most excited talking about sports, school, common friends etc. I admit, this must be corrected slightly for our Asian culture, but still.
To be clear, this is not sin. This is only a failure to take hold of all which God has to offer us, to settle for the smallest fraction of God's goodness.
v20 is often used by evangelists, calling the unsaved to repentance. The verse is familiar to all of us - "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (v20) Yet this message was being said to the church. God is knocking at the door of our churches, and asking to come in. This is further confirmed in verse 22, "He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (emphasis mine)
We will hunger for what we feed on. This concept is similar to what Rick Warren pushes with his '40 days to form a habit' message, but I prefer John Bevere's take on it, because it gels so well with what I've been experiencing and hearing in my own life.
We will hunger for what we feed on, and this is true with real food. If we are always eating junk food, we will crave more junk food. But when we make that deliberate step to change our eating habits, to take more vegetables and fruits, it may start our being very difficult, but then we learn to tolerate it, and then later to enjoy it. It's taken me a couple of years to love my dark green leafy vegetables, but I'm so glad for it. Similarly for my Bible reading, or Christian literature. It's starting to become a habit - not a discipline, but something I enjoy and look forward to. It's so amazing. "A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb." (Prov 27:7) And it's also painfully obvious that I've never made blogging a habit. =) but it's not terribly important, so that's alright.
