To the Laodecians, part I

Revelation 3:14-16 NCV (Holy Bible)
To the Church in Laodicea: 14 "Write this to the angel of the church in Laodicea:
"The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of all God has made, says this: 15 I know what you do, that you are not hot or cold. I wish that you were hot or cold!16 But because you are lukewarm—neither hot, nor cold—I am ready to spit you out of my mouth.

Please read this:

When you read this, what do you think? When your pastor presched on this, what did he say?
I bet it was something like this.... "To see if we are lukewarm or our church is lukewarm, we must simply define cold and hot; if we are neither then we are lukewarm! To be "cold for Christ" essentially means to be "a member but not be present.---To be "hot for Christ means we are serving him with everything we have and paying our tithes and abstaining from sin." (taken from Kip McKean.com)

Dear Kip:

You are a jack ass and you are poisoning your church and readers.
Love,
David H. =)

Okay then David, whats the meaning here?

Very simple.

God is mad at the church. He is mad because they are living grace for them selves and law for their brethren. Essentially, you have people who are saying, "I thank God for his grace which saved me. I am glad Jesus saved me!" And yet they are trying to prove to everyone how perfect they are by their actions. They are always pointing out the faults of others and telling you that you need to get your life straightened out with God. They are telling you that God isn't blessing you because you aren't obeying his commands.

This sound familiar? Maybe cos you are like me and you do the same.

Think about it. In regards to God's grace, do you believe that it is a gift or a reward? Do you believe that it is given or earned? In this scripture, God is asking to believe one or the other. He is saying, "Look, if you are going to preach law, then convict yourselves by law. Live, eat and breathe the law. Follow it whole heartedly. Sacrifice for your own sins and do so with all your might and strength." But if you are one who believe's in the gift.... God says, "Your welcome. Take the gift! Enjoy the gift. I paid a lot for that. I want you to use it. Be free and love freely. I don't ask anything in return but your love."

The problem with me is, I tend to say, "I believe in your grace lord (for me), but that asshole over there needs to change. He is such a huge sinner. He needs you bad!!"

Read that scripture... chew on it... dissect it. Read the context of it. God is speaking to a church that says, "Jesus Loves you.... now stop fuckin up!!"

But aren't we all fuck ups? Isn't that why God had to save us once and for all anyways?

God says, " I wish you were one or the other. I wish you were law or grace. I wish you were all about one thing or all about the other. But you're not. You are claiming grace as a gift yet trying to earn it by following the law. You preach grace to your brother and yet slam him on every wrong YOU see him do. Your actions make me sick. Its like drinkin luke warm tea. I love Hot Tea in the mornings, I love Iced Tea in the heat of the day.... but no one likes luke warm tea. And I hate it so much, heck, it reminds me of you. I want to spit you out of my mouth!"

(please know that I am writing to me, and yet i hope you get this!)

Understand it like this. To claim Grace is to understand what Jesus meant when he said, "It Is Finished!"
Whoa! Powerful words eh?

When Jesus said that from the cross, he knew what he was saying. He knew what he had done. He knew what was finished.

The law. The do's and the don'ts. The rule of death. The slavery of sin.

Read:
John 16:8-11 NCV (Holy Bible)
8 When the Helper comes, he will prove to the people of the world the truth about sin, about being right with God, and about judgment.9 He will prove to them that sin is not believing in me.10 He will prove to them that being right with God comes from my going to the Father and not being seen anymore. 11 And the Helper will prove to them that judgment happened when the ruler of this world was judged.

I can't even figure where to start to complete this.....

Look. Read these 2 passages of scripture. Believer and non-believer. Person who kinda gets it and person who thinks church is for pussies. Read these things. This is real deep and I have a whole story to write about this.

But I wanna take my time with this. Even if just for me.

Part II is coming.