John 13:1-20
2 Chronicles 18
Psalm 78:21-37
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Thoughts and Commentary on Today's Reading
In Psalm 78, we find a heart condition mentioned which was experienced by ancient Israel, and which threatens Christians today. The problem is that we so easily fall into being "on again-off again" Christians, just as they were:Psalm 78:36-37 "Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they stedfast in His Covenant."
Today I
started off with
a question. I asked you
"Where are you, spiritually? Where did you place yourself?
Now I’d like you to choose a color and temperature which
best describes the category you placed yourself in.
Blue: Spiritually Cold
Are you blue? To be blue means that your spiritual temperature is cold. In this state, there is no spiritual life at all. If you are in the blue, you have no prayer life, no relationship with God at all. You love the things of the world and the things of God are foreign (or boring) to you. Are you blue?
Are you blue? To be blue means that your spiritual temperature is cold. In this state, there is no spiritual life at all. If you are in the blue, you have no prayer life, no relationship with God at all. You love the things of the world and the things of God are foreign (or boring) to you. Are you blue?
Red: Spiritually Hot
Are you red? To be red means that your spiritual temperature is hot. In this state, you are fully alive and thriving in your spiritual life. If you are in the red, you have an effective and fervent prayer life, you daily spend time with God and a deep and real relationship with God. You love what He loves and spending time with Him is a great joy. You abide in Him 24/7. Are you red?
Are you red? To be red means that your spiritual temperature is hot. In this state, you are fully alive and thriving in your spiritual life. If you are in the red, you have an effective and fervent prayer life, you daily spend time with God and a deep and real relationship with God. You love what He loves and spending time with Him is a great joy. You abide in Him 24/7. Are you red?
Purple: Spiritually Lukewarm
Are you purple? To be purple means that your spiritual temperature is a mix. In this state, you are have some spiritual life, but you honestly know that it isn't what it could be - in fact your spiritual relationship with God isn't what it should be. If you are in the purple, you have an on-again/off-again prayer life, you spend time with God, but it isn't consistent. You want to be saved - you want to spend Eternity with God, but you honestly don't want to spend time with Him now - in fact spending time with Him every day is difficult. If you're really honest about it, self is on the throne of your heart more often than Yahweh. Are you purple?
Are you purple? To be purple means that your spiritual temperature is a mix. In this state, you are have some spiritual life, but you honestly know that it isn't what it could be - in fact your spiritual relationship with God isn't what it should be. If you are in the purple, you have an on-again/off-again prayer life, you spend time with God, but it isn't consistent. You want to be saved - you want to spend Eternity with God, but you honestly don't want to spend time with Him now - in fact spending time with Him every day is difficult. If you're really honest about it, self is on the throne of your heart more often than Yahweh. Are you purple?
A youth pastor lead a huge youth group of
nearly 100 young adults and teens. He asked them how they would rate their
youth group. Since it was an active youth group, the young members were quite
enthusiastic about it. "It's a great youth group," they
cheered.
But then the pastor asked them how they would rate their own personal relationship with God - asking them to place themselves in the diagram shown above - do you know where they placed themselves? It probably won't surprise you to learn that when they were asked this question that every single one of them placed themselves as "purple".
The pastor then responded by saying, "Let me tell what God thinks of your youth group." With that the Pastor read Revelation 3:15-16: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My Mouth.”
But then the pastor asked them how they would rate their own personal relationship with God - asking them to place themselves in the diagram shown above - do you know where they placed themselves? It probably won't surprise you to learn that when they were asked this question that every single one of them placed themselves as "purple".
The pastor then responded by saying, "Let me tell what God thinks of your youth group." With that the Pastor read Revelation 3:15-16: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My Mouth.”
Today, so many Christians classify themselves as "purple" (spiritually lukewarm) that we have a pandemic in our churches! And the most serious problem of all is that the purple condition is spiritually so deadly that God would rather we be blue - completely spiritually cold and without any claim on God - than to be in purple pandemic! In other words, it would be spiritually better to be completely spiritually cold than to be spiritually lukewarm!
What is the most deadly plague on earth
today?
Is it the West Nile virus? Zika? Ebola? H1N1 avian influenza? swine flu? The most deadly plague on earth is the
Purple Pandemic!
So
where are you? If you honestly found that you had to place yourself in the
purple category, thank you for being so honest! Please don't feel that I'm
pointing any fingers. The truth is that most Christians are spiritually in the
purple. I've struggled with having a terrible case of the purples myself, many
times. But wouldn't you agree that its time for a change? Wouldn't you like to
be in the red?
If we're going to spend Eternity with God
in the future, we need to prepare by spending daily moments worshiping Him now.
We can't expect to have Eternity with Him, if we can't even find it in our
hearts to want to have worship each day. The truth is that how we live now is
preparing us for how we will be - There.
We start now - our relationship with God for the future is largely determined by what we are doing now.
We start now - our relationship with God for the future is largely determined by what we are doing now.
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