The comfort zone, just coastin, just rollin along. Sounds like a trip to the Big Easy, not much required not much given. Wow, wouldn't it be cool, just chillin. Although, this sounds like a great vacation its the slow death to spiritual growth.
- 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.
Now, you may have been in a church where you were beat over the head with this scripture or felt the flames at your feet. However, please note the words of Jesus, “I wish”, two words that speak of his heart in wanting something better for the church at Laodocia. And that heart is the same for us, the very love of God constrains him with a consuming desire to see us always feed the flame of the gift he has put into our lives.
We see a picture of this in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 6:3, “a perpetual fire shall burn on the altar; it shall never go out. So here we are in a different dispensation, one so much greater and our God still wants the fire burning hot, its warmth to change us, it light to leads others to Him. The Hot can be summed up in three words, hungry, open and tender.
Hungry: The deep part of man calls to the deep part of God. Our Father's passion is that we are always reaching deeper into His heart the depth of which we reach lies in us. What we do in public will be the result of what we hunger for in private and what we do in service will flow from what we hunger for in intimacy. It is no wonder that the flame in us is fueled with hunger and as it burns hot it changes us and everything around us
Open: Let us allow ourselves to live with questions, always inquisitive. Our encounters with God will
always leave us wanting more and sometimes even scratching our head. Is it not good to live in wonder, amazed by a God who's manifold grace enthralls the human heart. If this not the heart of a child, a kid in the Kingdom, compelled to explore by his sense of wonder.
I once heard it said that an open mind is like a window with no screen that let the bugs in, however, a closed mind will shut down a open heart, a closed heart is like a moat around the castle to protect the ill conceived bastions of thought. Castles of captivity. (be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind) a surrender heart will always result in arenew mind and will always fill both mind and heart with wonder.
Tender: Centered in grace, rooted in love. Tenderness of heart enables us to come into the realm of revelation and unlock the mysteries of God. It is not in seeking the mind of God that we understand and gain wisdom, it's rather from seeking the heart of God. Tender to tender. Jesus said “ learn from me I am gentle and humble in spirit”. I think of that green pasture in Psalm 23, I can picture going there to meet a loving God and with all the things on my mind, I hear the Father tenderly saying, “I am just glad you are here” How can the tender love of God not inflame passion and passion inflamed will always burn HOT.
What thought, what promise helps you keep the fire burning?
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