Wednesday, June 03, 2009

I ran across the following piece by Thomas Brooks and it made my heart well up in consideration of the love and patience of God. He makes such a good point for those that are discouraged and get downtrodden over their failures.

“Fifthly, Get this principle riveted in your hearts, That the lack of such preparations or qualifications that many men lay a great stress upon, shall be no impediment to hinder your soul’s interest in Christ, if you will but open to Christ, and close with Jesus Christ.
Rev. 3:20, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open to me, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ Pray tell me, at whose door was this that Christ stood and knocked? Was it not at the Laodicean’s door? Was it not at their door that thought their penny as good silver as any? That said they were rich, and had need of nothing, when Christ tells them to their very faces, ‘that they were poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked.’ None more unprepared, unqualified, and unfitted for union and communion with Christ than these lukewarm Laodiceans; and yet the Lord Jesus is very ready and willing that such should have intimate communion and fellowship with him.
I pray, what qualifications and preparations had they in Ezek. 16, when God saw them in their blood, and yet that was a time of love, and God even then spread his skirt over them, and made a covenant with them, and they became his.
What qualifications or preparations had Paul, Mary Magdalene, Zaccheus, and Lydia, etc? And yet these believed in Christ, these had a blessed and glorious interest in Christ.”


This gracious persistence of Christ to even those in desperate spiritual conditions never ceases to amaze me. This quote also reminded me of a piece Donna, a friend of mine wrote, from the same chapter. Very insightful if you haven't read it --


Revelation 3:15-16
It's interesting how a person can be get indoctrinated and not even know it. For years, I believed that being cold was a bad thing (a sign of lack of love for God and a good sign that I was going to hell) and that God preferred us hot (a sign of passion for Him and opposite of cold) but I want to share with you (for those who were taught as I) a new look at a very fire and brimstone verse.I believe that God was not speaking about the temperature of a soul and it's dedication to God. I believe that God was speaking about how we are supposed to minister to those He brings into our path and how we are to approach preaching the Gospel of the Good News.I find myself hurt by Christians that believe that if someone's eye lusts, that they are the tool to poke out the eye of their neighbor. God was speaking about our own eyes...not the eyes of our neighbors. But this is what comes from the teaching of religion that says we must be hot for God without teaching the balance of the cool liquid .Instead of the Word becoming an instrument of healing, it becomes a drink of condemnation. God drank both the hot and the cold. he only spit out the tepid water/liquid because the properties to cool or warm up the body had been lost. Similar to eating salt that has lost it's saltiness.To the soul that has been chilled by the coldness of this world...a hot liquid that burns and warms his throat will drive the numbness out of his body. To the soul who has lost his way in the desert...his bones turning to dust...the gentleness of a cold liquid brings cooling to his burning insides and brings the temperature down to where he can think again.There must always be a balance in whatever we do in the Name of God and a true Love for more than just "saving the soul" of the person God has put in our path. Our goal is to drive out Satan and his kingdom and cause him pain...not the person we are bringing out of bondage.


Picture from the Internet





3 comments:

Mel said...

Hi Fred!

I read this post yesterday and ever since then have been trying to find a time to comment. I love reading different people's interpretations of specific passages. I used to think there was only one interpretation of any given passage, and now I know that because it is the Living Word, there are multiple meanings and fragrances and variances, depending on the person, and the time in history. God is good! :)

I love that piece of Donna's. I have read it several times in the past and greatly enjoyed reading it again here. Praise God that He loves and accepts us as we are, and that it's not our job to fix other people. :)

Many, many blessings to you and yours. :)

FCB said...

Hi Mel,
Yes, I thought Donna's take on that scripture was very unique.
She has great insight into spiritual things.
Like you, I love to find an author's take on something that opens a thought up further.
Say, I watched a movie last week that is Christian and we all liked it. I thought the acting was well done and it is a true story about the conversion and call to preach of a Scottish man who lived in Africa. The title is "Faith Like Potatoes". Odd title but it makes sense. Anyway, I thought it was inspirational and I welled up many times through the movie. Great for the whole family.
God bless,
Fred

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Fred:)

Christ HIMSELF was born a poor man. He also lived a very simple life. He preached mostly to poor people.

It was the rich people who crucified him.

All his disciples were poor illiterate people.

He forgave Mary Magdelene who was considered to be a very grievious sinner.( I wonder if that will be considered a sin in the modern days.)

Many thanks for the interesting and thougt provoking post and the lovely photo.

Have a nice day Fred:)
Joseph