“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!” Revelation 3:15

“Why is it so cold in here?” I thought. The temperature outside was chilly, but the electric fireplace was turned on and the heater was blazing orange! As I lay under a light blanket watching a football game, I still felt a chill… “must be my age.” That thought was suddenly interrupted when I asked Katie… ”Is our AC on?”

It is a habit to turn the AC down a little lower at night so we can sleep better. Waking up to a slight chill, I had tuned on the heater… totally forgetting about the air conditioner being on. Then last night, I had a conflicting chill in the direct presence of heat! DUH!! Feeling a little stupid, I remembered this verse.

Revelation 3 is Jesus’ continued evaluation of the 7 existing Churches at the time of John’s writing of Revelation. Judgments, which started in Chapter 2, end with this verse describing the very last of the 7 churches… Laodicea. Known as the ‘lukewarm church,’ Jesus was disappointed in them to the point of throwing up!

The 7 Churches really did exist when John wrote down the vision. But the 7 church’s judgments also describe the character of The Church, over time, to today. Today in 2024, I am living in the age of the Church of Laodicea! Yup… that means that, over all, ‘Christians today are noted for being mostly lazy and apathetic!!

As I lay there under the AC vent and under that blanket, I was chilly. But I didn’t really bother to get up to do anything about my condition. Finally, when I put 2+2 together, I took action. Jesus says He respects fired up followers of satan more than cold-hearted church goers. Those words leave me with a convicted choice!

Am I on FIRE for Jesus? Or am I just cool to the notion of being His fireball for change? And what about YOU?

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

“You were kidding right?” I asked the woman in the elevator. We were heading to dinner last week on a 5 day cruise, and I noticed a woman’s T-shirt that read “Christian.” Entering the elevator I blurted out, “I guess we’ll be seeing you in heaven then too, huh?” She said, “you bet… ‘I’ have a SPECIAL room waiting for me there!”

It was then I saw her T-shirt actually said “Christianson,” Realizing it labeled her name, NOT necessarily her position in Christ, I just had to ask… “so what Heavenly ‘special room’ are you talking about?” She said, “years ago I adopted a special needs baby and raised it, now that girl is big and gives me fits… but I love her anyway! HAAAA!”

It took a minute to process her statement, and the elevator was filling with more people. Finally, I HAD to say something. “You WERE kidding about that room, right?” She looked at me seriously and said, “Absolutely!” I pondered and kept my mouth shut… until time to get off, then said, “That’s not how you get there. It’s about Faith in Jesus!”

Rehashing the conversation through my mind, I knew for certain that ‘Christianson’ was NOT a child of God! She really believed she deserved a special room there because of her own effort in raising a special needs child. With no time, and her spirit not open, I couldn’t present her with the salvation message about life in Heaven being a ‘Free Gift!’

The exchange took only a couple minutes. But I had presented God’s Truth! Her defiance, as we walked off the elevator, was not my concern. THAT was between her and God. MY job was to tell her the Truth. Gregory Koukl’s book ‘Tactics’ explains that sometimes, we only get a minute. But a TRUTHFUL minute can be powerfully used by God!

Contrary to the commercial Christmas message to ‘bring good cheer,’ we are called by Christ, who is the MEANING of Christmas… to simply ‘TELL THE TRUTH!’ I have dedicated Christmas 2024 to doing more of just that! How about YOU?

Merry Merry… all you fellow, saved by Faith, ‘Jesus People!’ wink-wink!  Now go spread the Good News!