Lukewarm

During a recent morning devotion I read Revelation 3:14-22- the letter to the “lukewarm” church in Laodicea- and was reminded of an experience I had a while ago. One Saturday morning probably a year ago or more a man came to my door and gave me a flyer and an invitation to his church. I told him I already belonged to a church and thanked him for stopping by. He asked me to pray with him and I did. Then he asked me if there was anything I needed. He even offered to help me monetarily. I replied, “No, I’m doing alright.” He seemed a bit taken aback by this response, then recovered himself and bid me goodbye.

In regards to the church at Laodicea, the words that really struck me were these:

17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.

These words reminded me of my response to the man at my door that Saturday morning. It also reminded me of something other Christians have been saying quite a bit lately: Thanks for keeping me in your prayers! I know that God watches over me although it's not always easy when you're going through trials. Do you have any prayer requests so I can pray for you, too? This is a standard response option on the Christian singles site I recently joined. I’ve discovered the wonderful joy of navigating to the site’s “Prayers” section and praying for the other Christians who post their needs for comfort, healing, and forgiveness, as well as their thankfulness and praises. It is inspiring to see the same people posting day after day; it is an encouragement to post a prayer and see the responses of support come flooding into your mailbox.

After reading about the church in Laodicea, I realized that I rarely respond to the invitation to request prayer from those thanking me for my prayer support. Just like the man who came to my door, I usually think, “Well, I’m doing fine right now. The Lord has blessed me and saved me. How much better can it get?” God has blessed me and I have accepted Jesus as my savior and believe that His life was one of perfect obedience, that He died for my sins on the cross and that He was raised from the dead as the first in a new family of adopted sons and daughters of God. But in these instances where I think that I am doing okay and don’t respond to those offering to pray for me I think I have been overlooking the fact that sanctification is a process; just because I have been saved, doesn’t mean God’s work in my life is done. It doesn’t mean that I can keep God’s commands and live a faithful life on my own.

Part of living a faithful life is facing up to my own imperfections and admitting that I need Jesus to guide me so that I don’t stray from the path of blessing. It is also in realizing that when others offer to pray for me, no matter how well I think things are going, I will always be in a condition of having fallen short of God’s perfect standards. At any given moment, there are so many things I could have these gracious brothers and sisters pray for on my behalf. I must be careful to remember that I am not in Heaven yet, where we will truly be blessed with richness. I am still on my journey of sanctification and have no idea how far I have to go before I reach my destination. Until I get there, I must try to remember that I will always need the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ to aid me in keeping to the right path.

The Vicious Cycle

As a middle school teacher, day after day I encounter young people caught in a vicious cycle: one student makes a comment about another student, whether intentionally offensive or not, and the other has to return with a comment of their own, often equally offensive if not more so. This interaction persists, sometimes engulfing other students. There are times when laughter is the end result, but it never seems to be the kind of laughter that brings joy; it’s usually the kind of laughter that is covering up much deeper feelings of inferiority, shame or bitterness. Other times the end result is much more serious, sometimes even grim.

The kids seem to feel as if they are entitled to treat each other this way. Those who continue the cycle are just as difficult to convince as those who started it of the fruitlessness of it. I’ve often asked the question, “Where does it end?” What could possibly be the goal of subjecting oneself to such a hurtful and scary course of events? When a wrong deed has been done, and one has done an equally wrong deed in return, does either party really expect the end result to be at all satisfying?

Samson had trouble dealing with the fact that he had been wronged. When his Philistine father-in-law gave his wife away to another man, Samson took revenge on the man by burning up the Philistine’s crops. He stated: “As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.” But the cycle did not stop there. Samson eventually became a prisoner of the Philistines.

Jesus showed us a better way: Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31) He takes the focus off what others have done to us and puts it on our actions. God wants us to treat others with love and leave the vengeance up to Him. We cannot see the circumstances behind one’s behavior the way He can; we as sinners ourselves cannot properly chastise another for their sins. Our efforts will result in imperfection because we ourselves are imperfect. But our just and holy God’s chastisement is without fault. He will chastise us for our sin and He will chastise the wicked for their sin. He has forgiven us for our sin and made it possible for us to forgive others for theirs through the Holy Spirit. The cycle does not end when ugliness is returned for ugliness; it is ended with forgiveness and trusting in the Lord to handle the rest.

Ill-Advised Treaties

6 The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: "Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us."
7 So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. 8 The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you."

With these words God lead Israel to victory against an alliance of enemy kings who sought to destroy the city of Gibeon for allying itself with Israel. Joshua was not afraid of the enemy, for he knew God was with him. He defeated the enemy kings in a single battle. Gibeon was saved from the wrath of its enemies.

There was only one problem with all this: God had commanded Israel to conquer all the land of Canaan and had strictly forbidden Israel from making any treaties with its inhabitants. But that is just what Joshua and the Israelites did in the case of Gibeon: without consulting God, they went ahead and made a treaty with the wily ambassadors from that city.

Joshua’s victory here is an example of the depth of God’s forgiveness for disobedience. He had promised to help Israel conquer the Promised Land and He was faithful to His promise. Even though Israel had sinned by making a treaty with Gibeon, God made it possible for His people to move on and conquer the other parts of the land as He’d commanded. His forgiveness of their sin, however, did not mean there would be no consequences.

Later, of course, we discover that many of the Israelites intermarried with the remaining Canaanites or turned away from God to worship the idols the Canaanites worshipped. This lead eventually to the trading of the freedom, which God led the Israelites into through Moses and Joshua, for captivity. In other words, although God was merciful and forgave Israel for its disobedience and kept His promise to make them victorious against their enemies, there were still consequences for Israel’s failure to obey Him completely.

There is instruction for us here. We are instructed not to assume that because God forgives our sin, He also eliminates the possibility of its consequences. Just as God was faithful to His promise to deliver the Canaanites into the hands of the Israelites, He is faithful to His promise to look upon our sin in light of the sacrifice Jesus made for us upon the cross. Let us not forget, however, that Israel suffered from the consequences of failing to live wholly and completely for God. Let us not make ill-advised treaties with the world and find ourselves forgiven, yet chastised again and again. The pastor at my former church once said that our faith saves us; the question is in what condition will we enter Heaven?

The Harlot's House

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there.

The King James translation of Joshua 2:1 gives us a couple clues that reveal the kind of place the spies Joshua sent into the Promised Land ended up in. The use of the term “lodged” creates an image of a place that is not the dwelling of an individual or a family. It’s easy to misinterpret the references to a “harlot’s house” as meaning the house in which a particular woman who happens to be a harlot lives. That apparently wasn’t the kind of place in which these two men ended up. My Life Application Study Bible refers to Rahab’s dwelling as an “inn…providing both lodging and favors to travelers.”

With a clearer picture of what type of place Rahab’s house was, we also get a clearer picture of how the king of Jericho found out about the spies. Most likely a “traveler” spotted the Israelites and ran to the king with the news. One might think at this point that the spies were as good as caught. But God’s purposes were at work, even as the king went out with the intention of ending the threat to his town that these two men posed. For God knew that Rahab’s heart was for Him and through her faith He worked his providence so that the spies could complete their mission. And Rahab was rewarded in the end.

It’s worth noting that Rahab’s house existed upon the town wall; she was physically set apart from the rest of the society in which she lived, at the very edge, “one stop short of rejection” because of her profession, according to the Life Application Study Bible. In addition, apparently there was a window of the house which looked out over the wall. Rahab, who was involved in a very ugly side of society daily, could look out upon the land that was Promised to the Israelites, the land which would eventually swallow up Jericho, something which all of Jericho feared except Rahab. Is it possible Rahab turned her back on her situation, looked out that window and trusted in the goodness of the God who could do exactly what everyone else in town feared? God knew to lead Joshua’s spies to Rahab’s house because He knew her heart was open to Him. Rahab was physically set apart from the rest of the town by the location of her house; she was spiritually set apart from them by God to be used to accomplish His purposes because of her faith.

The location and orientation of Rahab the harlot’s house was representative of her spiritual condition. How many of us feel like we are “one step short of rejection” by society, family, friends, colleagues, etc.? I think that through Rahab God has proven that regardless of our situation, if it is His will to draw us to Him, He will. It is such good news that He has drawn us out of our sinful conditions through Christ. May His purposes be accomplished through us by the Holy Spirit. May our hearts be open to Him the way the heart of Rahab was.