“You can drink this kind of water when it’s hot, and you can drink it when it’s freezing cold, but you cannot drink it when it’s lukewarm. It acts like an emetic, and it just makes you sick. You just vomit.” – David Pawson

We’ve reached Rev. 3:14-22 which was the last of Jesus’ letters. It was to Laodicea and Jesus used the local geological feature of thermal water with salts to make a point. When it was fresh out of the ground, it was boiling hot and drinkable. When it reached Laodicea it was lukewarm and made you physically sick. That picture is used by Jesus to show how He feels about this church. This church was further away from the ‘throne of Satan’ at Pergamum, than the other churches and so were not troubled with any persecution. It was an insult to Jesus that they really couldn’t care one way or the other about faithful obedience. Well this church was like that. Because of their half hearted discipleship, Jesus said He is on the verge of spewing the church out of His mouth. Half hearted discipleship makes Jesus sick. If a husband or wife felt that way about their other half, divorce would result.

Video is also here.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxFIngNWFg

David Pawson “The letters of Jesus to His churches” Pt8- Laodicea

David PawsonNZ
Published on Sep 14, 2017
 
For more David Pawson’s teaching, visit www.inspirational.org.nz
Thoughtful Thoughts 15.9.17
The letters of Jesus to His churches, part 8.
The Church at Laodicea: The lukewarm church
We’ve reached Rev. 3:14-22 which was the last of Jesus’ letters. It was to Laodicea and Jesus used the local geological feature of thermal water with salts to make a point. When it was fresh out of the ground, it was boiling hot and drinkable. When it reached Laodicea it was lukewarm and made you physically sick. That picture is used by Jesus to show how He feels about this church. This church was further away from the ‘throne of Satan’ at Pergamum, than the other churches and so were not troubled with any persecution. It was an insult to Jesus that they really couldn’t care one way or the other about faithful obedience. Well this church was like that. Because of their half hearted discipleship, Jesus said He is on the verge of spewing the church out of His mouth. Half hearted discipleship makes Jesus sick. If a husband or wife felt that way about their other half, divorce would result.
The person who first showed me from the Bible that believers could not call christening their baptism, and needed believer’s baptism, himself turned back to christening, which he had admitted was unscriptural, in order to get a golden bowl job as a vicar. That is lukewarm Christianity.
When my mother was a nurse in WW2, she earned the nickname ‘Hotprot’, because she had refused to deny Jesus when a particularly nasty nursing colleague burned her fingers with matches. I read this week of three Christians in Kenya being beheaded last week by Moslem terrorists. Jesus promised a reward for those who are martyred because they refuse to deny that they know Him. Wherever there is persecution, the number of Christians has increased. In China now, the number of Christians is so great that the government has become concerned enough to ban children from attending church holiday camps, and in some places, even children and teachers from attending church. China now has more Christians than members of the communist party. Nov 5th is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Visit ‘voice of the martyrs’ website for more.
A man from Nagaland was asked how it was that Christianity had become so strong there, and he replied that it was because they had not allowed the western denominations to come in! Statistically, wherever the lukewarm and established churches of England and Europe didn’t have a presence, the church grew. (Source: Research from a Singaporean Professor).
For more, visit www.inspirational.org.nz