HOT AND LUKEWARM FAITH

How hot is your faith in Christ? Remember in Revelations 3:16, Jesus says that He will spit out the lukewarm. Lukewarm Christians call themselves Christians but they haven’t consciously surrendered every part of who they are, and they aren’t really trying to put on their new self in Christ (Ephesians 4:22-24). The lukewarm also don’t believe prayer is all that powerful, that it can be reserved for a small pause before meals. But Jesus said to pray in His name and He would do whatever we ask (John 14:13-17). He clarified that even to have the faith of a mustard seed could move a mountain from here to there (Matthew 17:20). Jesus never warned us not to pray too much as though prayer only has a limited amount of power; in fact, Paul complements this by telling us to pray continuously (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Jesus even included that we must pray without any doubt at all (James 1:6-8).

Lukewarm Christianity doesn’t agree with the power of prayer, and doesn’t take God for His Word that He will move mountains in our lives (metaphorically). It would rather keep its hands at its sides rather than exult the Lord for His goodness, claiming with boldness His power from the spiritual realm into this physical realm. Lukewarm Christianity has no place in the kingdom of heaven!

BEING FULLY REBORN

Lukewarm Christians don’t believe that the resurrection of Jesus is all that shocking or believable, otherwise it would change the way they view the Bible, Jesus’s teachings, and their reasons for why they believe everything else they believe. They would be fully reborn! Some of us don’t really take to heart what it means to live out our faith, we just want to say nice things to people in public and smile, but we don’t want to feed the homeless person sitting outside in the cold, or tithe as much as we can out of our income in faith in God’s blessings. We don’t have the desire to see how powerfully God can move in the lives of humble, contrite heart. And we don’t always have the patience or the trust in God to let Him move in His timing to see just what He is capable of.

WARNING ABOUT WHAT’S COMING

We don’t want to think about eternal damnation because it’s too controversial and scary, and yet the lake of fire is the destination for any unbeliever and the purported Christians who don’t really receive Jesus as their Lord (Matthew 7:21-23)! The Bible teaches this, and it’s critical that we understand this and not wait until later to really seek its truth. It’s crucial that our understanding of biblical teachings be correct and accurate and more real than anything else, because no other book is warning us about what’s coming.

The Bible gives us so many warning signs about what’s coming, and yet so many people are waiting nonchalantly to see what happens next, because they don’t know how to read the Bible in its proper context, and they don’t want to take the time to learn despite the fact that there are eternal consequences for living spiritually lazy lives without Jesus as Lord! This isn’t a joke, it isn’t hyperbolic or exaggerative. This isn’t light material—it’s real and it’s coming faster than we realize.

UNREPENTANT SIN & RELATIVISM

Maybe sometimes we’d rather not see life this way. Maybe it feels overwhelming to read the Bible so seriously with all the metaphors pointing to the future. Maybe it’s easier just to think Jesus was a great rabbi and that our lives don’t need to change, and that we don’t need to change, because life is overwhelming enough in the world we’re in now. That is called relativism, a dangerous doctrine that believes all knowledge, truth, and morality exist per culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. Clinging to relativism breeds pliable, subjective morality and a lazy theology that doesn’t even touch the heart. There is no repentance or humility in relativism.

If we think life here is overwhelming, how much more overwhelming is the thought of eternal, unquenchable fire for the wages of unrepentant sin?? Maybe this should open our eyes to the truth that life here is nothing compared to eternity, and that we need a perspective shift on what it means to be overwhelmed where God’s hand is still protecting us.

RIGHTEOUS AND LOVING

Our world is corrupt with sin. Evidence of this is all around in the way people lack moral discipline, involving themselves with witchcraft and New Age rituals, placing faith in anything under the sun but the God of the Bible. If we don’t call it what it is, and if we don’t rebuke it with the power of the Holy Spirit, then what is the weight of our faith? Christians can’t be loving but lack the pursuit of the righteousness of God’s heart. God is righteous just as He is loving. He doesn’t love sin. He didn’t create sin, but He allowed it as He allowed our free will. If we are to be like God, since we are made in His image, then we must accept that to be loving is not to be unrighteous.

SPIRITUALLY DYING TO OURSELVES

To be a reflection of the God we serve as Christ-followers, we must be made righteous in Him. That means we can’t look at a world of sinners and shrug our shoulders. That means identifying same-sex behavior as sin and not justifying the equality of all sexually-oriented relationships as God-ordained. It also means pursuing the path of creating ways for women not to feel obligated to choose abortion, or to provide loving but firm biblical instruction for the uneducated women to understand what it means to say yes to trusting God to help in situations they honestly don’t want to take responsibility for, but for which they need to take responsibility, nonetheless.

In other words, we have to call out sin in love, but in truth. That means letting people know that God exists, that Jesus is alive and coming back, that He is the only way back to God, and that in order to find Jesus we have to spiritually die to ourselves and be born again. We have to let go of our former lives and our former ways and live in the ways that are pleasing to God. That means not leaning on the flesh’s desires to find happiness, but leaning on the truth of Scripture to find joy in the Lord.

Seeking the righteousness of God will cause our hearts to see the world as God does. What disgusts God should disgust us. What angers Him should anger us. And what He loves, we should also love.

AWARENESS OF THE SPIRITUALLY UNSEEN REALM

What God loves offends many people. The demonic realm has had a large influence on our global society that doesn’t want to give up its fleshly desires and has given argument to living the lifestyles of its choice. Because of our blindness, it’s become much easier to excuse the voice of God by claiming that the only voice people hear is a voice in their head called “religiosity.”

To counter this, we must understand faith in Christ creates spiritual awareness of what is in the realm unseen to the physical human eye (due to our sinful nature); that our blindness isn’t evidence that the spiritual realm doesn’t exist, but that we as humans are in a fallen state.

THE WIDE AND NARROW GATES

God is trying to warn us to repent and become alive in Christ before it’s too late. We will either see the glory of the face of God, or we will find darkness unlike any darkness we’ve ever imagined; agony and torture and isolation unlike anything we’ve ever dreamed, and terror unlike any fear we’ve ever felt. Heaven is always an option, but there aren’t any more than one road to the kingdom of God, and it’s narrow. Only a few find their way there (Matthew 7:13-14).

Most go the wide route thinking it will somehow wind up at the pearly gates of heaven, but their narrative is fictitious and conjured by the secular mind contrived of twisted, demonic influence to seduce us to choose anything but Jesus as Lord. Make no mistake, there is no other path to God but through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other destination than of the two in the Bible: the burning fires of hell, or the eternal presence of our Lord in heaven.

We have all fallen short, and we all sin, but only those who repent and continue to live out our faith by working out their salvation with fear and trembling will find themselves on the narrow path that leads to heaven (Philippians 2:12).

THIS IS YOUR REMINDER TO TURN AWAY FROM SIN

If you are reading this, this is your reminder telling you to make sure you know which path you’re on. If you don’t have Jesus, stop right now, get on your knees, and repent of your sinful ways. Humble yourself. Turn away from your sin. Find a church and find support for your journey so you aren’t walking alone in your understanding of Scripture. It’s time to come alive fully and have abundant life in the name of Jesus.

The Christian life isn’t easy! We are being persecuted in the world today. We are suffering at the hands of unbelievers who are manipulated by Satan and hate Jesus. The invitation to receive Jesus isn’t an easy one, but it’s worth it! Life in Christ is free from the fear of eternal damnation, and full of the hope that God will complete His work in us (Philippians 1:6). Having the Holy Spirit feels like having spiritual assurance that no matter what happens to our physical bodies here, we are going to see God when we die. And we are going to have an eternity to spend with God and all the believers who stayed true to their faith. A moment of affliction, as Paul puts it, for an eternity with the glory of God:

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (ESV Version)

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

AWARENESS THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL

If you’re reading this and you’re tired of the way the world operates, tired of living in shame, or you’re had enough of living in the emptiness and stoicism of disbelief, then come to Jesus, right now where you are. There may not be a time later. Any one of us could die at any moment. God is in control, not us. In writing this, I aim to bring awareness that because we’re not in control, we are better off submitting to the one who is in control, and who also happens to be loving, merciful, gracious, humble, righteous, powerful, and is also the Judge of all things.

We fear Him with reverence and exultation. We love Him by loving our neighbor as ourselves. We receive Him by being changed from our old ways and taking on His new ways. We live different lives and pursue the kingdom of heaven first, leaving worldly things behind. We come alive in Christ, and we will never actually experience death, because death here just turns into eternal life with God. As Paul puts it:

Philippians 1:21 (NIV Version)

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

As a Christian, we can no longer lose the battle of life, because Jesus Christ has already overcome the grave.

TAKE THE NARROW GATE

Don’t wait. Ask God for His forgiveness (and He is just to forgive 1 John 1:19) and receive your forgiveness (leave shame in the past). Open the Bible and learn about God’s promises. Gain clarity on salvation. Get to a church and find a mentor/pastor. This is just the beginning, and time is short, so be intentional. Be honest with yourself, and with God. He will reveal all things that are necessary in their due time. Trust in God, follow Jesus Christ, and walk the narrow gate. You are not alone, for Jesus is with us:

Matthew 28:20 (NIV Version)

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Photo by jymy duhomme on Unsplash