If you drink tea, you drink it either HOT (especially in the UK and in Russia) or COLD (see, Iced Tea). Hot tea on a cold day is just lovely - it warms you up and revives you (though it may burn your tongue if you're not careful). In the UK the tea break is allowed several times a day - it's Britain, right? So you can drink as much tea as you want, as long as you do your job. There used to be a tea break at Tea Time, 5.00pm, but I don't think people here keep that anymore. On the other hand, COLD tea, "ice tea" is drank cold and is quite refreshing especially on hot summer days. But no one likes to drink warm or lukewarm tea! No one loves lukewarm soups, teas, porridge, cereals, or anything else to be drank / eaten...
It is the same with the Lord - He is OK with us being HOT for Him (or hot for the world) or COLD towards Him (or toward the world), but He is NOT OK with us being lukewarm - being in a situation of compromise, in a mix-up situation, where we try to serve both God and the world. You may see something of Christ in the Word and the Lord may shine on you about certain things you need to deal with so that He would go on in you - but you "procrastinate" by not cooperating with the Lord, and things "pile up" in the background... Maybe you want to be like Switzerland - neutral, not taking absolute side to either God and His economy or the world. Maybe you are in the Lord's recovery but you are not fully and absolutely in the Lord's recovery - you still like to shop around, look around, and you still indulge in the things that your friends and your colleagues do...
In Ezek. 47 the Lord says that He cannot heal the marsh / the swamp - the water flowing from the house of God can heal the sea and brings life wherever it flows, but it cannot heal the marsh or the swamp. The Lord is faithful to shine on us, to draw our heart, to show us how much He loves us, to unveil us to see His purpose and His heart's desire, even to bring us into His recovery that we may see His ultimate move. We see that the time is ready - the Lord is preparing the last details for His return, and all He needs is a prepared Bride, those who love Him with their first love... but we may still just stand on the side, not be fully absolute, just "being around" in the church life or in Christian meetings....
Truth be told, if you are not absolute for the Lord and His economy, there are many things lurking in the darkness of our being which are operating secretly, transforming our heart into something that is slippery, something that "swallows everything" and there's nothing of life there... We may know many things, we may even teach others - but if our heart is not on fire for the Lord and cold towards the world and Satan, then we not only do not impart life but we are like "a black hole", having no content or life but sucking the life out of others.... ewww - sorry for the graphical illustration, but I am getting to see and realize more and more that if I don't lay my hands on the wonderful Absolute Christ to take Him as my burnt offering and as the Absolute one for God, there's lots of "slippery things" and marshy situations going on...
That's why we need to Come into the Light and Dig Away! Dig away any stones, any hidden things, any sins that no one knows about, any passions and other loves we develop while not being absolute for the Lord... In the Lord's shining, with a repenting heart, we really see who we are; the light exposes us and, if we cooperate with the light, it also brings life into us. I don't want to be lukewarm, even in a world that is heading towards this! "Accepting everyone the way he is", "you were born this way", and other non-sensical sayings that show clearly that No One Stands for Anything but for Himself - such a prevailing attitude among everyone today.... WHO will stand for the Lord? Who will take His way?
When Isaiah saw the Lord, he also saw himself and realized he's a sinful man living among sinful people with unclean lips... But the Lord didn't give up on him - He sent an angel to purify his lips with a burning coal... Later, when the Lord asked, Whom shall I send - who will go for us? Isaiah replied, Lord, here I am, send me! We who are sinful and with unclean lips, living among sinful people with unclean lips, can be sent by the Lord if we allow Him to shine on us, expose us, burn us, infuse us, transfuse us, reconstitute us, remake us, remodel us, fill us, and be fully expressed through us. Oh, how we want to be in this organic process of being made whole - being made a real and genuine man, a man filled with the divine life expressing God in a corporate way!
One Picture for Today - The Golden Hinde
This is the Golden Hinde, a ship on the shore, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Galleon, as seen at dusk (location: by the Thames River, London, close to Nando's :) and to the Shakespeare Globe). Visit their website for more details. [recommending a nice walk along the Thames at dusk, it's nice to see this part of London...
Amen! I've never considered tea in this way. :)
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking since this morning what you write about that Lord Jesus wants to return for His Bride and all the day this precious word shine and turn my heart to the Lord and certainly I see that manytimes Satan try to use many things to turn our heart in many things and even when I arrived at home later the job, I just can praise Lord Jesus I want to recover my first and the best love for you, and now I am reading your blog and I only can said AMEN and Amen.
ReplyDeleteRecently I was listening a precious him " The day aproaches and I really enjoy this " our vessels filled
our eyes set on His glory
to be with Him
complety satisfed!!
amen with Him completly satisfied
I have a couple of random comments, first off, once again, I totally agree with you about lukewarmness. It's funny, I've never been a big coffee fan, and when I did go to Starbucks or my preferred coffee shop (Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf) for some kind of hot beverage, I never considered this matter of hot or cold, because (in the USA) all hot beverages are served so hot they will tear the skin right off your tongue if you sip them immediately, hence the "Caution it's hot" on the cup. However, in London, this was never the case. Too many times I would get a drink, say an Eggnog latte around the holidays, only too remember too late that I have to educate the barista on how to make a beverage "hot." And don't get me wrong, it's not that I want to burn my tongue off, but there is just...something missing when the drink hasn't been scorching hot.
ReplyDeleteI would venture to say this is the same with us. If we are just kind of lukewarm, and that's all we have been...we have no real taste, we are bland, poor, wretched, blind. It is a sad state of affairs.
My second comment is that there is another problem. I will illustrate it with the kids at work. I have a class split down the middle. On half of the kids are troublemakers, real firecrackers that are always giving me problems. The other half of the kids in the class are not. So in order to make the class work, I had to split the class in two. The more rambunctious kids stayed in one class together, and the others were joined to a more normal class. Now the first class filled with naughty kids has two groups, those that continue to be naughty and those that have decided they are just not going to participate. Now, this is a conversation class, if there is no participation, there is no class. Well this third group of kids, the non-participating ones, are like those who are lukewarm. I can't kick them out of class, I can't find new ways to engage their energy in a more focused and productive way, I can't do anything with them. The first group, the "good" ones, were sent to a higher level English class, despite being at a lower level, and they are going on quite well. The bad ones, well, they either get kicked out of class or they sit and waste my time talking Spanglish not really learning anything, but actually despite my personal frustration with them, we have a rather fun interactive class. The third group however, are miserable, they make me miserable, they learn nothing, they waste my time, they waste their own time, and they are wasting the school's money and the country's resources.
And I think this is the biggest problem with lukewarmness. We are not only worthy only to be spewed out of His mouth, but we are useless and actually we are a real hinderance to the Lord and His move. Can His move be carried out by a people full of compromise and mixture? Can it be carried out by a people who lack clarity of vision and determination of spirit? Can the Lord gain anything with us or even in us if we just are so passive about everything? Surely not.
Lord Jesus. Have mercy on us, Lord to make us a people burning in spirit, a people that is pure, determined, and fully one with You so that we would be those through whom You can gain what You are after.