Iwas reminded this week of something that happened to one of our grandsons when he was about ten years old. The kids were living in Dallas at the time and while walking home from school he got stung on his cornea by a bee. There just happened to be one of those 24-hour medical clinics on his walking route so he walked in and shouted, “I need a doctor.” He was okay but I laugh when I think about that little towhead with nerdy glasses doing something so grown up. I think we call this, “taking care of business.”
I wonder how many need to start taking care of business from a spiritual perspective? The Apostle Paul uses language in his letter to the Philippian Church like: “press on, straining forward, hold true” to describe what he’s doing concerning his relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Following Jesus isn’t a church picnic. So what was Paul’s goal? To continue to deepen his relationship with Jesus and share in the suffering of our Lord and Savior. Wow, just wow!
How many of us in this New Year need to think about deepening our relationship with the Lord? How many of us need to shift gears and take care of business?
Jesus talked about stuff like this. He said, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16).”
There’s a lot to unpack in this passage and I don’t want to take it out of context but we get the idea that Jesus likes His coffee hot or iced and room temperature just doesn’t get Him excited.
When you think of your relationship with Jesus do you think in terms like, “press on, strain forward, holding true” or is it more of a relaxed approach that creates a lukewarmness?
In Hebrews 11 we read about this “great cloud of witnesses” and the idea is these saints of old are cheering us on as we run our race of faith. I’m not sure if we should take this literally or not but it’s a great thought that people in Heaven are cheering for us to be serious about our faith, to run hard for Jesus, to give it everything we’ve got and not to slow down, to be serious and to be red hot and on fire for this One that died on the cross in our place.
As I sit here typing this (is that what they call it in 2024?) I think about our grandson walking into that clinic and yelling out, “I need a doctor!” I wonder how many need to do that right now. Jesus is the Great Physician and He said in Mark 2:17 that He came for the sick, so how many need to cry out right now and say, “I need the Great Doctor.”
John the Baptist, the original GOAT (the greatest that ever lived - Matthew 11:11) put it like this, “Less of me and more of Jesus (John 3:30).” How about that for a goal in 2024? What if you resolved not to be lukewarm in 2024? Happy New Year!
He told me to tell you that.
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