By: Ann White, RRN

In the book of Revelation, chapter 3, beginning with verse 15, from the Amplified Bible, we are told, “I know your (record of) works and what you are doing; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! Vs. 16 says, “So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth!” Those are very ominous words. How far is that from, “well done my good and faithful servant.”

As we enter this New Year, which has been prophesied to be the “year of overflow,” are we hot, cold or lukewarm? When we stand before our Lord at the judgment seat, we will each give account of only ourselves.

Look around you. Things are happening very rapidly in our society today, both good and bad. When we see programs like NCIS, where they look into a pad that copies their “eye print” to identify them, or we hear complaints about the voting system throughout the U.S. and how it should be “uniform” everywhere – how can we not see that we are fast approaching the time when there will be “uniformity” in our identification systems. Could a computer chip be implanted in people’s foreheads and the back of their hands, for “identification purposes?” I’m not saying that’s the way the antichrist will bring about world wide identification marks, but we are certainly heading that way quickly.

So, where are you – lukewarm, hot or cold as a Christian? Do you talk the talk and walk the walk? Or, are you just like the rest of the world? I think it truly is time to “come out from among them and be separate.”

Matthew 6:33 tells us we are to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” In the book of Psalms, we are told to “seek Him first and seek Him early.” Why do we think we can do it any differently than what He asked us to do? We see we are to “study to show ourselves approved of God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” How can we know what we are hearing and seeing, whether on Christian TV or other Christian shows is what God has actually said in His Word if we don’t know what it says?

Have you learned to make the Bible, as the Word of God, your final authority yet? Do you think when God says, “owe no man anything but to love them,” that He means for us to be head over heels in debt?

He also says, “train up a child in the way he/she should go, and when he/she is old he will not depart from the way.” I believe the understood person is the parent, not others doing the work of fathers and mothers. Have you thought about the fact that in the 50’s and 60’s, we didn’t have all the counselors, therapy clinics for children and their parents, and all of the rest of the “corrective types of medications,” we have today? Up until about that time, moms stayed home and were “domestic engineers.” We kids didn’t have to go out and do “bad things” to get our parents attention. We weren’t faced with so many broken homes, and all the hurt that goes with that. But, then the issue of “keeping up with the Jones’” and “greed” and “having it all” came into being. Isn’t that about the time when “I” and “me” became key words?

Why are we as a society the highest group of people taking medication in the world today? Do we not realize that our emotions and emotional “states of mind” are what is messing up our bodies?” We take Prilosec for upset stomachs, Zantac, etc. etc. etc.

God says in His Word, “in all of your ways acknowledge Me, and I will direct your paths.” He says things like, “the blessing of the Lord makes you truly rich and I add no sorrow with it.” He further says, “my peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.” In III John 2, He says, “beloved, I wish above all else that you prosper, and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to suggest to you that so many of the body of Christ have grown lukewarm. Maybe born again, knowing Jesus as your Savior, but certainly not as Lord. If He is Lord, we will follow what He says in His Word, come out of the worlds system of doing things that kill, steal, and destroy. We will, “in all (not just some) of our ways acknowledge Him, so He can direct our paths. Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and that more abundantly. I don’t see a connection between how Christians live today and what God says in His Word there is available for us to live in.

I challenge you as this New Year begins, read His Word every day, learn to know and trust Him, and become a “hot” Christian that stands out in the world today. I truly believe the time is short that we have to work in. Once again, I will say, “As for me, I will serve the Lord.” Learn to make your schedule around the Word of God. It is the ONLY thing that will help every day to give you the strength you need, as well as the wisdom for every occasion.

As the title of the article says, “will the real son/daughter of God please stand up?”

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