Jerry’s Grill : Watch Our Heart-Fires
One of the very noticeable things in the Book of Revelations are the seven messages to the seven historical churches, which also served as indicators of the state of the Church, both then and now. The messages are punctuated with repeated warnings that say, “Let him who has ears to hear what the Spirit is saying….”, an expression designed to arrest the attention, and to denote that what was said was of special importance.
After all, how else can we respond when the Savior Himself declares, “Thou hast left thy first love.”
Christ pointed to the church that “the heart of the problem is their problem of the heart.” He did not charge the saints at Ephesus with having changed their doctrinal views; but, placing His finger on the heart, He says, “There is a change here.” You know the enthusiasm of “first love.”
In the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “if any work is to be done in the Church — if any difficulties are to be surmounted — if any icebergs are to be dissolved — if any cape, where savage seas revel in ungovernable madness, is to be rounded, send out men and women in whose hearts this ‘first love’ burns and sings, and their brows will be girt with garlands of conquest.”
More…
Our business, then, is to watch our heart-fires.
This warning tells us – first, the possibility of the Church in its collective capacity may incur Divine displeasure. There may be good individuals in the fellowship, yet the community as a whole may be under the frown of Him who “walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.”
Second, the Church in its collective capacity must bring itself to repentance. Third, because obviously Jesus threatens to “remove thy candlestick out of his place”, such language may well make us pause and shiver in fear. Tell of the gorgeous buildings, of skilful arrangements, of complete machinery, etc. We can have all these in an unparalleled degree, and yet “Ichabod” (“The Glory has departed.”] may be written on our church doors!
What is your spiritual life? Is our church’s mechanism the expression of our love? If not, then “Remember, Repent, Retrace” might be the next appropriate action step to take.
All for His Glory and honor.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment