Hot and Cold

 Good Morning World!

As you’re reading this, it’s Sunday night here in Hong Kong and Tony and I, if we’re even back to our room, will be dragging in the last few steps of our 4 month trip.  Tomorrow, we fly a circuitous trip HOME, transiting thru Singapore and Melbourne, but then we’ll be HOME!!   I want to share something with you we learned on our Tour of the Revelation Churches back in July. Remember the 7 churches?  

I think the one that sticks in most of our memories is the church at Laodicia.  And why you ask?  Do you remember? That’s the church that God reprimanded for being “lukewarm”.  He says in Revelation 3:15, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!”  But one thing I never realised here, is that God is not saying, “Be Hot for Me”, or “Be Cold for Me” but He’s saying “Don’t be watered down with other things so that you’re not hot or cold”. Hot is Hot and Cold is Cold.  

That is the situation we saw there in the ancient city of Laodicia,  where the hot springs of the nearby Pamakulle thermal pools is mixing with the normal ground water. Both waters serve their unique purposes,but mixed together they become ‘compromised’ to where no one is interested. 

I got a thought-provoking email from a friend lately about an American priest who’st rying to help the people at the Mexican border.  He’s not about getting them in or encouraging them to change their ways, he’s just trying to make a difference in their physical situation, so they literally don’t ’die trying’.  What he said stayed in my memory.  “Christ didn’t condemn the woman caught in adultery; he just told her to stop."  

What he DID come down on hard were the priests in the story of the Good Samaritan, who gathered their skirts around them and hurried away.  It’s the not caring…….. having  APATHY that God doesn’t like!”  

So the message I think we can take away is this: in all things, be EITHER hot or cold, because each one has its purpose.  Take tea for example. On a summer’s day, nothing beats a thirst like a big glass of iced tea. Or, put me into the throes of winter, and I want my tea hot enough to scald my lips. But try as I may, I just can’t conjure up a time when lukewarm tea would ever be good.  Then I think of the Apostle Paul, hot on the trail of Christians in order to capture them and bring them up before the Sanhedrin. I can just see God watching this dynamo on his way to Damascus and saying to the angel standing next to him, “Yeah… I can use that one." Paul’s problem was not one of dedication, but rather of direction. I wonder where he would have ended up if he’d spent his early years curled up in some comfortable corner with his device. 

Whoops! I slipped there and almost broke into another sermon. Sorry about that. 

Back to today, and Hong Kong. We’ve spent most of our time here with friends from the church we helped minister in (to the Japanese) back in 1996.  They have remained fast friends for these almost 30 years and the camaraderie and love just grows deeper.  This visit, Tony has been able to share his “Anagaion” discipleship course, as well as fill the pulpit while they wait for their new pastor to arrive! It’s been such a balm to us all. 

And talk about a “Hot” church!  We are so impressed.  They just keep reaching the lost, loving each other and being a church God would be proud of.  They haven’t let the cold water of unrelated issues water them down a bit. 

I’ll be telling you some amazing stories over the next few weeks of the people here, so stay tuned! Love ya, 

Marsha