{"id":5299,"date":"2014-05-01T00:05:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T07:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5299"},"modified":"2014-04-30T17:16:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T00:16:07","slug":"laodicea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/05\/01\/laodicea\/","title":{"rendered":"Laodicea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God\u2019s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God\u2019s creation, says:<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You\u2019re not cold, you\u2019re not hot\u2014far better to be either cold or hot! You\u2019re stale. You\u2019re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, \u2018I\u2019m rich, I\u2019ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,\u2019 oblivious that in fact you\u2019re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHere\u2019s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that\u2019s been through the refiner\u2019s fire. Then you\u2019ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You\u2019ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe people I love, I call to account\u2014prod and correct and guide so that they\u2019ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!<\/p>\n

\t\u201cLook at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I\u2019ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That\u2019s my gift to the conquerors!<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAre your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.\u201d (Revelation 3:14-22)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tJesus\u2019 words can change your life. Laodicea was a prosperous commercial city in northwest Asia Minor, not too far from the city of Colossae. Its church had pushed Jesus away. They had allowed the deceitfulness of riches to make them forget the Lord they loved. <\/p>\n

\tBut Jesus told them it is easy to let him back into their lives. In fact, he told the Christians in Laodicea that he was just outside their door, knocking, waiting for them to let him return. When I was in Sunday School class as a child, I remember staring at a painting of Jesus standing beside a door, knocking, waiting to be let in. My Sunday School teacher used that picture and Jesus\u2019 words to the Laodicean Christians to convince me to become a Christian. <\/p>\n

\tJesus\u2019 words can be effective, even when we misapply them. God does not wait for us to understand clearly before he changes us forever. Whether we\u2019re a Christian or not, Jesus is waiting for us to let him come in. <\/p>\n

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Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God\u2019s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God\u2019s creation, says: \u201cI know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You\u2019re not cold, you\u2019re not hot\u2014far … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5301,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299\/revisions\/5301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}