Passage of the Day - January 12, 2013

Revelation 3:15-16

¹⁵ ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

This is a great transitional passage for my journey.  This past month or so, I have taken you down two jogs of the journey I have been on.  We have gone through verses regarding the Trinity and even more verses on baptism.  The Trinity discussion I have closure on.  The baptism discussion, I’m not there yet.

When I do Passage of the Day, it can often be very difficult to come up with a passage to use.  I have been trying to allow the Holy Spirit to direct guide me in this lately.  He has led me to this passage for today’s PoD.

This passage is interesting at this juncture because I have been analyzing changing churches.  I have been going to a rock solid independent church that is best described as a cross between a Bible church, a Baptist church, and an Evangelical Free Church.  It is twenty-five minutes away from home.  It is the type of church I grew up with and it is one of the few of its kind that still uses traditional worship style and exegetical teaching.  Due to me being an “expert” on all things Christian back when we were deciding on a church, I ignored any church that practiced infant baptism.  Now, I’m not sure if that was wise.  I have been investigating an Anglican (not Episcopalian) Church five minutes from home.  There is still some more to investigate on other doctrinal issues, but I have pretty much come to the conclusion that baptizing my children is the right thing to do.  However, since I know how big of a deal it is, I struggle with actually pulling the trigger and getting them baptized.  I also struggle with changing churches as there is a good chance my family may be moving within a year to an area without an Anglican Church within a hundred miles.  Uprooting my family from a church twice in the same year seems excessive.  But, I ask, why the journey, then?

I believe God is telling me it is time to make a decision in this regard and in the regard of my other journey of finding my role in the Russian orphan ministry and advocacy against Human/Sex Trafficking.  The time of fence sitting is over and it is trigger-pulling time.

Therefore, before going down the third leg of the journey, orphan advocacy, I will go through verses for decision making.  Revelation 3:15-16 has always been a big one for me because Jesus is speaking like Mr. Miyagi and Yoda.  How often does that happen?  Since I don’t want to get squished like grape, I can no longer walk in the middle.  As my father-in-law used to say, “Get in your lane, Schneider!”  God does not care for passionless fence sitters who live out of fear of making mistakes rather than being guided by the Spirit.  Sometimes decisions take leaps of faith.  Radical changes in direction decisions show what faith really is.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)