Posts
THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA
/REVELATION 2 - 3
copyright November 2007
L A O D I C E A
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And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things
saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of
God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert
cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I
will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest
be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine
eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and
knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father
in his throne. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches. Revelation 3:14-22
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God created mankind, all other reasons
aside, to have a creation He could fellowship with. I would suppose that is why He said,
"...Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...Gen.
1:26." I would say this to be a
fact also, because of how much time God spent with Adam. After Adam and Eve sinned, God provided
atonement for their sin so that the fellowship could be restored. From Adam until this day God has spoken to
men and women for various reasons, but I believe one of the reasons has been to
fellowship with us. How awesome is this, and how blessed I feel when I consider
that just as God had fellowship with Adam He chooses to fellowship with
ME. Of course not just with me, but also
with all of those who desire to obey Him with all of their heart, mind, soul,
and strength, and are consistently doing it.
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God desires a people who are perfect in heart, whose
heart is set on him, FERVENTLY. I
have shared that all being "perfect" in the sight of God is, is to
obey His spoken word. The written
word of God paves the way to bring us to the place where we can hear God
speak to us the spoken word, and to be able to discern that it is Him
and not another voice. It is through the
spoken word that we can know God's specific desires for us as an individual.
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The bible does not go into detail about how much time
pasted before Adam was finished with all of the duties God gave him to do up to
the day Adam and Eve sinned. Knowing
that God desires an intimate relationship with His children, I could see God
spending a lot of time with Adam and Eve.
Although it is obvious to me that after Adam and Eve sinned, God went
looking for them to provide an atonement for their sin, I am prone to wonder if
God went looking for them with the intent of fellowshipping with them, as if it
was something He had done on a regular basis. God's desire to fellowship
with His children is insatiable.
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God is not willing that any would perish but that ALL would
come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Obviously, because He wants to be mankind's Father and not just
mankind's Creator, but what if also because He wants to fellowship with
mankind? Without redemption we cannot
have fellowship with Him. He has
established REDEMPTION to be a prerequisite. With the open dialog of fellowship, comes the
revealing of His innumerable hidden mysteries, personality, and character. The Lord, our Father, our Daddy, and our
Friend who sticks closer than a brother loves us so much.
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Having created man after His own
likeness, and in His image, we have been created to fellowship with Him on His
level. God comes down to our level to
save us. When the work of salvation has
been completed in our heart and His Holy Spirit dwells in us, through the Holy
Spirit by faith we have access to God's throne, and His throne room to
fellowship with Him were He dwells in the heavenliness. Instead of Jesus standing at the door of
our heart wanting to come in to fellowship with us, He has made it possible for
us to stand at the door of his throne room wanting to come in and fellowship
with Him.
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If after receiving Jesus into our
heart, the full riches of His mercy and grace, we choose to be content living
the lifestyle of nominal-Christianity, which is a casual nonchalant walk with
God (Lukewarm), we will never know what it is to fellowship with Him. It is with a dedicated sincere attempt to know
Him in the fullness of His personality and character, fueled by obeying His
perfect will for our life, that will make it possible for us to fellowship with
Him on His level. God is not pleased
with a lifestyle of nominal-Christianity, which borderlines a dead religious
attempt to be a Christian. God's plea to
those who fall into this category is, "Move up higher, there is so much
more about Me that you have yet to experience.
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The door that Jesus is knocking on
(v.20) is the one that is found in the heart of those who profess to be his
people. He is saying, "I want to have fellowship with you, the intimate
kind, that is only found through being one with me". Therefore He says to us, "I counsel
thee to buy of me". Our dying to
self-ambitions, self-desires, and self-will makes intimate fellowship with the
Lord possible. "I will sup with him and he with me", is a
fellowship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit no words can adequately
describe. It is a fellowship that
must be experienced to understand. Being
One with God opens the door to the intimate fellowship God wants to have with
us.
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In Jesus' final statement to the
church of Laodicea, which is a word to the Lukewarm, and equally to the
Hypocrite, Religious, and Backslider, "To him that overcometh (to
him that will yield to My counsel, be zealous and repent, to seek after me with
all their heart, mind, soul, strength) will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his
throne." v. 21. If we choose to
resist Him, rebel, and be contentious, to say in our heart, "I will not
have this man to rule over me", not only will His chastening be upon us,
but so will His wrath, even to the eternal ruin of our soul, if we do not
repent of our rebellion.
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He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into
a far country to receive
for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and
delivered them ten pounds, and said unto
them, Occupy till I come. But his
citizens hated him, and sent a message after him,
saying, We will not have this man to reign over us...But those mine enemies, which would not that I
should reign over them, Bring hither, and slay
them before me. Luke 19:12-14, 27
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My FaceBook Wall http://www.facebook.com/samuel.siders;
some of the responses I have posted in answer to those who God has had me to
shared with can be found in my "Notes" section on my FaceBook Wall;
which contains more than 450 notes.
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My activity about sharing the Word of God with Muslims continues; this open door that the Lord has made available to me as an apologist is one where worldwide opportunities are made available (all English speaking people around the world from many different countries, races, and religious beliefs). It is WRITTEN in 1 Peter 3:15…” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" God wants us to know AND understand His Word (2 Timothy 2:15
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My activity about sharing the Word of God with Muslims continues; this open door that the Lord has made available to me as an apologist is one where worldwide opportunities are made available (all English speaking people around the world from many different countries, races, and religious beliefs). It is WRITTEN in 1 Peter 3:15…” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" God wants us to know AND understand His Word (2 Timothy 2:15
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DEFENSE FOR THE “ARCHKO VOLUME” http://www.scribd.com/doc/76537136/A-Definite-Appraisal-of-the-ArchkoVolume-Hubert-Luns and http://www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/minister/MahanWilliamDennes.htm
DEFENSE FOR THE “ARCHKO VOLUME” http://www.scribd.com/doc/76537136/A-Definite-Appraisal-of-the-ArchkoVolume-Hubert-Luns and http://www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/minister/MahanWilliamDennes.htm
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I
haven’t anything new to share from this past week. Most of my time these days
is a repeat of information I share with new participants on the Walls
particularly Muslims who post the same information as their predecessors that
need a defense. The person who invited me to the Walls I participate on posted
something about “impatience,” part of what I quoted in a personal message to
him, I will share here:
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Psallite
... Your post "Impatience can cause us to take matters into our own hands
and make mistakes," I cannot put this response online, but I have thought
recently that if Abraham's impatience had not followed Sarah's advice Ishmael
would have never been born and the Muslim threat; this could also be applied to
Adam and Eve's disobedience. I am of the belief God would have someday allowed
Adam and Eve to eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” but only
when God knew they were ready to know about "the evil;" [the war in the
heavenlies]. Adam and Eve's impatience open the door for the war to be fought
on earth to this day as demonstrated in Daniel chapter 10.
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Samuel 5/12/2013
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