A Lukewarm Nation

This is an address to the Christian nation of the world.

So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit
​you out of my mouth. -Revelation 3:16

A lukewarm faith, in the eyes of Jesus, is the worst type of faith. There is hot faith, cold faith, and lukewarm faith. A hot faith would include those who passionately love God and are willing to do anything and everything to please Him. A cold faith would include those who don't praise God, don't read His word, and flat out reject Him. But those with lukewarm faith are those who worship God, sing His praise, yet don't live their lives in that way. They are the ones who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. And the lukewarm section of  Christianity  is  continuing to grow. And we must stop it.

We live in a world where Christians no longer seem to fight for those who are being oppressed. We have stopped fighting for the people who Jesus came and spent all of His time with. The people who others saw as "dirty" and "unworthy." The ones that people shunned and insulted. The people that Jesus loved and the people He called on us to love. Why have become so lukewarm?

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is
​generous to the needy honors him. - Proverbs 14:31

​The first part that I want to address is the Syrian refugee issue. So many nations around the world are fighting to keep them out of their countries. But where are the Christians that should be loudly fighting for them? Where are those who love Jesus, have we not heard His commands for us? Or are we just choosing to ignore them? 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
​ - Matthew 25:35-26
​
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. - Psalm 82:4 

So many of us are blessed beyond our needs. We have houses large enough to hide in. We have fridges full of food we never plan to eat. We have clothes in our closet that rarely see the sun. Yet, we say we don't have anything left to give? 

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. - Luke 14:13-14

We continue to feast, but for some reason we forget to invite. We hoard it all for ourselves. We hoard the food, the wealth, the shelter, we collect and collect and we refuse to give, because we would hate to see somebody else take what we have "earned." How foolish are we, though, to believe that we have earned any of this. I have earned nothing. You have earned nothing. We have earned nothing. We have been blessed by God with everything. And he demands us to give it away.

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." - Matthew 19:21

The next thing I would like to address, is the way that we treat our fellow humans. My Facebook feed is filled with my christian brothers and sisters saying ungodly things about the Muslim people. Saying we shouldn't allow them into our country. Posting photos of "MUSLIM FREE ZONES" and saying these zones should be everywhere.

(Muslims aren't the only group of people that have been treated/are being treated this way by Christians and the rest of the world, but this is the example I am picking for this post, because these postings in particular triggered this blog post.)

As we are all aware, ISIS is a large scare in the world today. But, for some reason, humans have yet to learn from our past mistakes. We, like so many times in the past, have seen the behaviors of .001% of a group and have assigned that behavior to the entire group. And I am sad to see that fellow Christians have done the same.

Who are we to say that all Muslims are terrorists just because one terrorists group exists? How would we like it if the world said we were all like the Westboro Baptist "Church"? Just because that .001% of Christians are... um, well, whatever it is you may want to call them, doesn't mean the entire Christian population is the same way. So why would we say that Muslims are all terrorists because one group happens to be Muslim and terrorists? It's illogical and it is not Godlike.

As a Christian nation, we should be fighting for the Muslim people. The Muslims that have absolutely nothing to do with ISIS. The Muslims that fear for their lives just as much, if not more, than we do. Jesus called on us to love everybody, so why are our hearts filled with so my hate?

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so
you must love one another. - John 13:34

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.- Romans 12:9

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest
​of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13

We have been called to love. We have been called to serve. We have been called to shelter. We have been called to give. We have been called to show the world what the love of God truly looks like.

We have cooled down over the years. We have become lukewarm. But it doesn't need to stay this way. We can change. We can still show the world who Jesus is and what He has put us on this world to do. We can do this.

This is my plea to the Christian nation, let's warm our faith up until the heat is so powerful that the world can't help but take notice.