HAVE YOU A DUEL MEMBERSHIP? MANY HAVE!
Posted by Jerry Osborne on Monday, December 31, 2012
The membership of the Laodicean Church of Revelation chapter 3 is growing. It is a booming church today!
According to Revelation, the church is made up of people everywhere who once had a real love for Jesus; but now they have “left their first love.” They are neither HOT nor COLD, and God says He will spew them out of His mouth.
Their name may be on the roll of a sin-hating, Bible-believing church, their bones may sit in the pew Sunday after Sunday; but in God’s sight they are members of the Laodicean Church. Once they were active, once they had convictions and stood with the pastor against sin, once they wept over the lost and talked about Jesus. Once they were faithful to all services and even honored God with their money.
Now it is all changed! They don’t love Jesus like they once did. They make excuses for their unfaithfulness. No more sleepless, prayer-filled nights for the lost; now they turn their nose up at soul-winning. They could care less about the lost in foreign lands. Critical? You couldn’t please them if you walked on your hands across Niagara Falls!
Then there is always the old backslider who says, “Well, that’s normal! Everyone cools off.” That’s a lie. More than once as a young person I saw tears stream down my pastor’s face as he would say, “I’ve known the Lord for forty years and love Him more tonight than ever before!” Praise the Lord! That was normal Christianity!
Pastor Jerry Osborne
Community Bible Church, 1952-1997
Reprinted November 27, 2011
According to Revelation, the church is made up of people everywhere who once had a real love for Jesus; but now they have “left their first love.” They are neither HOT nor COLD, and God says He will spew them out of His mouth.
Their name may be on the roll of a sin-hating, Bible-believing church, their bones may sit in the pew Sunday after Sunday; but in God’s sight they are members of the Laodicean Church. Once they were active, once they had convictions and stood with the pastor against sin, once they wept over the lost and talked about Jesus. Once they were faithful to all services and even honored God with their money.
Now it is all changed! They don’t love Jesus like they once did. They make excuses for their unfaithfulness. No more sleepless, prayer-filled nights for the lost; now they turn their nose up at soul-winning. They could care less about the lost in foreign lands. Critical? You couldn’t please them if you walked on your hands across Niagara Falls!
Then there is always the old backslider who says, “Well, that’s normal! Everyone cools off.” That’s a lie. More than once as a young person I saw tears stream down my pastor’s face as he would say, “I’ve known the Lord for forty years and love Him more tonight than ever before!” Praise the Lord! That was normal Christianity!
Pastor Jerry Osborne
Community Bible Church, 1952-1997
Reprinted November 27, 2011
