Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We talk a great deal about the "Great Controversy between Christ and Satan," and we look forward to the final end of the conflict with victory for Christ. (Yes, and for us, too! We don't want to forget that!)
But there is a problem that must be solved--the lukewarmness in the church. That word describes us all. How can such a church be ready for His second coming? Sincere people insist there is no problem--the church has always been that way and it always will be. "Christ will come when He gets ready, and if only a few are prepared to meet Him, that will be the end of the 'Great Controversy.'"
But wait a moment: Jesus says that His church being lukewarm makes Him so sick at His stomach that He feels like throwing up (Rev. 3:16 is clear). How can He come for a church that makes Him feel that way? And secondly, there must be a "marriage of the Lamb" before He can take His people home to glory (see Rev. 19:7-9). How can Jesus come if His Bride "has [not] made herself ready" and makes Him feel like vomiting?
If Jesus cannot solve the problem of lukewarmness, He will forever be embarrassed throughout His great universe. How can He ascend the throne of His people's hearts if He cannot win them from a half-hearted, half-love-the-world/half-love-Him, spiritual paralysis? Can He send disasters, like permitting Babylon to destroy Jerusalem? That would be like a Bridegroom sticking a pistol in his bride's back and telling her, "Say 'I do,' or I'll pull the trigger!" Could a marriage like that endure?
Fear is not the answer. Jesus must somehow win the full heart-devotion of His church, or He can never be honored and glorified before the universe (and the world). There is only one way: reveal to His church His true character as "the Lamb that was slain." Let them see His cross, what His sacrifice amounted to, what it cost Him to save us, how He died our second death. That's why the Book of Revelation focuses on the cross when it features Jesus as "the Lamb" twenty-five times.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 4, 2000.
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