Cooking Souls Into The Kingdom

I was frying my two eggs as usual this morning on a medium heat. Up until recently, I turned the burner onto high, melted the butter into the iron skillet, then turned down the heat to medium to cook the eggs the rest of the way. Now, it is medium from beginning to end. Too hot at the start creates brittle and hardened eggs--and causes the eggs to fuse to the pan. The moderate heat seems to be the perfect balance of enough heat, but not too little or too much.

The power of moderation in discourse these days is pretty much dismissed. For many Christians, it reeks of compromise. Did not Jesus say that He was going to spew the lukewarm from his mouth? Yet, in looking at that passage, Jesus is specifically referring to a Church who has need of nothing, Jesus included: (Revelation 3). He is speaking to Believers lack of fervency for Him and lack of deeds expressing that passion.

Message to Laodicea
    14“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
    The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
    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.17‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,18I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.19‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.20‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.21‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.22‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

If one takes the Bible seriously, it is easy to slip into the role and robe of Prophet, where we fashion ourselves to be faithful the more denouncing we are. I know, I do it. Yet, in my blogs, I try to always offer a solution to the problems I present. It does little good to deny the problem because no one will want a solution if the problem is not first recognized. Yes, sin is deadly. Christ, the Savior is life. But, we all have a little or a lot of Westboro Baptist in us. Being condemning and seeing damning others as a proof of our faithfulness--like that is a deed that God honors. Did not Jesus say that the world was already condemned and He came instead to save it?

Too often  we scold and scald, thinking that we can burn people into the Kingdom--in the spirit of the Inquisition.  Most people who become Christians do it as a result of gradually warming up to the Gospel because they see it and experience in the context of real relationships with Christians. And, if a heavy-handed tactic did work, that probably does more harm than good because now the new believer will use the same methodology on others, a strategy that is not real effective with most people.

There is that cliché, "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin." I have to say that seems to be more an escape hatch to hate the sinner because it is so very difficult to be that spiritually surgical. Instead, it is instead more like bombing. Collateral damage. Better to not hate at all. Instead, be sorrowful for what sin does to people and mourn. The world would greatly benefit from seeing our tears rather than the wrathful spit from our mouths.