1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
I hear the Spirit saying that He looks beneath the exterior into the inner recesses of my life, and He sees some pretty neglected areas. In fact He sees some places which are deathly ill—too ill for me to be about the full work God has for me.
While these words begin to raise my anxiety level a bit, there is hope for healing; and it comes through waking up and remembering some important things about that fresh life and vision God gave me years ago. Turns out that I need to stand up and bring that memory forward and start pressing into God’s victory again. The Spirit makes some pretty great promises about where that leads.
I sense God asking me to wake up with how I’m spending my time. I plan on doing that by making an inventory of all the ways I spend it. I plan on scheduling out hurry and needless activities and scheduling in unhurried time in relationship with God and others. I’ll ask my Huddle friends to keep me accountable to it.
Bill Azbell, Pastor
First Presbyterian Church – Concord
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
I hear the invitation to “Walk with Me” (unsoiled=in obedience)
Life Journal yesterday from Deut. 33:27 “The eternal God is a dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
I heard the invitation to “step in”–into that dwelling place.
Today I will continue listening for how to walk not just “with” Him but “in” Him. I want to be able to say that “in Him I live and move and have my being” in a much more literal sense.
I hear a warning to the church, thats’s us! So many of us want to be a part of a thriving, relevent, community reaching, Kingdom minded body of believers. We have not arrived, our work, our calling, the great commission is not completed. I hear a challenge; join those in our church body who are doing God’s work and are committed to obedience. I hear a promise of blessing for those of us that do these things. I long to hear my Master’s voice say “well done good and faithful servent”.
“Wake Up!” from the passage certainly gets your attention – along with Bill’s committment to life inventory. I am hearing God’s wake up call and will take better invetory of my evening time! Thanks Bill.