Thought For The Day

It’s A Scorcher

And when the south wind is blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be a scorcher,” and it is. Luke 12:55

It’s just hot! There are a lot of euphemisms we could use, but the reality is, hot is the word. We have not reached the magnitude of 1980 for “over 100 degree” days yet, but it is frightfully hot and dry. Grass is fading or gone. Trees are giving up their leaves and lives, and people who have to work outside are looking for shade and cold water.

Some folks are going to say it’s Global Warming. Some will say it’s just a climactic change that is a normal part of the Earth’s cycle of weather. Others will be reminded that the Scripture tells us in Genesis 8:22, As long as the earth endures. . .cold and heat. . .will not cease. Therefore we can rest assured that the cool and cold days will come again.

I have long been convinced that the same phenomenon exists in the life of the Body of Christ. No matter how hard we try to resist the temptation toward vacillation in our Spiritual temperature, we are sometimes hot and sometimes cold. When we are recipient of some unique intervention of God in our lives – recovery/remission from cancer, or especially convicted toward holy living by a penetration of God’s Truth to our hearts, we heat up and the fire of commitment burns brightly for a time. Inevitably, however, and certainly too quickly the heat is moderated by the coolness of distraction, hectic schedules, unrealistic demands on our time and resources, and the fires of consistency burn out.

The resultant outcome of the hot/cold cycle is apathy. We have managed to convince ourselves that the rotation or sequence is normal, everyone goes through it, and there is no solution. I am almost convinced that is accurate thinking. Surely by this point in the history of man we would have discovered the resolution if one existed.

The questions then becomes would our Father leave us to this cruel fluctuation, without answer and without hope? My answer is a resounding no! No more than He would leave the beauty of His Earth to the destructive elements of only heat or cold would He leave His children without hope. We must appropriate the disciplines of endurance and perseverance which are promised by God. Perhaps we might call them (endurance and perseverance) the heaters of the soul. They are the by-products of building the supplements to our faith into our lives day by day (see 2 Peter 1:3-11).

We’ve a long way to go before North Texas reaches the scalding temperatures of Death Valley, California or Baghdad, Iraq. I pray it’s not that long or far to the hottest Church in town.

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