Good morning, Zane.
I’m not real excited to be hearing rain on the roof. You may feel the same if you’re required to be out in it. After sending this I’ll need to fine tune my processing of this day. I have lots to choose from.
Blessings and prayers—Tua/Ray.
Jesus’ discourse in Matthew 24, in my judgment, is on a par with other prophetic Bible passages that foretell future events. Seldom are these disclosures crystal clear in their precise meanings and applications until after their fulfillment—making much of the presentation subject to speculation and various spins on interpretation prior to its fulfillment. But without trying to sort out all the details of this particular chapter, there is one message that comes through for me loud and clear—SPIRITUAL COLDNESS IS BOTH DANGEROUS AND UNAVOIDABLE IF PROPER SPIRITUAL HEALTH/TEMPERATURE IS NOT PERSONALLY MAINTAINED. That is a truth to live by no matter where we are on this final time-line of human history.
Here, therefore, is a worthy question: Are you in possession of a reliable thermometer that will monitor your spiritual temperature? If not, you are at serious risk. Your spiritual temperature will certainly move from the range of normal/safe/healthy to abnormal/insecure/deadly. Spiritual coldness causes all kinds of related dangerous conditions, not the least of which is DECEPTION. It only makes sense that a healthy temperature will accommodate a healthy immune system—resistant to the infection of DECEPTION.
It’s quite easy for me to gather Biblical data to identify and define a PASSIONATE HEART AFTER GOD. That gathering of Biblical data, which is known, believed, and understood serves to offer the best and most reliable thermometer that I know of for testing and monitoring one’s spiritual temperature. Take, for example, the first command to LOVE GOD PASSIONATELY (Matthew 22:37-40). I only need to personally measure the degree (temperature is measured in degrees) of my own love for God against that required standard. And it only makes sense that it is virtually impossible to “grow cold” simultaneous with SEEKING FIRST HIS KINGDOM RULE (Matthew 6:33).
It may be worth noting that growing cold is not the same as frozen coldness. That does, however, describe a condition of lukewarmness. Yikes! Read Revelation 3:15-16. Well, let me cite it: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Here we are again—arriving at the same bottom-line conclusion—stressing the most important and safest ingredient to a successful life—a HEART AFTER GOD—with a passion to make everything we do, say, plan, pursue, hear, see, and think conform to pleasing our Sovereign Maker and Master. Without a doubt, this mindset offers a powerful antidote to COLDNESS and DECEPTION.