The Church of Laodicea: Making Decisions

Hello Friends,

How are you doing? Did you enjoy the snowy weather last weekend? As I sat in the office, I found myself gazing out the window watching the snow gently fall to the ground. When I got ready to leave the office, I noticed that those gently falling snowflakes were piled up, about four inches high. It was certainly a beautiful snow! I hope you were able to enjoy it and at least made some sort of a snowman. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to play in the snow when it fell, but I had to stay in the office get some work done. Believe me it was a tough decision.

Speaking of decisions, did you know that the average adult makes about 35,000 decisions a day. If the average adult gets about seven hours of sleep each day, that means that they are making almost 2,000 decisions per hour. That’s a lot of decisions! I bet you make decisions too, all the time. You make decisions when it comes time to eat. You make decisions when it comes to playing with a certain toy. You make decisions about who to play with and who to talk to. You make decisions regarding your favorite color or what picture to paint. You even make decisions to take a nap or not when your parents tell you it is time to take a nap. You make decisions all the time; and sometimes, we don’t like to make decisions. We want someone else to make them for us.

Well guess what. There is a church, from many years ago, that had to make decisions. This church was from the town of Laodicea. But before we visit that church, let me remind you of a church that made the decision to practice love in that they did and said.

The Church of Philadelphia decided to love Jesus: they him with all their heart, mind, body, and soul. The love that they decided to follow is defined by the Apostle Paul: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends….” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

With this love, Jesus promises to be there for us, to help us, to support us, to be kind to us, to care for us, to never leave us, and to be patient, truthful, to have hope in us, and to always love us. We need this love in our life if we want to be who God needs us to be. We need this love to climb mountains. We need this love to be able to really tell Jesus how we feel. All we need is love….All we need is the love of Jesus in our life. We need to decide to love Jesus because Jesus has already decided to love us.

The Church of Philadelphia made a powerful decision to love Jesus, and as a church we need to do the same. The Church of Laodicea made some wrong decisions in their life, but Jesus was there to give them a second change. The Church of Laodicea was pitiful, sinful, wicked, and was very undecisive. Adults would say that this church was “sitting on the fence,” hoping someone would make decisions for them and tell them what to do. From this church we learn a very important lesson as a church: we need to make decisions with Jesus in our heart.

As a church, we have to make decisions a lot. We make decisions when it comes to our finances. We make decisions when it comes to scheduling, cancelling, and rescheduling events and meetings. We make decisions on who is bringing what to the next dinner or where we are gathering for pizza or when we are going bowling. We make decisions on what to purchase. We make decisions on where we are going to sit. Could you imagine what kind of church we would be like if we didn’t make decisions? Could you imagine if we were constantly sitting on the fence?

As a church, it is our duty to make decisions that better the life of each congregant member (like you), cater to the needs in the community, and find ways to share and live out the good news. As Jesus tells us, we should not be “lukewarm”: we shouldn’t sit in the middle. We must pray, read and study the scriptures, listen to each other, communicate with each other, be involved in the church together, find ways to put our ideas into action, and to open the door when Jesus knocks. As a church we must find ways to not be lukewarm but to find ways to be the church that Jesus needs us to be.

In Junior High, every morning each grade would gather for a brief assembly to go over announcements and at the end of the announcements, the speaker would say, “Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours.” The choice is ours when it comes to deciding what kind of church we want to be. Jesus knows what kind of church he wants us to be, but is that the church you want to be? I hope that we become the church that Jesus needs us to be, but the choice is yours. I pray that of the 35,000 decisions that you make each day, at least one them is a decision to be the church of Jesus Christ.

Although I wanted to be out in the snow when it fell, I was glad I stayed in the office because that meant I could spend more time in the snow the next day! We all have to make decisions; and I pray that your decisions reflect the ways of Jesus Christ.

Your Friend, Holy Spirit!