Successful but Spiritually Dead

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Unlike some of the other churches Jesus addresses in Revelation, the church in Sardis appears to have been relatively well-off and accepted in that city. Unfortunately, they were also (almost) spiritually dead.

That’s the way it so often is in this world, isn’t it? Wealth and comfort make us think (erroneously) that we are self-sufficient, that we don’t need God. And that way lies spiritual death.

I mean that literally—I think Hell is made up of folks who are too proud to admit that they need God’s mercy.

Problems and poverty and persecution can bring out the best in us, though no one actually wants those things in his or her life. Still, problems can cause us to turn to God and admit that we can’t make it on our own.

Today, when you face a problem, consider it an opportunity to humbly ask for God’s help.

 

Today’s Revelation Reading (day 06 of 30): Revelation 3:1-6.

Worship Must Always Be First

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When Mary of Bethany—sister of Lazarus—uses priceless perfume to anoint Jesus, Judas complains that the money should have been spent on the poor instead of “wasted” in worship. In reply, Jesus rebukes him and tells him that what Mary did was right.

The temptation for us to ignore worship and move to “practical” and “important” matters is always with us, and always wrong.

Worship must always be first, because God is always first. To care more for the created things than we do for praising the Creator is to get things exactly backwards. In fact, the surest way to honor and care for the things of this world is to make worship our first priority. When God is first, then everything has a place, and everything will be “very good.” But, when we decide what we think is most important and should be first, then the world becomes disordered and broken. The reason the world is the way it is is precisely because we decide that we know better than God that which should be first.

Put God first, and the rest falls into place.

How do you need to re-order your world today?

 

Today’s Scripture

John 12:1-19