Life goes on

Revelations 2: 2-5

2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

You have forsaken your first love..... That is something that none of us want to be accused of. The problem with the Ephesians church, was that it was starting to get lax in it’s practices. While at one time they were very skeptical of self proclaimed apostles, and would be skeptical of the “apostle” until the apostle was vetted, they now were more willing to accept new “prophets” with new teachings, without all of the vetting they would do in the past. Their deeds in the beginning were great, as time went on they grew to be less. This easily leads in to the second question….sound familiar?

I do believe that this is one of the largest traps we all are prone to fall in to. Everyone remembers when Christ found them, the excitement, the feeling of peace, the strong sense of purpose; these are all common emotions that people feel in the beginning of the journey. The Ephesians fell in to the same trap, that lays in wait for each of us; complacency. Your relationship with Christ is a lot like other relationships in your life………..just more important! When the relationship is new, it is all you can think about, it consumes you, you want to shout from the roof tops! The relationship is the topic of conversation no matter who you meet.

As the road to Christ stretches out in front of us, life continues on around us, the world does not change just because we do. As life grinds away we are bombarded with so many distractions that it becomes very easy to lose focus on Christ, it becomes easier to let things slide that you know are wrong, many people will start to rationalize their actions, instead of correct them. Suddenly some find themselves looking for “loophole” to go do what they want to do. Oh they still believe in Christ, they still are “good Christians”, but it has not become work, the some of the choices that were easy to make in the beginning now are a little harder, maybe some just do not feel like putting the work in. John Cougar said it well, “oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone”

It is human nature, and something that we all are susceptible to. This passage serves as a wake up call to each of us. We would all do well to keep Christ first in our lives, and then worry about what is next later. By staying adamant in the teachings of Christ, keeping him first in our life, and by staying on guard for the false prophets, and the wicked man, we will all find that when we stand before Christ in Judgment we will be able to hold our heads high, knowing that we, like Christ, carried our cross in life fully, not by half-measures. Christ gave every ounce of his life for us, he did not waver, he did not get lazy, we should do the same. Hold true to our beliefs, and never forget our first love.


Peace,
Rev. T