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Daily Devotional, Year 3 – June 3

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darby & Scofield’s Pre-Trib Rapture,

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Part 4:

“We Clueless Laodiceans!”

To read Part 1, Click here… “January 25th (The Pre-Trib Rapture, Part 1)”

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A popular saying over the past few decades has been to say this, “this or that person is ‘clueless’!”, indicating that they do not understand the situation. Or perhaps that they do not understand much of anything!

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This picture is of a certain character in Bunyan’s, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” named “Ignorance”.

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Here was a very clueless character who thought he had Salvation, when in truth, he was far away from Salvation!

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Pilgrims Progress – Ignorance – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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A SPEWED OUT CHURCH?

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Now, “Clueless” is a rather derogatory name to tag on someone, and probably should not be used by Christians in everyday life (unless we are referring to our own self).

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But since this devotional attempts to relate earthly things to heavenly truths, it seems appropriate to highlight a statement made by Jesus to the Church at Laodicea.

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Listen…“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; AND KNOWEST NOT that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” Revelation 3:16, 17

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Here we have a Church which believes it is in good standing with God, when in fact, the Lord is about to vomit it out of His mouth!

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Now how much more clueless can a church be!?

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Pilgrim’s Progress – Converse with Ignorance – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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LAODICEANS US!

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Well, the Laodicean Church is the last church of the 7 churches written to in Revelation.

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It is the “people of judgment”.

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And it relates to our day.

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CLUELESS LAODICEANS US!

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But is the current-day church really to be considered, Laodicea?

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Well, if you would ask most Christian churches, they might tell you that “No, we are the Philadelphian Church!”

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Oh. The Philadelphian Church.

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Well, the Philadelphian Church was one of two churches of the seven which God highly praised (the second church was the Church of Smyrna.) He had no condemning words for those two faithful churches. Everything was good! All was right! They were the faithful ones!

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Pilgrims Progress – Ignorance – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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“NO, NOT US!”

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But is that really the true condition of today’s church-world?

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Well, if you would ask today’s self-proclaimed, “Philadelphian churches”, about the present condition of the church-world, they might answer, “Oh yes, those churches over there are Lukewarm Laodiceans. But not us! We’re Philadelphians!”

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The problem with this type of thinking is, that it agrees with Christ’s assessment of the Laodiceans, that indeed, as Jesus puts it, “…thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; AND KNOWEST NOT that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” Revelation 3:16, 17

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Here is a very damning statement by Jesus, concerning this poor Laodicean church: they believe that all is well as far as their standing with God, when, in fact, they are, “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

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It doesn’t get much worse than that!

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This is the ultimate “clueless!”

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“BUT I’M NOT A LAODICEAN!”

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Now, the more conservative churches will scoff at those obviously apostate, “liberal churches” over there, saying, “Indeed, they are the Laodicean Church!”

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And truth-be-told, when compared with the liberal churches, the conservative churches actually look pretty good!

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And yet, when compared with the Bible, even the so-called conservative churches more appropriately fit the description of lukewarm Laodicea.

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Pilgrims Progress – Ignorance – Wikimedia – Public Domain

Evangelist Preaching – Church – Audience hands – Wikimedia – Public Domain

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OPULENCE & HEDONISM

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One of the great sins of today’s church-world is that most of us have been deceived by the world (and by world-loving church-goers) into believing that we Christians can pursue the same opulence and hedonism which this cornucopian society pursues, and still have Christ.

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Yes, to a large extent, we live in a pleasure-driven, prosperity-minded super-society. And because of the great wealth and state-of-the-art manufacturing of these industrialized/high-tech nations, just about any earthly dream is now attainable!

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Yes, through the “entrepreneurial spirit”, combined with hard work, one ambitious soul can amass more than heart could wish in just a few years!

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And for the unsaved world, this may be OK (or not!)

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But this is definitely not the commission which God has given to His “called-out and separated” people.

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People on Times Square – Wikimedia Commons – cropped image – Share-Alike License

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BE CONTENT WITH SIMPLICITY

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No, a life of enthusiastically pursuing worldly cares and pleasures was not, and is not the commission which God has given to His people.

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Just the opposite! Listen to Paul’s exhortation…“And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” 1st Timothy 6:8, 9

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Yes, today’s opulent church-world has fallen into “many foolish and hurtful lusts” which has greatly drowned us in, “destruction and perdition”!

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But rather, Paul is exhorting us to “be content with food and raiment”!

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This description shows the great disparity in today’s church-world in the western nations, between “What is” and “What should be”!

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Paul Shipwrecked – Acts 27:41-44 – www.lavistachurchofchrist.org – Public Domain

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“MANY FOOLISH & HURTFUL LUSTS”

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Now, do we even need to ask, “Just what kind of ‘foolish and hurtful lusts’ is Paul speaking of?”

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Well, the short list might be such things as daily indulgence of television, secular radio and secular Internet. Or it might be excessive social events, pleasure-parties, clubs and organizations. Or perhaps it may be lavishing our lives with extravagantly adorned homes and grounds and needlessly costly vehicles and plush pleasure-resorts and excessive amusements, various sports, gratuitous shopping, and all the other various costly and time-consuming pursuits which this opulent and hedonistic culture affords today.

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In other words, the Christian community (both liberal and conservative), is enthusiastically going after the same opulence and hedonism which led to the decline and eventual destruction of Sodom and its surrounding cities!

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LIFE IS COMPLICATED

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Now, God is not making a hard-and-fast rule about all these indulgences. He understands how complicated life can be in this Babylon world. And He fully understands that work commitments and family obligations can complicate the choices we must make each day.

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But the constant desire of the Christian should be to separate ourselves from evil influences and time-stealing and energy-sapping pursuits which cause us to put our Salvation on the proverbial “back-burner”.

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And so, the Christian is constantly praying for, and striving to maintain a watchful and vigilant separation: a separation from any and every other thing that desires to interfere with our continuous communion with God, and a night & day contemplation of His wonderful Word!

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Barbecue – Dutch family – cropped – Wikimedia – Share-alike License

Family Prayer Before Meal – Wikimedia – US-Govt. – Public-Domain

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CHRIST’S SIMPLICITY OBSCURED

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Yes, our commission is to let the light of Jesus shine out to this hopeless world, lost in spiritual darkness!

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But how can that light shine out when it is so greatly obscured by all the Mammon which we have so heavily ladened ourselves with?

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Jesus, in all His simple beauty cannot be rightly seen when extravagantly adorned with so much of this world’s opulence and pleasure-seeking.

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PICTURE: Unfunny Judgment Day Cartoon – company’s-coming

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GOD’S PEOPLE TO BE CLEANSED

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Well, the Good News is, that we have now arrived at the day in which it is written…“In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isaiah 2:20, 21

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Yes, this is the day that the Lord has appointed for His chosen people to finally cast off our world-loving ways, and flee to Christ in all His heavenly simplicity and goodness!

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The time for all dilly-dallying in the world must come to an end!

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Picture – Lot Escapes Sodom – www.thebiblerevival.com offers free Bible clipart – Public Domain.

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TO READ PART 5, GO HERE…

July 28 (Darby & Scofield’s Pre-Trib Rapture, Part 5: “Lesson From Genesis”)

Algonquian Bible 1663 Genesis 1 – US Public Domain – Wikipedia

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TODAY’S PRAYER…

“Dear Lord, Help me to cut away as many earthly tendrils as possible, out of my life. And please continue to reorder my life in such a way that I can live the simplicity of Christ to an ever-greater extent…

Prayer at Day’s End – Angelus by Jean-François Millet – Wikipedia – Public Domain

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READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “SEPTEMBER 8 (Flee To The Mountain! Part 4: Fiddling While Rome Burns!)“, or you can also read…” June 25th (The War Nobody Prepared For!)”

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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THE END

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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

Info & pics of constellations on this site from Wikipedia & International Astronomical Union (click here)

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THE 5 OFFICES OF ORION

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But like most of the other Signs which this website reveals, Orion too, has much more to say as he changes his position in the sky. And this Soldier in the Heavens puts on different garb, as he presents the five awesome aspects of his various offices. From ‘Orion the Soldier’, and ‘Orion the Reaper’, and ‘Orion the Archer’, and ‘The Cross of Orion’, and last but certainly not least, “Orion, The Good Shepherd”. This amazing constellation presents a very complex revelation of the God’s magnificent love for a fallen planet.

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So read on and discover, “things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 13:35

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READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “The Orion Phenomena”

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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TOMORROW…

June 4 (The Beast of Revelation 13)

ABOVE ENGRAVING: Whore – Babylon – Burgkmair – 1523 AD – this old engraving shows that the Church once realized that the Babylon Mother of Harlots was actually the apostate churches – Wikimedia – US Public Domain

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Those who are interested in using photos on this page may click on provided link below each photo, to get to Wikimedia Commons for various licensing details & tags, and all other necessary information on any particular photo. Most tall, narrow photos have been cropped or reduced by this website to make them a better fit on phone screens.