March 17, 2026

 A Word for Today

“Those Whom I Love”

The Revelation 3:14-27 NIV

                To the angel of the church of Laodicea write:

              These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.  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.  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

                Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest and repent.  Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

                To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

I heard a sermon on this very text when I was a teenager about to go to college.  I remember the minister, I remember the Sunday morning he preached this from the pulpit in our church.  His name is Rev. Baumgardner.  This sermon troubled me for years but eventually changed my life!

I present this text to you today as our word for today, as something we all need to hear again, especially since our country is at war with Iran.  This is a moment of crisis for us as a nation.  Despite our current political leadership, they do not seem to know what they are doing.  They have lost their way!

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments talk about this very thing:

                “All ye, like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all!” (Isaiah 53:6)

(Also see Isaiah 53:5 as corollary to this passage, indeed all of Isaiah, chapter 53:1-12).

It is peculiar that a text written through the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God the Father and God the Son should be so relevant for us!

I have been meditating and praying about our current state of affairs and in fact wrote another article about this Sunday, March 15, 2026.  I am extremely concerned (and many others share my concern- although some use other language to say it!)  Being a rather large human family, we don’t always use the same words but often say the same thing, though we often don’t know it.

So, these words are my words, but you may share the same feelings about these things, as I do.

I feel and think our current leadership does not know what they are doing!  Using my brother Walter’s words, they are in fact; “Bat shit crazy!”  I agree and told him so this morning when we talked by phone.

It does not do much good, in the human condition, to be able to diagnose the wrong, yet be unable to do anything about it.  That’s where I find myself, and I expect many of us find ourselves here as well.

So, when I don’t know what to do, nor even where to begin, I generally stop and ask myself this question:  “Well, if I don’t know what to do (I am admitting my helplessness to change another human being’s mind), and if I am confused as to what to do myself (which is often the case with me), then I request help from a Higher Authority – which in my case, is God!”

I simply pause in my activities of today (this day) and pray for God, who is my Redeemer, Guide and Friend, to help me by God’s own working in God’s own way (by God’s grace and redemptive power) to bring into being whatever effect or happening God chooses to do.  Having admitted my inability, I ask God (Father-Son-Holy Spirit) to be God for me.

It seems to some as a “cop out”, that is not taking responsibility for my (our) own failures in life.  But, I speak not of a failure, but of a request for God to help me and our world of many peoples, tribes and nations and to guide us again into the right way.  This is simply and honest cry for help: “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I find this to be a most helpful prayer and a better way to live.  “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and God will help you (us) in due season.”

That is the essence of it and all I needed to say.  Except, I will give God in Christ my thanksgiving and my praise.  Who other than God can save us, from ourselves, from our sins and from destroying one another and our beautiful world?

Benediction:  Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.  Amen.   (Jude 24-25) NKJV

Bill Wilson, servant of God, by God’s grace and abundant mercies!

“Amen.”

Let all of God’s people say, “Amen!”

“Amen!  We praise you and give your glory, Lord Jesus Christ!”