“The Remnant needs to choose to accept a “new heart” before she can function as the Remnant.”
TEXT:
Chapter 11, Page 109 –
Let me suggest one more possible breakthrough strategy. Turn to Genesis 32:24. “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” What about a personal confrontation with God at a time when the people of Laodicea are “left alone” – when all the strength of popularity has vanished, when all the power of riches has turned to rust, when all the air has gone out of the balloon of religious superiority? At that time Laodicea will be left to face a power that she in her arrogance cannot conquer – the convicting power of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8) and the truth of the statement “and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
Yes, I know. The remedy for Laodicea’s problem is in Revelation 3:18-20. But will she choose to take her medicine? Will she choose to wake up and become the Remnant?
Will I? Will you?
Do you know who you are?
The truth is that the Remnant is painfully human. Like the Pogo cartoon strip of many years ago, “We have met the enemy – and he is us.” Whether it’s the thorns of the “worry of the world” like Elijah and John the Baptist, or whether it’s the thorns of the “deceitfulness of riches” like the arrogance and apathy of Laodicea, our human hearts seem to grow these thorns even better than we grow the seed of the Gospel.
It is obvious that the Remnant needs to choose to accept a “new heart” before she can function as the Remnant, before she can overcome her one quality – her humanness – that will do her in. Now you understand the importance of our previous discussions. Until the Remnant is empowered (Ephesians 3:16), until the Remnant receives her “heart transplant” (Ezek. 36:26-27), until the Remnant is “transformed” (Romans 12:1-2), she will languish, she will not know who she is, and she will be unable to carry out all that we will be discussing in our coming conversations.
Chapter 12: [6]
