{"id":77696,"date":"2019-12-05T03:56:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T09:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prayingpint.com\/?p=77696"},"modified":"2019-12-03T07:07:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T13:07:57","slug":"6-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/05\/6-a\/","title":{"rendered":"6.a."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Revelation 2:1\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cTo the angel of the church in Ephesus write: \u2018The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. \u201c\u2018I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We can all learn from the letters to the seven churches listed in Revelation.\u00a0 <\/span>These letters were written to both those present at the time of receiving the letter and to all in the future.\u00a0 <\/span>The expectation and application are just as pertinent for their culture as ours, for believing churches then as now, for believers then as now.<\/p>\n

The lesson in the letter to Ephesus teaches that truth and love must go hand-in-hand. A church that upholds doctrinal purity at the expense of showing love is just as flawed as a church that upholds congregational harmony at the expense of truthful teachings. Instead, Jesus reveals that a church fashioned in His image must teach God\u2019s Truth in love. (Christianity.com<\/span><\/a>)<\/p>\n

Given the high degree of assimilation of North American Christians to our culture\u2019s values\u2014more time spent on entertainment than on witness, more money spent on our comfort than on human need\u2014the prognosis for the society as a whole is not good.<\/p>\n

When pagans charged that Rome fell because of its conversion to Christianity, Augustine responded that it fell rather because its sins were piled as high as heaven and because the commitment of most of its Christian population remained too shallow to restrain God\u2019s wrath. Naturally, we recognize that not all suffering reflects judgment; but some do, especially on the societal level. Is Western Christianity genuinely different enough from our cultures to delay God\u2019s judgment on our societies?\u00a0 <\/span>(Zondervan Academic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revelation 2:1\u00a0 \u201cTo the angel of the church in Ephesus write: \u2018The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. \u201c\u2018I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those … Continue reading “6.a.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12465,1063,5438,12461,12466,12472,12463,12459,4039,12462,12455,12469,12470,1472,12407,550,12467,15,278,250,12454,4705,12471,12468,12464,12460,4311],"class_list":["post-77696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-abandoned-the-love-you-had-at-first","tag-against-you","tag-apostles","tag-cannon-bear-evil","tag-do-the-works-you-did-at-first","tag-eat-of-the-tree-of-life","tag-enduring-patiently","tag-ephesus","tag-fallen","tag-found-them-to-be-false","tag-golden-lampstands","tag-he-who-has-an-ear","tag-let-him-hear-what-the-spirit-says","tag-paradise-of-god","tag-patient-endurance","tag-remember","tag-remove-your-lampstand","tag-repent","tag-revelation","tag-right-hand","tag-seven-stars","tag-tested","tag-to-the-one-who-ocnquers","tag-unless-you-repent","tag-you-have-not-grown-weary","tag-your-toil","tag-your-works"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77696"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77765,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77696\/revisions\/77765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}