{"id":654,"date":"2017-10-31T05:32:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=654"},"modified":"2017-10-31T05:32:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:32:13","slug":"devotion-revelation-41-11-letters-to-the-seven-churches-laodicea-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=654","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Revelation 4:1-11 Letters To The Seven Churches, Laodicea Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Revelation 3:14-22\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>\u201cTo the angel of the church in Laodicea\u00a0write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness,\u00a0the ruler of God\u2019s creation.<\/span>\u00a015\u00a0I know your deeds,\u00a0that you are neither cold nor hot.\u00a0I wish you were either one or the other!<\/span>\u00a016\u00a0So, because you are lukewarm\u2014neither hot nor cold\u2014I am about to spit you out of my mouth.<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0You say, \u2018I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.\u2019\u00a0But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.<\/span>\u00a018\u00a0I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire,\u00a0so you can become rich; and white clothes\u00a0to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness;\u00a0and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19\u00a0Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.\u00a0So be earnest and repent.<\/span>\u00a020\u00a0Here I am! I stand at the door\u00a0and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,\u00a0I will come in\u00a0and eat with that person, and they with me. 21\u00a0To the one who is victorious,\u00a0I will give the right to sit with me on my throne,\u00a0just as I was victorious\u00a0and sat down with my Father on his throne.<\/span>\u00a022\u00a0Whoever has ears, let them hear\u00a0what the Spirit says to the churches.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThose whom I love I rebuke and discipline.\u00a0So be earnest and repent.<\/span>\u201d Every parent disciplines their child. It is not a matter of if they discipline their child, it is only a matter of application and degree.\u00a0 They are some things that even those who discipline their children the least expect a child to learn and obey.\u00a0 Things such as potty-training, hygiene, communicating, eating habits, etc.\u00a0 Take potty-training, some may say that a child should be potty-trained before two years of age, some may before three, or five years.\u00a0 It is not a matter of if the child should be trained, but rather, when and how.\u00a0 It is unimaginable that a parent would allow a child to wear no clothes and use the floors, furniture and beds as a place to urinate or defecate.\u00a0 These examples are extreme, but show that every parent disciplines their child in some way.\u00a0 The parent, according to their beliefs, and other factors such as love for the child versus love for themselves, decides where, when and how to apply discipline.\u00a0 Sometimes a child is disciplined not out of love for the child, but out of the parents own love for themselves.\u00a0 All parents discipline their children. Family, I don\u2019t have time to speak of abuse, we are talking about genuine discipline.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>God disciplines His children and He is perfect in how He disciplines.\u00a0 God disciplines out of love.\u00a0 The child of God need not always understand the method of discipline.\u00a0 What the child of God must know, must be completely convinced of, is the innate goodness of God, and His absolute, complete and eternal love for each of His children.\u00a0 Knowing that God knows everything, that would mean that He knows when His child needs correction and what is the perfect correction that should be applied for that individual child.\u00a0 The ease of accepting correction from God comes from the depth and conviction of the knowledge of God.\u00a0 To know God, really know Him as Truth beyond everything else, one must grasp who He is.\u00a0 Yes, that He is, but importantly who He is.\u00a0 That understanding brings acceptance, confidence, and even security that one\u2019s life is being guarded and loved.\u00a0 The discipline of our perfect God is perfect.\u00a0 Do we know, and, truly believe in, who God is?\u00a0 Do we believe that He knows, in every circumstance, more that we do?\u00a0 Do we really?\u00a0 If so, then we will not only accept His discipline, but desire it.\u00a0 This is absolutely true.\u00a0 If we believe that God is greater than we are, that He knows more than we do, is innately, purely and absolutely good, and that He loves us with an undefiled purity that is ever present and eternal, than we want His discipline.\u00a0 Whether His discipline is a gentle holding of the hand and leading, or something much stronger, the discipline of God should not be understood as something we endure, but something we embrace. Though discipline can be difficult, we should desire it because He knows best and that if He is disciplining us, He is loving us.\u00a0 Family, discipline from God is love from God!\u00a0 Absolutely!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>From a very young age I heard from my Dad what most of us have heard, \u201cI discipline you because I love you.\u201d\u00a0 I believed Him, truly I did.\u00a0 I clearly remember a time when I had again done something worthy of spanking.\u00a0 After spanking me my Dad sat on the bed next to me and cried.\u00a0 I was shocked.\u00a0 My Dad was not a crier.\u00a0 I asked why He was crying and He told me that He hates to spank me.\u00a0 He wished He never had to, but He must because He loved me and wanted the best for me.\u00a0 I was deeply impressed.\u00a0 From then on I knew, I was certain, that He disciplined me not because he wanted to, but because he loved me, and his love for me demands that discipline me.\u00a0 And, here is the thing.\u00a0 I benefited from His discipline.\u00a0 He used discipline to teach me life lessons that remain to this day.\u00a0 The discipline he gave me, with the knowledge that His discipline came from His love, in fact was evidence of it, helped me to understand the discipline that comes from God.\u00a0 In fact, though sometimes very difficult, I can praise God through the discipline because I know that His discipline is not from an anger toward me, but from His absolute love for me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Family, to accept God\u2019s discipline, and to even desire it, we must, must, must, know God personally and deeply.\u00a0 We must know God, not only that He exists, but who He is.\u00a0 If we know who He is we know that He is good and that He loves us.\u00a0 We accepted discipline from our earthly fathers, and know that sometimes they got it wrong.\u00a0 Still we know that they disciplined us as loving fathers.\u00a0 Since we know that God knows everything we think, say and do, and since we know that God is perfectly good and loves perfectly, we can have confidence in His discipline.\u00a0 In fact, we can desire His discipline, because we absolutely know it is for our benefit.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 I believe!\u00a0 Lord God, have Your way with us.\u00a0 Have Your way with me!\u00a0 Thank You for Your love and care of me.\u00a0 I know that because of who I am, I require discipline.\u00a0 Lord God, thank You for Your disciplining of me and may it never stop.\u00a0 Mold me and make me as is best.\u00a0 Thank you for loving me.\u00a0 I absolutely trust you!\u00a0 Glory and praise to you! Glory, praise and honor to our perfect, good, and loving God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 139:23-24<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0<\/span>Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0\u00a024<\/a><\/span>See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0– But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Revelation 3:14-22\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTo the angel of the church in Laodicea\u00a0write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness,\u00a0the ruler of God\u2019s creation.\u00a015\u00a0I know your deeds,\u00a0that you are neither cold nor hot.\u00a0I wish you were either one or the other!\u00a016\u00a0So, because you are lukewarm\u2014neither hot nor cold\u2014I am about to spit you out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[272,94,17,711],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-discipline","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-revelation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}