“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.” Rev 3:16; Mat 10:32-33; Luk 12:10

The message of the True Witness is undoubtedly more valid today than ever before. This coldness of love and the state of lukewarmness are one and the same state of confusion, a mixture of those from Above and those on Earth, a mixture of disinterested love (similar to the one manifested on the cross) and our self-centredness, the one that caused the Prince of Heaven to drink up God's wrath on our behalf. With specific reference to this state of lukewarmness are the words: “I will spue thee out of my mouth”, words representing nothing but the same warning: “him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Luke 12:9).

These words have their special fulfillment in the church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14), which means “the justice and judgment of people”, the last of the seven prophetical periods (the one of the last generation).

All things considered, there is a close connection between the victory through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (on the one hand) and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (on the other hand), since it is through the Holy Spirit that the blood of the Lamb cleanses our hearts, the very source of all our actions, from all pollution. It is through the Holy Spirit that we receive the love of God and manifest it as one of His fruits (Galatians 5:22). It is through the Holy Spirit that we do have the word of our testimony (Luke 12:12). It is indeed through the Holy Spirit that we can truly live and feel His love, manifested in our lives with all devotion, through the sacrifice He made for us. His skillful work in us through the Holy Spirit is victory over self, over our love of self, victory leading us eventually – on following the example He set for us on the cross – so far as to stop loving our own life in His absence. Thus, through the Spirit, our Saviour becomes everything in and for us.

The warning of the Holy Spirit in God's word, on foreseeing Laodicea, is that in the last days (when the love of many shall wax cold) there will be hard times, “for men shall be lovers of their own selves” (2 Timothy 3:2). This reminds us of a similar situation in the past, prior to the flood, when “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Genesis 6:5). The people back then, just like today, were full of self-confidence, they were “giants”, “mighty men” (Genesis 6:4), willing to do anything in order to achieve the highest dream of their “sleep”: a name (Genesis 11:4).

Humanity and everything it stands for has been dissatisfied with its state from the very beginning. People have always wanted more (Genesis 3:5-6). For a start, they wanted to become like God! What greater affront could there be made to God, who made the man in His own image, other than His created being's goal to get to be just like Him, the Creator, striving to acquire His qualities that can never be acquired, though, for God has been and always will be the One and only. The consequence of sin was that involution took the place of the evolution to godlikeness, and blame took the place of glory. Through sin, mankind fell and has continually degraded to the pitiful condition it is in nowadays. Thus, sin erased the image of God in us, sin broke us apart from Love and since, we have been looking for love without Love, hoping to find it at the height we imagine it might be, just like the Babylonians who attempted to build a tower reaching to the heavens. But…we find it not, for true love is not love of self, and can be found neither in the desire of “spiritual” self-emancipation, nor in a self-centred evolution. Love can be found with God, and God only, as He Himself is the supreme Love.

“For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.”

Isa 48:11

Are we aware of how much God loved the sinful man, the world? Are we truly aware of how much it cost Him the demonstration of what means: “I will not give my glory [character, love] unto another”?

“Jesus Christ who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Phi 2:6-11

The Man Jesus proved that the man can have love only when LOVE is in Him, through the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Son of God, Christ, had to behave like any other man, to be like any other son of man (Adam – Genesis 2:23), a Son of man (Luke 3:38). He was born like any other. Ever since He was in Mary's womb He had been filled with the Holy Spirit, just like Samson, John and many others called and chosen; He was baptized with the Holy Spirit, just like the disciples were later baptized at Pentecost. His mission was revealed to Him just like to any other man with a high calling (in his case, at the age of twelve, in the Temple). Like the disciples, the miracles that He worked, He worked from the Father, through the Holy Spirit and angels, He being made “a little lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7).

Christ as a man ended this work of glorifying the Father before the cross. Calvary was the last drop of an eternal cup, which only an eternal God could drink. The retribution for trespassing the Law (1 John 3:4) by the sinful man, only a man (Genesis 2:16-17) who had Love in Him through the Holy Spirit could do and this man had to be an eternal God – eternal, like the downtrodden Law. Christ Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man paid through his death the man’s love of self, the sinful man’s desire of emancipation through self.

And what is it that we do in return? We crucify Jesus afresh when we speak, we endeavour to develop by ourselves, to emancipate spiritually, to sanctify ourselves without Him. We will not understand what it means “He made himself of no reputation”. We try hard to put on Christ's garment, His presence seen through our own eyes. We claim that we believe in the Heavenly Lamb, but still we strive to emancipate self, the wolf in us which torn apart the Lamb. We try to make a Lamb's garment ourselves to cover our wolf's heart. All in vain, though! Furthermore, we decide to ignore the fact that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies and all the other things which defile a man. God has nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Him. The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib, but His people does not know Him, His people chooses not to take His word into account. What a sinful nation we are! What a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters! We have forsaken the Lord, walked away from Him! Why should we be stricken any more? We will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment and if our country is desolate, it is because our sin ruins it all… Woe be to us, shepherds of Israel, that do feed ourselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? God's sheep have been wandering through all the mountains and upon every high hill. His flock have been scattered upon all the face of the earth and no one would search or seek after them.

Let us hear the word of the Lord! Let us give ear unto the Law of our God! To what purpose is the multitude of our sacrifices unto Him? Let us bring no more vain oblations, as our incense is an abomination unto Him. He hates our calling of assemblies, as it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. He despises our appointed feasts, as they are a trouble unto Him. He is weary to bear them. And when we spread forth our hands, He will hide His from us; and however long we might pray, He will not hear, as our hands are full of blood, His blood we make use of every time we believe we have sinned, wishing not to be cleansed from all sin, but escape the feeling of guilt and avoid suffering its consequences.

Behold, our Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But our iniquities have separated us from our God and our sins have made Him hide His face from us that he will not hear. For our hands are defiled with blood. Our lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. We find no pleasure in His righteousness, nor do we plead for truth. We trust in vanity, speak lies, conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. We are hardened and rebels at heart. We turn away from our God, walk away from Him and will not say: “Let us now fear the Lord, our God that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season. He reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.” Our iniquities have turned away these things, and our sins have withheld all these blessings from us. For among His people are found wicked men and our own righteousness is nothing but a polluted garment. We fade as a leaf, and our iniquities have taken us away like the wind. There is no one to call His Name, arouse himself and take hold of Him. Therefore, He has hidden His face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

Let us repent and turn ourselves from all our transgressions so that iniquity should not be our ruin! Let's cast away from us all our transgressions whereby we have transgressed and make us a new heart and a new spirit! Let us turn ourselves and we shall live! Let us turn to Him with all our heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning! Let us rend our heart, not our garments and turn unto the Lord, our God. For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.

“Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”

Hos 6:1-3

What wonderful promises! Yet, we have been mean, we have continually transgressed. We have lived away from Him, turned our back on Him and would not have Him reign into and over our hearts. Through the life we lead, we have continually defiled His name, dishonoured Him; we have been ashamed of Him, rebelled against Him, we have hated good and loved evil. We have been proud of ourselves and our deeds, professing ourselves to be wise, men of great value. We have wished for heavenly things that cannot belong to us, built towers reaching to the heavens to defy Him and show Him that, in our selfish and loveless way, we can be like Him. We have made creators out of us, masters of others, acquiring properties so that we should live independently of Him and His love. We have created in and for us a counterfeit love, but all these in vain. Happiness seems so far away from us; the burden in our souls is so heavy that we find it impossible to get rid of it by ourselves and, more than that, we feel helpless against sin, captives of our pretensions to be freed from God.

However, this God Love invites us to sit and dine with Him so that He should fill our lives with sense and blessing. So much love offered to those who would not deserve it! And still He invites us, perseveres in His efforts to make us come to Him, turn our faces towards Him, the only blessing that can enable us to stand up straight on that last day. Let us accept His invitation now! Only today have we got the time and chance to get ourselves a new heart, one full of love, and a new life, one changed by Him, according to the image of the life He led! It would be such a pity to decline the invitation of a heart of God, skillfully shaped by love, abundantly watered by tears of longing and mercilessly pierced at the cross…

The time we live in is too solemn to ignore it and fail to understand its value. We cannot afford to overlook the importance of the moment when the horologe of time strikes for the last time. God provided us with experiences, historical facts, written testimonies so that, when time comes, we should be able to recognize the day of our calling Home and fully receive the grace promised by Him. We do have the duty to recognize, out of everything that has been placed at our disposal, the invitation to rush into the Kingdom of Heaven, invitation made by God to each and every one of us.

“I dreamed [William Miller (1782-1849)] that God, by an unseen hand, sent me a curiously wrought casket [the light of Sanctuary] about ten inches long by six square, made of ebony and pearls curiously inlaid. To the casket there was a key attached. I immediately took the key and opened the casket, when, to my wonder and surprise, I found it filled with all sorts and sizes of jewels, diamonds, precious stones, and gold and silver coin of every dimension and value, beautifully arranged in their several places in the casket; and thus arranged they reflected a light and glory equaled only to the sun. I thought it was not my duty to enjoy this wonderful sight alone, although my heart was overjoyed at the brilliancy, beauty, and value of its contents. I therefore placed it on a center table in my room and gave out word that all who had a desire might come and see the most glorious and brilliant sight ever seen by man in this life.

The people began to come in, at first few in number, but increasing to a crowd. When they first looked into the casket, they would wonder and shout for joy. But when the spectators increased, everyone would begin to trouble the jewels, taking them out of the casket and scattering them on the table. I began to think that the owner would require the casket and the jewels again at my hand; and if I suffered them to be scattered, I could never place them in their places in the casket again as before; and felt I should never be able to meet the accountability, for it would be immense. I then began to plead with the people not to handle them, nor to take them out of the casket; but the more I pleaded, the more they scattered; and now they seemed to scatter them all over the room, on the floor and on every piece of furniture in the room. I then saw that among the genuine jewels and coin they had scattered an innumerable quantity of spurious jewels and counterfeit coin. I was highly incensed at their base conduct and ingratitude, and reproved and reproached them for it; but the more I reproved, the more they scattered the spurious jewels and false coin among the genuine.

I then became vexed in my physical soul and began to use physical force to push them out of the room; but while I was pushing out one, three more would enter and bring in dirt and shavings and sand and all manner of rubbish, until they covered every one of the true jewels, diamonds, and coins, which were all excluded from sight. They also tore in pieces my casket and scattered it among the rubbish. I thought no man regarded my sorrow or my anger. I became wholly discouraged and disheartened, and sat down and wept. While I was thus weeping and mourning for my great loss and accountability, I remembered God, and earnestly prayed that He would send me help.

Immediately the door opened, and a man entered the room, when the people all left it; and he, having a dirt brush in his hand, opened the windows, and began to brush the dirt and rubbish from the room. I cried to him to forbear, for there were some precious jewels scattered among the rubbish. He told me to ‘fear not’, for he would ‘take care of them’. Then, while he brushed the dirt and rubbish, false jewels and counterfeit coin, all rose and went out of the window like a cloud, and the wind carried them away. In the bustle I closed my eyes for a moment; when I opened them, the rubbish was all gone. The precious jewels, the diamonds, the gold and silver coins, lay scattered in profusion all over the room.

He then placed on the table a casket, much larger and more beautiful than the former, and gathered up the jewels, the diamonds, the coins, by the handful, and cast them into the casket, till not one was left, although some of the diamonds were not bigger than the point of a pin. He then called upon me to ‘come and see’. I looked into the casket, but my eyes were dazzled with the sight. They shone with ten times their former glory. I thought they had been scoured in the sand by the feet of those wicked persons who had scattered and trod them in the dust. They were arranged in beautiful order in the casket, every one in its place, without any visible pains of the man who cast them in. I shouted with very joy, and that shout awoke me.”¹

“I saw [Ellen White (1827-1915)] that some of the people of God are stupid and dormant and but half awake; they do not realize the time we are now living in, and that the man with the ‘dirt brush’ has entered [Isaiah 28:2], and that some are in danger of being swept away [Isaiah 28:1,3-4]. I begged of Jesus to save them, to spare them a little longer, and let them see their awful danger, that they might get ready before it should be forever too late. The angel said, ‘Destruction is coming like a mighty whirlwind.’ [Isaiah 28:2] I begged of the angel to pity and to save those who loved this world, who were attached to their possessions and were not willing to cut loose from them and sacrifice to speed the messengers on their way to feed the hungry sheep who were perishing for want of spiritual food.

As I viewed poor souls dying for want of the present truth, and some who professed to believe the truth were letting them die by withholding the necessary means to carry forward the work of God, the sight was too painful, and I begged of the angel to remove it from me. I saw that when the cause of God called for some of their property, like the young man who came to Jesus (Matthew 19:16-22) they went away sorrowful, and that soon the overflowing scourge would pass over [Isaiah 28:15,17-20] and sweep their possessions all away, and then it would be too late to sacrifice earthly goods, and lay up a treasure in heaven. ^|a

I then saw the glorious Redeemer, beautiful and lovely; that He left the realms of glory and came to this dark and lonely world to give His precious life and die, the just for the unjust. He bore the cruel mocking and scourging, wore the plaited crown of thorns, and sweat great drops of blood in the garden, while the burden of the sins of the whole world was upon Him. The angel asked, ‘What for?’ Oh, I saw and knew that it was for us; for our sins He suffered all this, that by His precious blood He might redeem us unto God!

Then again was held up before me those who were not willing to dispose of this world's goods to save perishing souls by sending them the truth while Jesus stands before the Father pleading His blood, His sufferings, and His death for them; and while God's messengers are waiting, ready to carry them the saving truth that they might be sealed with the seal of the living God. It is hard for some who profess to believe the present truth to do even so little as to hand the messengers God's own money that He has lent them to be stewards over.

The suffering Jesus, His love so deep as to lead Him to give His life for man, was again held up before me; also the lives of those who professed to be His followers, who had this world's goods, but considered it so great a thing to help the cause of salvation. The angel said, ‘Can such enter heavens?’ Another angel answered, ‘No, never, never, never. Those who are not interested in the cause of God on earth can never sing the song of redeeming love above.’ I saw that the quick work that God was doing on the earth would soon be cut short in righteousness and that the messengers must speed swiftly on their way to search out the scattered flock. An angel said, ‘Are all messengers?’ Another answered, ‘No, no; God’s messengers have a message.’

I saw that the cause of God had been hindered and dishonored by some traveling who had no message from God. Such will have to give an account to God for every dollar they have used in traveling where it was not their duty to go, because that money might have helped on the cause of God; and for the lack of the spiritual food that might have been given them by God's called and chosen messengers, had they had the means, souls have starved and died. I saw that those who have strength to labor with their hands and help sustain the cause were as accountable for their strength as others were for their property.

The mighty shaking has commenced and will go on, and all will be shaken out who are not willing to take a bold and unyielding stand for the truth and to sacrifice for God and His cause. The angel said, ‘Think ye that any will be compelled to sacrifice? No, no. It must be a freewill offering. It will take all to buy the field.’

I cried to God to spare His people, some of whom were fainting and dying. Then I saw that the judgments of the Almighty were speedly coming, and I begged of the angel to speak in his language to the people. Said he, ‘All the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai would not move those who will not be moved by the plain truths of the word of god, neither would an angel’s message awake them.’

I then beheld the beauty and loveliness of Jesus. His robe was whiter than the whitest white. No language can describe His glory and exalted loveliness. All, all who keep the commandments of God, will enter in through the gates into the city and have right to the tree of life and ever be in the presence of the lovely Jesus...”²

We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events! The events around us, the fulfillment of the prophesies and the condition of the entire world calls on us to manifest a true devotion and join the broken ends of our relation to God. The world needs accurate representations of our Savior’s face in people led every single step by the Holy Spirit, motivated by the love manifested on the cross where God gave it all, through His Son, for the entire universe and for one single man alike. Are we willing to manifest the same love towards Him? A genuine relation with Him is the only one which can make us see where we stand and how much “darkness” there is left to walk through. Only by giving ourselves up and forgiving about our pretentions can we experience true happiness and fulfillment. Only by keeping our eyes directed towards the cross, to the love manifested through His palms nailed to the wooden bars for man shall we give everything He asks us to and try to do it all so that as many as possible of those on the brink of perdition should be saved, His own children who, through the bond created by His sacrifice, are our brothers.

By the prophet Isaiah, God set before us two paths out of which we can choose only one to walk on: either the message from God like a “destroying storm”, path leading us to a “crown of glory and a diadem of beauty” (Isaiah 28:1-6), or “the hail [which] shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters [which] shall overflow the hiding place […] when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye [we] shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goes forth it shall take you [us]; for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report” (Isaiah 28:17-19).

"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."