Amazing Facts
November 22nd
Refiner’s Fire, Part 1.
Of the descriptors used for Laodicea, Christ chose to expand upon the last three: “poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
Let’s look at the first: “poor.” When one possesses “gold,” one ceases to be poor. But Christ’s “gold” is purified. What is His “gold”? Proverbs 17:3 tells us, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.” And said the Lord, “I will bring [My people] … through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested” (Zechariah 13:9).
Your character is what is tested through “the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10); only then are you made rich, not in material goods as the Laodiceans were, but “rich in faith” (James 2:5) and “rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).
Let’s look at Jesus’ meaning of the term “naked.” Laodicea was the production site for a certain wool manufactured from herds of black sheep. But the Bible personifies Christ as just the opposite: the Lamb of God, with “head and hair … like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14). He is “our Passover, … sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), He “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Through Him our sins “shall be as white as snow, … as wool” (Isaiah 1:18)—just like He is.
The Laodiceans might have sold the most fashionable item around, but “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Those “filthy garments” represent our “iniquity” (Zechariah 3:4). You can never make yourself clean; only through faith in Christ can that happen: “I will clothe you with rich robes,” He said. These are the “white garments” that Jesus wants you to wear, so that it may be said of you, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
Lord God, let not my wealth be measured in what I own or earn or wear but in Your righteousness that You give to me.
For Further Study: Isaiah 55:1–3; Malachi 3:2, 3; Romans 13:14
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18
November 22nd
Refiner’s Fire, Part 1.
Of the descriptors used for Laodicea, Christ chose to expand upon the last three: “poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
Let’s look at the first: “poor.” When one possesses “gold,” one ceases to be poor. But Christ’s “gold” is purified. What is His “gold”? Proverbs 17:3 tells us, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.” And said the Lord, “I will bring [My people] … through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested” (Zechariah 13:9).
Your character is what is tested through “the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10); only then are you made rich, not in material goods as the Laodiceans were, but “rich in faith” (James 2:5) and “rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).
Let’s look at Jesus’ meaning of the term “naked.” Laodicea was the production site for a certain wool manufactured from herds of black sheep. But the Bible personifies Christ as just the opposite: the Lamb of God, with “head and hair … like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14). He is “our Passover, … sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), He “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Through Him our sins “shall be as white as snow, … as wool” (Isaiah 1:18)—just like He is.
The Laodiceans might have sold the most fashionable item around, but “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Those “filthy garments” represent our “iniquity” (Zechariah 3:4). You can never make yourself clean; only through faith in Christ can that happen: “I will clothe you with rich robes,” He said. These are the “white garments” that Jesus wants you to wear, so that it may be said of you, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
Lord God, let not my wealth be measured in what I own or earn or wear but in Your righteousness that You give to me.
For Further Study: Isaiah 55:1–3; Malachi 3:2, 3; Romans 13:14
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18
Amazing Facts
November 22nd
Refiner’s Fire, Part 1.
Of the descriptors used for Laodicea, Christ chose to expand upon the last three: “poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
Let’s look at the first: “poor.” When one possesses “gold,” one ceases to be poor. But Christ’s “gold” is purified. What is His “gold”? Proverbs 17:3 tells us, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.” And said the Lord, “I will bring [My people] … through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested” (Zechariah 13:9).
Your character is what is tested through “the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10); only then are you made rich, not in material goods as the Laodiceans were, but “rich in faith” (James 2:5) and “rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).
Let’s look at Jesus’ meaning of the term “naked.” Laodicea was the production site for a certain wool manufactured from herds of black sheep. But the Bible personifies Christ as just the opposite: the Lamb of God, with “head and hair … like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14). He is “our Passover, … sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), He “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Through Him our sins “shall be as white as snow, … as wool” (Isaiah 1:18)—just like He is.
The Laodiceans might have sold the most fashionable item around, but “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Those “filthy garments” represent our “iniquity” (Zechariah 3:4). You can never make yourself clean; only through faith in Christ can that happen: “I will clothe you with rich robes,” He said. These are the “white garments” that Jesus wants you to wear, so that it may be said of you, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
Lord God, let not my wealth be measured in what I own or earn or wear but in Your righteousness that You give to me.
For Further Study: Isaiah 55:1–3; Malachi 3:2, 3; Romans 13:14
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18
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