"Be earnest and repent."

My latest eNews comment remains unpublished. It's been in the queue since April 5...9 days so far.

I've already copied it here, but here it is again:

Lance,

Thank you for your quote from Revelation 3.

In light of the verse 19 part of your quote:

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent,”

I believe that a painful, yet necessary, place for us to begin these reflections is not with your question, “What is Jesus doing IN you through COVID-19?,” but with:

What is Jesus doing TO you…us…through COVID-19?

Since we agree that it’s true that Jesus rebukes and disciplines those whom He loves, I think we’d be missing an opportunity to be transparent about our relationship with Him if we refuse to spend serious moments meditating on the very real possibility that we are in the midst of a moment of God’s judgment.

If He’s rebuking us, for what? What act, or acts, does He demand of us?

About what must we in the Western church be earnest. How must we, as a body, and as individuals, repent?

The opening of the door described in verse 20 certainly must signify an attitude of earnest-ness followed by acts of repentance.

Western Christianity has been declining and decaying for some time. How can we not start by considering the question: What is Jesus doing TO us?

Of course, I don't know why my comment continues to go unpublished.

It still is in the queue. It hasn't been formally rejected. What I don't know is if the comment will be rejected by sitting in the position of awaiting moderation until the end of the Age.

Certainly, the blog continues to chug along. Lance submitted his latest on schedule last Friday.

What I do know is that the comment I submitted has gone nowhere.

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As far as the comment itself, it questions if we are willing and able to accept the words of Jesus contained John's prophecy, in Revelation 3, in which Jesus says that He rebukes and disciplines the people He loves.

This is a truth that people gifted to be shepherds would, indeed, find challenging.

More than that, in an institutional body so profoundly dominated by people with the gift of being a shepherd, it's a truth that the CGGC body in the year 2020 would have great difficulty accepting and living out.

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The truth is that, as a prophet, I am much more timid than I want to be. I lack boldness. I continue to rebuke myself on that reality.

Frequently, I conclude my posts with the words, "We must repent."

Never once have I had the boldness to say, to the rest of the CGGC body, "You must repent," or, simply, "Repent."

In my typical timidity, in my eNews comment, I don't say that Jesus is rebuking and disciplining today's church.

All I've done is to suggest that we spend time meditating on the possibility that we are being rebuked and disciplined by Jesus...

...and, if we think we are, or may be, to consider why we are and what we could do to respond.

Is my suggestion that we ask those questions too much for the Contagious Awakening blog? Is it, too offensive to pass moderation? I don't know.

Is it out of bounds in the Western Church and in the CGGC in particular?

Two truths are undeniable:

1. The red letters of the New Testament do say, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline." And,

2. In recent generations, Western Christianity, and, certainly, the CGGC in particular, have been in the midst of numerical decline and spiritual decay.

My point, in my as yet unpublished eNews comment, is legitimate.

We should, at the very least, consider the possibility that we are being rebuked and disciplined by the events that are taking place.

No one in the CGGC that I know of is doing that, other than me, of course.

I understand that, in a shepherd-dominated body, it is a challenging red letter truth that being potentially rebuked and disciplined is part of being loved by Jesus.

Yet, no matter how hard this reality may be in our church culture, the words are there in the Bible...in red and white.

Are we being rebuked and disciplined?

If so, the remedy for us, according to that passage is to "be earnest and repent." How would our hearts respond if we were earnest? What would we think, and do, in repentance?

Must we repent?