What's your temperature?

It has been 5 months since I lasted blogged, and as I type this, I have a thermometer hanging out of my mouth because I'm sick; and quite sick and tired of being sick.

Since being sick I've watched 3 episodes of October Road, 3 episodes of Lost and I've lost count how many episodes of Faith & Hope that I have watched. Surely there must be a better use of my time?

As a sit around in my pj's I get annoyed with the fatigue that I feel; I get hungry but don't want to cook; I'm tired, but I'm fed up sleeping! What seems to be the absolute worst is that I have myself for company! Could I please escape this apartment? Nope, not yet at least. So I take my temperature, when I'm really bored, every half hour. I know I'm not that sick, because my temperature hasn't been higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit, praise God; the whole temperature taking thing merely seems to be a source of entertainment for me. Which makes me think... a dangerous sport for any opinionated individual, what is my spiritual temperature? How would I even know how to take it? What is the spiritual thermometer?

Prayer. I believe that the spiritual thermometer is our prayer life. Can you answer the following questions?

1. Do I pray or do I whine out loud?
2. Do I give God my 'shopping list' and then turn in for the night?
3. Do I make time to listen to God?
4. Do I hear God?
5. Do I read the bible?
6. Do I practise spiritual disciplines?
7. Do I receive correction when necessary?

Jesus says,

2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. John 10:2-4

If we know His voice, then we follow Him and if we follow Him, we're all good! We're being disciplined by Jesus! Hallelujah! The key; to know His voice. How do we know His voice? We listen to it, through the bible! The more we know Him through His Word, the more we will be able to see Him through His actions. When you don't know someone you can't predict what they are going to do in a given situation; you don't know them, you expect nothing from them. When you know what someone is capable of, you expect more, much, much more.

God is impressing on me a desire for truth, after all, it's what sets people free! Being that Jesus is the Truth, surely if I knew Him I would know truth? When we know what is true, we spot what is false so much quicker.

Revelation 3:15-17 (MSG)
15-17"I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, 'I'm rich, I've got it made, I need nothing from anyone,' oblivious that in fact you're a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.

Stale and stagnant, I was reading about stagnancy today;

"To illustrate, let me share a story I once heard involving two artists who were asked to paint pictures of peace as they perceived it. One painted a quiet, still lake, far back in the mountains. The other painted a raging, rushing waterfall which had a birch tree leaning out over t with a bird resting in a nest on one of the branches.

Which truly depicts peace? The second one does, because there is no such thing as peace without opposition. The first painting represents stagnation. The scene it sets forth may be serene; a person might be motivated to want to go there to recuperate. It may offer a pretty picture, but it does not depict the rest of God."

In scripture when we are instructed to be still and know that He is God, (Psalm 46:10) still is a verb; it's a doing word; (as Miss Thomson taught me!) it is not stagnant. I can't think of stagnant without thinking of nasty water, we have living water, (John 4.) We cast our cares upon Him, (Psalm 55:22) in the knowledge that He is God and He has it under control.

Do not be stagnant in your faith, do not be luke warm! In the Salvation Army we sing about sending the fire, how about we sing about sending a fever?