Revelation 3 ... Jesus said ... 1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die:for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. 4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with ME in white: for they are worthy.
Comments by Joan Boney ...
I believe Jesus is saying even as bad as it can get in certain church groups, there might still be a person who belongs to God and has not defiled his garment.
A woman said to me: "I don't believe a Methodist can be a Christian."
But I remembered what the Holy Spirit said to me, "Even in Sardis" ... there was someone worthy.
Sardis must have been very bad ... but even as bad as it was there were a few names "Even in Sardis" who walked with Jesus and were worthy.
This helps us so much when we are upset over the evils and various churches ...
Here is a very interesting story told by Barbara Preston, a member of our little church group ...
Barbara says:
My husband is an amateur
astronomer and belongs to the local astronomy club. He receives phone
calls from other club members and sometimes they will come over to the
house.
One
of his astronomy friends is named Scott. Recently I noticed that when
Scott calls and I see by caller ID that it is him, I want to avoid
talking to him and if he comes over, I want to avoid seeing him.
I knew I had built up some kind of hardness of heart where he was was concerned.
I
talked to God about this when I saw it and asked Him to please help me
to settle this. I didn't want to feel this way about Scott.
When
I asked God how this happened, I was reminded that during the last
conversation Scott and I had, he told me he was Catholic. I realized
that I had built up some kind of prejudice against him over this and
wanted to avoid him. I repented of this and asked God how to get this
resolved.
I
was reminded immediately of something else that had happened during the
first conversation I ever had with Scott. We were talking one day, and
I told him that God created the heavens and the earth. And that all
those stars they looked at were created by God.
As soon as I said this, he got so excited and said... "I know...I know!"
He told me how he loved to tell this to people when they looked
through his telescope (the club has lots of group nights where boy
scouts, etc. will show up and want to do this for an evening event.)
When he said this, his excitement and joy really seemed genuine to me. As soon as God reminded me of this, I could feel the hardness of heart that I had felt concerning him just melt away.
Not
long after this, Joan mentioned the church in Sardis in Rev. 3, and how
being reminded of this encouraged her to speak the Word of God even to
people in churches where there seemed that there could be no Christians.
This reminded me of what happened with me where Scott was concerned.
Scott
and I have had a couple of conversations about God, in the past,and now
I know that the way to go is not to avoid him, but, if we talk in the
future, and something about God comes up, just share truth with him at
that moment.
I was very thankful to have this resolved.