Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It’s that time of year when almost everything I see from the front porch is the same color. The foliage is turning brown and falling to the ground. The deer get a new gray coat color for the winter…God’s way of helping them blend in. Sometimes the flags are the only bright colors I see and I keep them hanging all year because of it. As I sat there considering all the things I can see in the winter and all the things I can’t, I was reminded of how that’s the way it can be in the Journey of Faith too. The Goal of a Person of Faith isn’t to “blend in” but to STAND OUT through every season of Life – if we aren’t careful we’re blending in with all the rest while we ride out the Winter Season. How can the dark world see the Bright Morning Star in us if we’re blending in with it? Don’t you want the world to see the Color of your Faith all year round too?

The winter season often comes on with a vengeance – one day it’s warm and the next day it’s cold and it seems to strike and stay once it’s here. One day you’re outside celebrating the warmth and the next day you’re hiding away from the cold. One day the trees are covered with leaves and the next day the leaves are gone and there’s absolutely nothing we can do to stop it. But the winter of the Heart is a different story – that season is so subtle that most people don’t even realize the Heart has gone from Celebrating the Warmth of the Son to a Heart that’s as cold as the winter in Virginia. Many of them continue to do the same things they did in the Summer of their Faith – like going to church and praying even though the Heart is in hibernation, but that doesn’t make any more sense than wearing shorts and a T-shirt outside in the winter as if wearing those things will make it so. The Heart that was once so eager to Celebrate the Son can’t be seen in them anymore despite the steps they take as part of their “routine” like attending church and the bumper sticker on their cars. From cold to warm and back again. It must break God’s Heart when He sees His people blending in with all the rest.

When we’re in Celebration mode we want EVERYBODY around us to feel the Warmth of the Son too! We encourage them to FOLLOW us to the Warmest spot there is and we give them Directions on how to get there. When we’re in Celebration mode EVERYTHING around us appears to be in Living Color and we don’t want anybody else to miss out. When we’re in Celebration mode we STAND OUT in any crowd and they SEE Him in us even if we opt out of uttering His Name. Unfortunately, many have been deceived into believing that as long as they’re “nice” there’s no need to speak up at all. When we’re in Celebration mode we dance and we weep with Joy and we don’t care who’s watching. When we’re in Celebration mode we can’t get enough of the Son and we almost don’t want to go to sleep as long as there’s more to learn. That’s what Love looks like.

The church can be a great social club filled with the friends we love the most and we aren’t afraid to show and tell them most of the time. But when the Heart is Celebrating the Son it cares a WHOLE LOT more about all the ones who have never seen the Bright Morning Star and they NEVER lose their hunger to Share. God has a BIG Message about what it looks like to Him when the Heart of His People is no longer Celebrating the Son: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked”

I weep over the ones so determined to take the same steps over and over doing all those things they believe are a sign of their Love for Him – the ones who have let the cold set in and they’re no longer Celebrating the Son with PASSION AND RECKLESS LOVE the way they did in the beginning. I pray for REVIVAL for the ones who are no longer Celebrating the Son right along with the ones who have yet to HEAR because their destiny will likely be the same. As long as there is breath in my body I’ll be Celebrating the Son and nothing about me will blend in with the rest. I want EVERYBODY to have what I have before it’s too late for them – so I’ll be BOLDLY Celebrating in and OUT of the church. God forbid that He would see my deeds and find me “neither hot nor cold” – a place so vile that He would be inclined to “spit” me out of His mouth.

How about you?