I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Revelation 3:1b-2

Have you ever been cooking with gas (propene) with the fire is all bright and roaring one minute and out and cold in the next? The flames were burning on the last disappearing gas fumes. You are left with unfinished food and great disappointment. Like those flames flaring on the final gas fumes… we can be on the brink of dying yet appearing to others as alive. Jesus is issuing us a warning, calling us and revealing our emptiness telling us we are in need of refilling, reviving and restoring.

In the passage, Jesus tells us “I know your deeds… I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God“. No one likes unfinished or incomplete work. Everyone wants to hear well done, good and faithful servant. Our works and ways are known to the Lord, they are not hidden(Psalm 139). Jesus is making it clear that he is concerned with our modus operandi, the quality of our deeds. He does not want any hurry come up job or poor workmanship in His Kingdom. Jesus wants excellent, completed not half-done work. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that God only knows what we want him to know. God has his eyes on us, he knows our deeds and wants works of integrity from us. Are we like Martha distracted by all the preparations that have to be made, that we have the unfinished work of listening to what Jesus has to say (Luke 10:38-42)? What deeds have God equipped you for that you have started and left unfinished or not even started at all? God wants us to follow his example of completing what has been started (Genesis 1&2 ; Philippians 1:6). Let us pause and take some time to stop and just listen to what God has to say to us right now. What has God equipped us and called us to that we have abandoned? Like Jonah it is time to return to the unfinished assignment God has called us to do His work.

The phrase “You have a reputation of being alive but you are dead” is another set of hard hitting words in this passage from Jesus’ mouth. Words like this can cause fights, but Jesus is always a straight talker, he is not a pretender, he does not mince words. Normally, when we are told about our reputation, we presume we have made a good impression (unless you are the woman caught in adultery). This is exactly what Jesus is saying to us… our reputation that precedes us and we appear to be alive & active doing exactly what God has called us to do, is only an reflection, not the real thing. We are putting on a show of godliness for others but inside we are dead, lovers of ourselves and deny God’s power to work within us. Wow! Stop! Take a breath! This is rough going! We are no better than the Pharisees that Jesus called out in Matthew 23:27 as whitewashed tombs :- pretty on the outside but full of uncleanness and deadness on the inside! Just these words should bring us to repentance. We have to repent that we have spent time building our reputation versus living our real and abundant life in Jesus. We have to ask Jesus to cleanse us and to recreate us in His image through His blood so that we can be made alive in Christ (1 Cor.15:22). As Hebrews 9:14 says ‘How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! ‘ Let us ask God to flood us with the energy of His Spirit giving us overflowing life that can transform the dead world into the life of God.

Finally, just when we think it could not get any worse, Jesus commands us to “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die”. These words: WAKE UP! indicate that we have been found sleeping on the job like the disciples in the garden and the ten virgins (Matt.25:5). How utterly humiliating! We have been weighed down with the cares of the world and the little we have remaining is about to die! Ouch! We have been caught off-guard and are sleepy, speechless and exhausted with sorrow. We are about to lose even more if we do not wake up! ‘This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you in Ephesians 5:14”. Christ wants to shine on us so that we can strengthen and revive the dying around us.

Having been given this stern warning, God wants to refill, make alive, anoint afresh, shine up and quicken us with the oil of the Holy Spirit. Are we going to accept this mission? Will we fill our tanks with the Holy Spirit so our burners can enable us to rekindle the dying embers of our unfinished work? Will we sober up and love the Lord with all our bodies, minds and souls? Today, let God set us on fire us so that we can move from unfinished deeds to finished deeds, from asleep to fully awake, from pretense and dying remains to truth, strength and becoming alive through and through.

Father, thank you for your warning. We praise you for your willingness to forgive us for our failings. Set us on fire once more so we may we be transformed by your power. In Jesus’ name. Amen.