Erasing the Middle Ground is no easy thing. As I focus on eternal things, there is a growing sense within me of the stark contrast between the shadowy images of this life, and the sharp clarity of the next. Despite mankind’s (and the church’s) best efforts to find (or create) the “middle ground” here on earth, there is still no middle ground in heaven. There is a jarring reality to eternity that we can’t really comprehend, but on the day that we face it, there will be no escaping it’s preeminence and permanence.
Today we have the luxury of rationalization, but on that day only the truth will prevail. As the Kingdom of God approaches, the illusion of the middle ground is being destroyed. It is the fulfillment of the God’s promise to spew the lukewarm from His mouth.
This morning I felt like the Lord gave me a picture of what it means to be lukewarm; He said that it is when you resemble “Him” enough to remind the enemy of his hatred for “The Father”, but not enough to remind “The Father” of “The Son”.
This caused me to recall something He told me years ago, which is that “we have tried to use His grace like a stolen credit card; illegitimately attempting to obtain things that haven’t been accounted to us.”
As I was worshipping this morning, I was reminded of the fact that one day the books will be opened, the accounts will be balanced and the reality of who we really are will become apparent. No more middle ground.
The song I was listening to said it this way:
Where will we turn when our world falls apart
And all of the treasures we’ve stored in our barns
Can’t buy the Kingdom of God
And who will we praise when we’ve praised all our lives
Men who build kingdoms and men who build things
Heaven does not know their names
What will we fear when all that remains is God on the throne
With a child in His arms and love in His eyes
And the sound of His hearts cry
(From the song “Poverty” by Jason Upton)
The Apostle Paul said, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Throughout the epistles he exhorts us to do the same. It’s likely that none of us want to think of ourselves as being childish or as living in the middle ground, but I sense the Lord challenging us to allow Him to reveal the “childish things” that we still need to put away. To uncover those instances where we have become callous and numb to other people’s pain, or those circumstances that we’ve unwittingly become slaves to, or those things that we’re coveting and maybe even making into idols.
The Lord wants to show us those places where we are standing in the middle ground. These are places within our heart where self-pity, jealousy, and bitterness dwell; and to expose the imaginings that have replaced the genuine prophetic vision He means to give us.
The world wants us to find the middle ground while the Lord wants us to stand for Him. Like David did in the Psalms, we need to invite Him to examine our hearts. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting”. Amen.
By Bryan Corbin
