third letter to Revelation

Our message today was based on the third letter in Revelations, addressing a church located in the area where Satan has his throne and "Satan lives" For a bit of background on this church our Pastor told us that Germans found a huge statue of Zues sitting on a throne in this area and brought it back to East Germany a long time ago, interesting when you consider what East Germany was about. It was a message about staying faithful and not giving into the practices of the surrounding community which involved idolatry and Pastor Andy believes that there is a direct link between idolatry and immorality. The people there believed that it didn't matter what you did with the body as long as you kept your mind good. The mind, the ability to reason was all that matters. He sees that we aren't that removed from that kind of mindset. It is a kind of religion that doesn't demand all of you, just your thoughts. But we forget how holistic we are. And that we are body/mind and spirit and we don't just function out of one of these, but out of all of them intertwined and we are affected body/mind and spirit by the choices we make. Made in the image of God, we are made to commune with him, to worship and fellowship with him, this is our vertical relationship. This vertical relationship and the state it is in affects our "horizontal relationships" Those we have with people, and things here in our life. If the "vertical relationship" is broken the horizontal will be broken as well. This leads to Pastor Andy's reoccurring theme. And that is how necessary it is for us to find our identity in Christ. This theme permeates all of his messages and he weaves every scripture reference together to all come to the same conclusion. Find your identity in Christ. It is the only way for you to be satisfied. It is of course the message of the gospel and it is timely for us in this day. When I was in school we learned about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as an individual will focus on basic needs like food or shelter and when that no longer becomes an issue they move up a pyramid to the next level of needs, the top of the pyramid is self actualization. And as humanistic as Maslows hierarchy is, it says something about who we are as human beings, we want purpose to our life. It is not surprising that Rick Warrens book Purpose Driven Life is the top selling book in America. We as a civilization, collectively are at the point where most of the underlying basic needs are met and now we want to find out our purpose, or identity, why are we here? It is our newest most pressing need. And Andy keeps coming back to the fact that we are to remember that we are Christ's, that is who we are. But when we don't realize that and our vertical relationship is broken, we strive to find our identity or fulfillment in people or things on earth, we start to form unhealthy relationships with people, or possessions or money. We attempt to make these things satisfy us and they never will, not for more than a moment. We can become trapped in our own desires. We become enslaved. Tod always says "you don't own your possessions they own you." We are currently learning that firsthand as an investment we took on is consuming our time and energy and while it still seems like a good thing, we often wonder, did we really count the cost?
Andy concludes by stating that the answer to getting back to a healthy vertical relationship is found right at the beginning of the letter- the word of God, sharper than a two edged sword, this word which is found in the Bible and in Christ Himself is life giving and I think it is referenced latter in the letter as the hidden manna. Which is the food given by God himself. Food that satisfies the hunger we try to satisfy with so much else, I have a slightly different interpretation than Andy in the word hidden, he claims that it means "enough" God in the new testament hid the manna and brought out just "enough" to be satisfied on a daily basis. I think hidden refers to spiritual because Christ hides spiritual truth in both his parables and in his miracles. The way I see it, and of course i am not a pastor but I read the Bible as if on a great treasure hunt, is that God hides His truth. He hides it in His word, he hides it in our life. He doesn't hide it so that it is impossible to find, but He wants us to search for it and to discover it and to be delighted when we do. Much like a parent hides Easter eggs in places where a child can find it. He wants us to be seekers of him and pursuers of Him. And when we seek Him first, He will give us manna, spiritual food, Christ himself. Food that will fill all the places that we try to fill with so much else.