A letter from Jesus

What if Jesus Christ wrote a personal letter to your local church? In Revelation 2-3, Jesus wrote to seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey): Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. To those who were persevering in faith, He gave tender words of assurance. But to those who were compromising and disobeying, He offered a stern warning.

What would Jesus say if He wrote to your church? That's exactly what a friend of mine, Chips Ross, recently asked his congregation at Forest Ranch Baptist Church. And for two Sunday nights, they drafted a letter of what Jesus might say to them. (It's helpful to know Forest Ranch is a small community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, just north of Chico, California). Here's the letter...

To the messenger of the church in Forest Ranch:

The One who sees into the deepest woods¹, who is faithful to even a few, and who reigns over the trees and hills, says this:

I know your deeds, that you have persevered, worked hard, and have been faithful as a tree remaining firm in the midst of storms.

But I have this against you: you have sat like an old tree with too much fill around you² and you have each pursued your own trails³.

Therefore, repent, lest I close the yellow gate⁴ before you. Come alive as a poppy and be faithful as the sun that rises over the mountain.

To him who overcomes, I will make him to be a conifer, standing tall and straight, in the land of my God and to be red dirt⁵ that remains through all.

Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

1 – Pictures that Jesus sees all and thus knows all
2 – Pictures complacency; become like the culture around and thus have begun to rot
3 – Being independent from God and from each other
4 – Yellow gates are put up to close mountain trails
5 – Red dirt of Forest Ranch that clings to your clothing and can never quite be washed out; once it’s on, it’s on.