Bethesda Shalom

Revelation 3:14-22 When one thinks of the Seven Churches of Revelation, the Church perhaps that comes more readily to mind than any other is the Church in Laodicea.  History records that where Laodicea was situated geographically, it lay along a great river and in the centre of where three great roads converged.  This commercial advantage made Laodicea a city of tremendous wealth and prosperity, so much so that in the early 1st century AD when a devastating earthquake hit, when offer was made by the Roman Emperor to help build back the wasted city, the Laodiceans refused, saying that they preferred to rebuild their ruined city by their own means.  It was the affluent condition of the Church in that locale which proved to be its great downfall, as it measured its spiritual prosperity by its physical prosperity.  Thinking themselves, rich, increased with goods and need of nothing; our Lord said on the contrary, they were poor, wretched, blind and miserable! This letter is a warning to us all, not least those of