Searching for Laodicea

Sorry to tease about another excursion and then not post for 3 days. Life conspired against me and my phone and internet lines went haywire on Friday, when I was planning to post. They were working by 7 pm but then we had an impromptu night out with the family and I rarely post on the weekends. So here it is Monday morning, and I am sure you have been hanging onto the edge of your seat. Or not. Whatever.

Our next to the last day in Turkey we had decided to drive up to Laodicea and Pammukale. It was a 4 hour drive each direction, and across mountains that we were not too sure how tall or difficult to drive they would be. But our pastor has been doing a series of sermons on "letters to the young churches" and we really wanted to go. So plans are made. And then...

During dinner the night before, Jewel gets sick--three times before we ever leave the restaraunt. Since she had only eaten a couple of bites of bread, we didn't blame the food. We get her home. She gets sick again. We put her to bed. I'm beginning to believe we are destined to not go. German says after a good night's sleep she'll be fine. We go to bed. At 3a.m. German is up--sicker than I have ever known him to be sick in the 13 years we have known each other. We all collapse back in bed about six. I'm sure we are not going to go. At 8:30, German says, "I still want to go." I tried to talk him out of that kind of drive since he was wiped out. He said he believed it was a spiritual and physical attack to keep us from a blessing, and the attack was not going to win. Jewel was tired but said she felt fine. We got ready to go.

The drive across the mountains was glorious. God's creation in its glory.


Jewel slept the entire trip, and Flower happily talked and sang the whole way. It turned out to only be a 3 hour drive to Denzili (the big town near the ruins), so we were feeling incredibly blessed. The map showed a big intersection in Denzili. The Laodicean ruins were marked up the road to the left maybe ten miles. Pammukale was off the road to the right. We decided to go to Laodicea first. We drove about 15 miles reading every sign there was. No sign of Laodicea. We reached a town that was clearly past the ruins on the map. We turned around, and carefully read every sign possible. We turned off the road at the interesection that best looked like where it was. Still no Laodicea. Then German did the unheard of: he pulled into the carpark of an official looking building and said, "I'm going to go ask for help."

I sat in the car kind of stunned. He came back and said that the people didn't know where it was, and only one spoke English, but they were going to help if we would come in and have a cup of tea. I'm thinking two things: 1. will the girls be good in this official looking building? and 2. I wonder if we can also use the toilets--Flower has gone 3 hours without asking and I'm worried. We had a lovely cup of tea. The girls were given juice--a real treat for them. The guys in the office were buzzing around, using the internet, calling people on the phone, talking amongst themselves. German asked about toilets and they quickly showed him where. Just as he came back, they said they could show us where to go. I started to speak up, but German whispered that it wasn't a good idea. Okay...this was the toilet...

He didn't think a hole in the ground would be that helpful for very Western-minded Flower. I agreed. (ahh the joys of traveling)

They gave us directions, back to the big intersection and to the road to Pammukale where we would see the sign for Laodicea. If we had only gone to the other destination first, we would have found it. But then we wouldn't have met the nice people and had a cup of tea either.

We got there and the first thing I saw was the sign for toilets. Nice, big, modern, clean. Yay! And Flower had stayed dry! Double blessing. That taken care of, we set off on the ruins.

To the Church in Laodicea
"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Revelation 3:14-22

Here is what is left of the church that would have received this letter.


The town, once prosperous, was laid to ruin by an earthquake in AD 494. Excavations have unearthed much of it and several of the columns have been set back up as they might have been along the columned road.



The two large amphitheaters can be seen. One was able to hold 20,000 people in its day.


I walked through the ruins singing the Steve Camp song, "Living in Laodicea".

Oh Lord, take Your plow to my battleground
Let Your blade dig down to the soil of my soul
For I've become dry and dusty, Lord I know there must be
Richer earth lying below

Chorus:
For I've been living in Laodicea
And the fire that once burned bright, I've let it grow dim
And the very Word I swore that I would die for all has been forgotten
As the world's become my friend


We have turned from Your Law to try to find a better way
Each man does today what is right in his own eyes
We will pay the price for our sinning
We can never know true living, we've exchanged His truth for lies

CHORUS ("we")

It is no small of a thing that He's done for you
By shutting the gates of hell upon the cross
We were sentenced once but now we are pardoned
And He chooses to use us though we fall

So while we're living in Laodicea
Keep the fire burning bright, don't let it grow dim
For the very Word we swore that we would die for, it must not be forgotten
Fear the world become a friend
For the very Word we swore that we would die for, it must not be forgotten
Fear the world become a friend

I thought about how easy it is for us to build our lives on things that are not substantial. We put up columns in our life representing things that have no eternal significance. And then, one major storm--one major earthquake--comes along and shakes our world.

The temporal falls. The unsubstantial cannot last. Sometimes those storms have nothing to do with us. They are the natural consequence of living in a fallen world--illness besets, disasters of flood or storm deluge. Sometimes they are storms of our own making--materialism leads to financial disaster, unhealthy eating leads to disease, selfishness leads to relationship breakups. And, sometimes, God uses the storm as discipline to wake us up and draw us back to Him. As I set in the ruins of that once great city, this was on my mind. Although painful, I pray that God will lay waste to the things in my life that keep me from serving Him with my whole heart. I'd rather Him do this out of love than to reap the consequences of the sin later.

Father, I want to serve you with my whole heart. I want to be hot and cold for you. I do not want to be lukewarm--ineffective and annoying. Father tear down the columns of self-sufficency that I have built up. Lay to waste the things that do not please you. I pray that my life never lays in ruins of disobedience, but is constantly being rebuilt by You to be stronger and a witness of Your faithfulness. In Your Son's Precious Name...Amen.