by David Brenneman
So many Christians of this world are doing just that. They are not unlike what happened to Saul's eyes when they live out their lives in today's world. They don't see because they're willing to go around with scales on their eyes. Willing to live a deceived life rather than a life in Christ Jesus as He intended for them.
Some go as far as to claim to be alright! Claim that they see nothing wrong with trying to live, to move around, with two sets of clothes on.
We laugh at people who physically do this in comedy sketches yet we look the other way at people who are on the streets doing it.
Liberty from the sins that so easily entangle us are but a prayer away. I confess my own struggles freely. I, like all Christians, am a work in progress. My life isn't my own, it is hidden in Christ Jesus. That's what my Bible tells me. My Bible tells me that I am His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that I might walk in them. My Bible tells me that indeed I would have troubles and tribulations for following Jesus. My Bible tells me to pray only through Jesus because He alone is worthy. He said to pray to His Father who is now Our Father in Heaven because of what Jesus did. We are not to try to pray to anyone else. Everyone else is dead and cut off from the land of the living.
We are told to not love the world nor the things of this world. This includes the approval of men over what God has ordained to be true and right.
Christians shouldn't be seeking the favor of people over obedience to Jesus Christ.
In case it's been missed, when you read the 4 Gospels you'll see Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees concerning that very specific thing.
In Ephesians 6 we are told of putting on the whole armor of God. You can't be wearing a bunch of worldly ideas under it. It won't fit if you try.
Sins must be acknowledged, confessed, turned away from. Not embraced, celebrated or mocked. Sexual sins rank among the highest in today's world. It's an affront to the Living God to say He made a mistake in creating a human being. The Bible is explicit about who will never see Heaven. Who will never enter into the rest promised to those who are truly saved.
You cannot embraced sin and not be subject to the consequences of sin. No different than playing with fire, sooner or later you will get burned.
You can't devote time energy and effort, REGARDLESS of how great it may make you feel, in thinking and planning your life around the pleasures of this world. Even the Disciples told Jesus that they gave up everything to follow Him. Everything meant everything. But what was Jesus's response?
"Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”
Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then." Matthew 19:27-30 NASB
We live in the most sensory overloaded world since before the Genesis Flood. We can come face to face with just about any temptation with moving from our chair.
We can grasp sin without any true effort beyond tapping on a screen. We can order practically anything that would take us farther from our walk with Jesus and have it delivered in a few days. We can spend hundreds on going to sporting events that do nothing really for us Spiritually. We can do the same in movie theaters or on our couch with subscription services to video streaming. We can be consumed by anything without ever thinking it's happening...and still see nothing wrong with it.
Jesus said to take up our own cross and follow Him. It means you can't be holding on to anything else but that cross. The Disciples learned how to carry nothing else but their own cross. They taught the early Church to do the same.
It's a necessity of life to have to eat, sleep and work. After those 3 we indeed have all the time in the world to be wholly followers of Jesus Christ. As the Bible tells us we are strangers in the world. This world is not our home. We shouldn't be trying so hard to make it our home.
Our lives belong to God in Christ Jesus, if indeed you've seen the light of Jesus and been saved by His shed blood on His cross. We go out as workers in His fields, doing that which is our assignment. We are to be found by Him doing what He needs us to be doing. To be doers of the Word and not just hearers who deceive themselves.
So are you living two lives? Are you living for self and saying you live for Jesus? Are you doing anything at all that proves you are a Disciple of Jesus Christ? Not just a few moments but your day?
Are your thoughts drifting towards things that are above and not on the things that are of this world or is it the opposite?
You cannot embrace the world and embrace Jesus at the same time. You cannot bow to God and bow to the world too. You will hate the one and cling to the other.
A life in Christ Jesus is unlike any other. If anything sounds like it's boring or uneventful, that's the farthest thing from the truth. As Mark Lowery said...if he had to sum up his whole Christian experience in one word it would be...interesting. If you want a real life, come to Christ. He came to give us life, but not just life, life more abundant. That's what my Bible says as well.
Adoration of God's creation is one thing, adoration for man's creation is a path to sin.
Look at your home, your day you face today. How much of it belongs to God?
How much of it belongs to you? That's a trick question. Disciples of Jesus Christ would need to say that they are all in.
As the line from the hymn goes: the cross before me the world behind me, the cross before me the world behind me, the cross before me the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back.
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