OUR CHRISTIAN RELEVANCE /PART THREE
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
For a great many of us within the church today there is a great lack of significance between our faith in Jesus and the effect it has on the life of those around us. I believe that much of that is due to the fact that we have as yet not made our own mind up to believe fully in the promises of God for our own life; and frankly until we begin to do that we will never convince anyone else of our love for God nor will we be able to show God's love for others.
In Christ's own teaching to us we know that we cannot hold to both this physical kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven at the same time because we will cling to one and deny the other or we will hate one and love the other. These two kingdoms are diametrically opposed to one another in such a way that it is impossible to combine them. The more I study God's world the more I realize that these things have never been meant to share the same space within our lives. This world one the other hand will never accept our spiritual world to co-exist within it because of the sin nature. The role that we play within this world is a constant irritant to the nature of sin because our very existence pours the light of conviction on the acts of sin and deceit to the point that there is no where for sin to hide from it. The only result this world has is to war against the truth of the Gospel of Christ and against we who live for that truth.
As Christians on the other hand we are given a mandate that we cannot ignore; we are made to choose between these two kingdoms which we have the potential to live within. We are literally asked to give up our rights and privileges in; which we know to be only temporary and cling to the Kingdom that God has promised to us with Him which is eternal and without flaw or blemish. If we choose the Spiritual we can no longer cling to the physical.
There is a very interesting thing that happens when we finally make a decision within the intent of our hearts to follow after Christ. It is a determination from both our hearts , and by the world around us because if we really mean what we are saying about the desire to transform our lives to live fully for the Spiritual Kingdom we will find things begin to happen that we did not expect.
1. You will begin to have a sense of change within you about some of the things around you within the world that may have never bothered you before. You may begin to notice the commercials are getting more obnoxious and bothersome to us than they ever were; perhaps some of the jokes we liked before may seem a little more off color than they were, and in general the attitudes of people we have always associated with may seem to be harder for us to accept. 2. You will find that the world and the people around you will tend to become more stand offish than they used to be and there may be many cases when you are challenged to cave into the old habits you used to have that now bother you. You will find very soon that those who were at one time wanting to hang out with you are no longer as interesterd; especially if you want to share with them anything about your faith in God. In fact the more excited that you get about how God is working in your life and presenting various answers to the problems you have always had the less others want to be involved with you. I want for you to know that this is not a fault of yours, but a sign that this world is beginning to recognize that you belong to Christ, and because of that this world is starting to hate you because it hates Christ in you.
It all boils down to where we intend to be in the intent of our hearts. This is a time when many start to really feel the pressure to express themselves in a spiritual way and yet still try to live in the physical world. Jesus tells us that for those who try to save their lives they will loose them and for those who try to give their lives for His sake they will gain them. For those who try to to do this God has already given a term for them called " The Double Minded Man" for those who try to live for God and still cling to this world are doomed to fail in both realms. I want to continue to explore this subject as we continue with the next blog on the DOUBLE MINDED MAN. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
For a great many of us within the church today there is a great lack of significance between our faith in Jesus and the effect it has on the life of those around us. I believe that much of that is due to the fact that we have as yet not made our own mind up to believe fully in the promises of God for our own life; and frankly until we begin to do that we will never convince anyone else of our love for God nor will we be able to show God's love for others.
In Christ's own teaching to us we know that we cannot hold to both this physical kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven at the same time because we will cling to one and deny the other or we will hate one and love the other. These two kingdoms are diametrically opposed to one another in such a way that it is impossible to combine them. The more I study God's world the more I realize that these things have never been meant to share the same space within our lives. This world one the other hand will never accept our spiritual world to co-exist within it because of the sin nature. The role that we play within this world is a constant irritant to the nature of sin because our very existence pours the light of conviction on the acts of sin and deceit to the point that there is no where for sin to hide from it. The only result this world has is to war against the truth of the Gospel of Christ and against we who live for that truth.
As Christians on the other hand we are given a mandate that we cannot ignore; we are made to choose between these two kingdoms which we have the potential to live within. We are literally asked to give up our rights and privileges in; which we know to be only temporary and cling to the Kingdom that God has promised to us with Him which is eternal and without flaw or blemish. If we choose the Spiritual we can no longer cling to the physical.
There is a very interesting thing that happens when we finally make a decision within the intent of our hearts to follow after Christ. It is a determination from both our hearts , and by the world around us because if we really mean what we are saying about the desire to transform our lives to live fully for the Spiritual Kingdom we will find things begin to happen that we did not expect.
1. You will begin to have a sense of change within you about some of the things around you within the world that may have never bothered you before. You may begin to notice the commercials are getting more obnoxious and bothersome to us than they ever were; perhaps some of the jokes we liked before may seem a little more off color than they were, and in general the attitudes of people we have always associated with may seem to be harder for us to accept. 2. You will find that the world and the people around you will tend to become more stand offish than they used to be and there may be many cases when you are challenged to cave into the old habits you used to have that now bother you. You will find very soon that those who were at one time wanting to hang out with you are no longer as interesterd; especially if you want to share with them anything about your faith in God. In fact the more excited that you get about how God is working in your life and presenting various answers to the problems you have always had the less others want to be involved with you. I want for you to know that this is not a fault of yours, but a sign that this world is beginning to recognize that you belong to Christ, and because of that this world is starting to hate you because it hates Christ in you.
It all boils down to where we intend to be in the intent of our hearts. This is a time when many start to really feel the pressure to express themselves in a spiritual way and yet still try to live in the physical world. Jesus tells us that for those who try to save their lives they will loose them and for those who try to give their lives for His sake they will gain them. For those who try to to do this God has already given a term for them called " The Double Minded Man" for those who try to live for God and still cling to this world are doomed to fail in both realms. I want to continue to explore this subject as we continue with the next blog on the DOUBLE MINDED MAN. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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