my last post was brief and didn't say much about my life, but it is definitely the thing that is strongest on my heart these days. i struggle to convey my deep feelings on this in words, but the feelings are unmistakably there. i hope that it made some sense to you.
a friend said this to me yesterday:
"would u agree that worldliness has only just stopped being seen as a sin in the last chunk of decades? funny how it seems to coincide with the SA becoming less effective.."
i have yet to respond to him, because i feel absolutely convicted.
in class (Extreme Holiness) we often try to clarify terms before we discuss them. we try to define "sin," "human nature," "sinful nature," and "flesh," so that when someone uses the word we all know what they mean. one of the terms that we recently tried to define was "THE WORLD."
a few times in the Bible we are told to hate the world.
"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
(James 4:4)
it's obviously worth defining, because God loves the world, and we're told to go into all the world and preach the good news, and Jesus died to save the world...so what is it exactly that we are hating?
the world is not:
-the earth (as in creation)
-all people
neither of these things are to be hated. in fact, they should be loved! the Lord created them, He declares them good, and He loves them. i do too :o)
some define the world as narrowly as "sin."
but i think that perhaps it's broader than that. sure, we should hate sin, but i wonder if the world also includes things that are not wrong in themselves, but that are temporal and could lead to idolatry.
for example-- things. relationships. popularity.
they aren't necessarily inherently sinful, but they could lead to sin.
what my comrade said, i believe is true.
we don't treat a hunger for material things as vile idolatry.
we don't act as if craving for romance is going after our second love and ignoring our first.
we don't act as if friendship with the world is hatred toward God.
dang.
i don't HATE those things. sometimes i get a glimpse of reality, and i remember that they are only a shadow, but most of the time i enjoy those things of the world and no one calls me on it.
i'm sure i'm not the only one.
maybe when we consider worldliness a sin, the Lord will be able to use us.
4 comments:
good post! you called it like it is.
Help us Lord.
Just to Encourage you OM there are many here in the UK coming to the same conclusion. I have blogged on this repeatedly. Worldliness stopped being a sin circa 1960. Prior to that worldliness was always in the top 10.
This Sunday I will sign again my Officer's covenant and put my Captain's uniform back on for the first time in 18 years. I have seriosuly weighed up the obligations contained in that covenant - by God's grace I am determined to be true to the promises I make.
I believe that this is the only route to to revival - meaning what we say, keeping our promises - quite simply not just making God the first thing in our lives but making him the only thing. Not just giving up what is sinful but giving up what is doubtful too!
I am with you all the way sister - keep on preaching holiness. As I have said many times before...The rediscovery of holiness will prove to be the salvation of the Salvation Army!
Love and prayers
A
Worldliness creeps in so easily, and wears so many guises and disguises. The topics you describe are not exclusive but inclusive of the many pulls that can occupy our hearts.
It is a spiritual challenge to keep our hearts focused on God, letting Him be the truest and only lover of our soul.
There are courts of law with juries and prosecutor to condemn a person of worldliness, but within the spiritual realm, God convicts hearts all the time about their lure to worldliness.
Your words speak volumes and are true and plain. To have an undivided heart, that is our call from God, to maintain and seek and desire an undivided heart dedicated to Him. You are true and clear today. A very deep and provacative post.
verses i found on an undivided heart:
i am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. - 1 corinthians 7:35
paul is talking about abstaining from marraige. very often on first glance, being holy would appear to be restricting and confining. God has been showing me that this is not so, in fact that i have just not known freedom as it really is. freedom doesn't mean that i feel good. freedom means that others will find freedom in what i do as well. selfishness always hurts others. freedom is when we are no longer slaves to sin.
teach me your way, O LORD,
and i will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name. - psalm 86:11
they will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
- ezekiel 11
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