"God, having placed good and evil in our power, has given us full freedom of choice; He does not keep back the unwilling, but embraces the willing." John Chrysostom
"When the author walks on the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right...something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise...it will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up." C.S Lewis
14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Josh 24:15 (KJV)
Which Gods do you serve? Do you serve the Gods from a long time ago? Do you serve the Gods of the people in whose land you dwell? We are all guilty of serving the God of America. With all of the sacrifices we offer to her, and all of the devotion we spend in awe of her.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matt 6:22-24 (KJV)
If your eye is together with the will of God you will have light. If your eye is with the will of Satan you will be full of darkness. Notice how it says that if the light that is in you is darkness, HOW GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS! What is in your eye? Is it money? Is it acceptance from this world? If it is either of these, then you can also say that it is compromise. This is God’s word saying you cannot serve God and money. If you have that mentality that you are strong enough to compromise even the least of the commandments for a monetary gain then you have chosen which master you will serve. How many so-called Christians discover truth in the bible and then refuse to follow that truth because it will interfere with their worldly friends or their worldly job or their worldly family or their worldly church? If you do things that are against the word of God for monetary gain then you have shown which master is yours.
I received this message from God after praying about a decision that my family had to make. We were asked by friends to participate in one of our communities annual festivals. It happened to be a music and arts festival. I had convictions about it when we were first asked but I began to listen to other friends and even fellow Christians. I found myself feeling guilty because I did not want to go participate in the festival because I understand through the scriptures that the music that is being celebrated at this festival is not of God nor would God accept it for any reason. I prayed about it and did not receive an answer. Again I was told how great it would be for our business and how I might offend the community if we did not participate. People in the community decided to pay for our booth. Everyone was so excited that we were going to be there. Some of the people at our church told us they would let us use their tent for our booth. I still knew what was right and I was not sure if I was going to do it or not. As I was praying again for God to help me, He did. God’s words rang out in my head so loud. “Choose ye this day whom you will serve, Ye cannot serve both God and mammon”. I was so relieved.
Too many times we use our flesh instead of our spirit to make our decisions for us. We see something in scripture that tells us we are wrong but instead of changing what we are doing we try and find a loop hole in scripture, and there are none, but we find something that tells us that it might be ok to disobey. Take country music for an example. Country music glorifies Satan and all that he is. The lust of the eyes, the pride of life and just flat out rebellion, but we there are some songs that have really good messages and even a scriptural foundation, so it must be ok to listen to it. If the light that you have is dark, oh how dark it is. We as Christians have so many choices throughout our lives. We will make some bad choices but we must try to make the good choices. We must try to be perfect. If I know it is wrong to dress in a certain manner and I do not do it I am guilty of making the wrong choice. Ok so why do we make the wrong choices? Why do we continue to do things that we know are wrong? Why do we do things that are not adherently evil but they are not adherently good either? There are only two sides here. The people of this world want to be accepted by this world, even Christians who are not supposed to be of this world. Just look in the mirror or record yourself for one day, whether it be visual or audio, you will really know who you are. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)
That word in verse 2, acceptable means to be well pleasing or fully agreeable. We are also told in verse 1 that we must present our bodies a living sacrifice. This means that we have to do something. We must present ourselves. We have to get ourselves ready and say here I am God. I am yours and I have done this for you because of the mercies you have shown me.
Here is where I am going with this. See that part where it says and be not conformed to this world. This word that is used here is only used in the entire bible twice. Once by Paul and once by Peter. The word is, syschēmatizō or soos-khay-mat-id'-zo. This word means to fashion alike or to conform to the same pattern. We are to resist being poured into the mold of the present thinking, value system and conduct of this world. Like the decision I had to make above, I should not have worried about what the world thought about me. I should not have cared about how the community accepted me and my family. Some watered down Christians will say, but you can’t just shun the people of the world. That’s not what the King James bible says. Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:14.
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 1 Peter 1:14 (KJV)
Here the phrase, not fashioning yourselves according to, is the word syschematizo. Remember what the word means. We should not dress ourselves or even resemble the thinking of this world. The church has become a useless tool and they have hid there light under a bushel. The church want to be accepted by this world.
My family has a pet cat. This cat is like many cats as it only wants to be petted when it feels like it. Sometimes the cat will purr very loudly when you are petting it, and sometimes it will growl and hiss if it does not want to be petted. We are always wondering what kind of mood the cat is in and we are always trying to pet it. If the cat growls and hisses we leave it alone but if the cat allows us to pet it and it is purring we feel accepted by the cat. I think the cat is saying, ok you can pet me now but only for a little while. This is how our churches are today with the world. The charismatic church we used to be in was like this. The numbers were slipping in the church so the church wanted more people. The church changed the music, the youth building, the service and even the pastor to bring in the younger college crowd. The numbers started rising and finally the church was accepted by the world. Whew!!! It’s a good thing that the church wasn’t concerned with changing the world but changing for the world so they could keep the numbers up. Does this sound familiar? Satan has deceived the church throughout the ages and he continues even today. This is nothing new. I have used this in a bible study before but I think it fits good here also. This is a letter by Martin Luther King Jr. He wrote it in the sixties while he was in jail in Birmingham, AL.
There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiator contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Martin Luther King Jr.
Are we a thermometer or a thermostat?
We should not be concerned with being accepted by this world. We should only be concerned with being accepted by God. In Psalms 19:14, David said:
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalms 19:14 (KJV)
The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart should be acceptable in His sight, not the worlds. The choices we make will either hinder our spiritual walk with God or they will allow us to present ourselves to God in a most acceptable way. If I talk about the things of this world or if I meditate on the system of this world, I will not be acceptable unto the Lord. We are given choices. Two of them are given to us in Deut 30:17-19
17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deut 30:17-19 (KJV)
I have heard many preachers use this verse. Everyone that I heard was talking about materialism. That is not what this verse is about. Some times what seems to be a blessing to our flesh just might be a curse. We must learn to use God’s spirit to guide us. We must all make choices but we must wait on the Lord. I have learned that if someone wants me to make a decision on something right now, the answer is almost always no. We need to learn to wait on God and quit trying to say we do when we really don’t. If we truly trust Him we must learn that he always hears us and he always answers. Wait. Do not make choices in haste. Some of the choices we must make are: To obey God, Fear God, Worship God, Reverence God, To be humble, To be peaceful, To not conform to the thinking of this world and we can make these choices by How we talk, where we go, who we associate with, how we live, etc. We must make a choice whether or not we are going to take the word of God as absolute or if we are going to take someone’s opinion as partial truth. We must choose if we are going to jump off the fence and run as far as we can from the borders of sin or are we going to continue to stand on the fences and yell at the world and tell them how bad they are, while we still have a foot in it, accepting their ways and teaching their ways to our children and the young unlearned Christians. Choose you this day who you will serve. Praise God
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