from Pleasant Grove Baptist Church https://ift.tt/2YfqNyG
via IFTTT "come out" "Do not touch what is unclean" God's people are called to live differently. Called to stand out. In the verses before this, Paul talks about those of light associating with those of darkness, of clean mixing with unclean. What does this mean for us today? Be different. Be the light. We are not different if people can not see that we are different. We should live different, do things differently, act differently. Not on Sundays, but everyday of the week. In public and in our homes. Today it's questions like: How are our children raised? Who teaches them? What do they learn? What messages blare from the tv inside our home? What music fills the air in our home or car? Do the females in our family dress modestly, by biblical standards? Do the males look like ambassadors of Christ? Where do we turn for fun and entertainment? How do we spend our days? What does our home look like on Halloween? What type of friends do we hang out with? What words fill the air around us? So many questions to ask. All asking "are we different? Do we embrace the world and it's pleasures or do we change it? Do we join in or stand apart? Can someone look at us and tell from our demeanor, our presence, our speech, our life that we belong to God? As a demonstration of this principle. Try this experiment. Take two glasses of pure water. They look the same. Now drop a few drops of food coloring in one and mix. Colored water, unclean. Now... Pour both glasses into a third glass, mixing them. What do you get? Unclean water. The pure does not clean the unpure, instead the blend together into a compromise, and stay that way, unpure. Now be careful. Here is where many go astray. There are two common missteps with this concept. Misstep 1: legalism. When we start to define what exactly is and is not acceptable, and think that DOING one is good while DOING the other is bad, we ran adrift into legalism. This isn't about rules, but the heart. It is not about actions, but desires. Do you desire to be clean and pure? Are you looking for ways to be pleasing to God in every area of our life? Have we submitted every moment, every action , every desire to His will? Misstep 2: holier than thou. When we start to think that we are better because we DO things or don't DO things, we get proud. We puff up and look down our noses to others. That is pride and sin. That is what hung Jesus on the cross. We are never to consider ourselves better than anyone, for all that is good is Grace, not earned. Also, a warning to keep this in context. Paul is talking about relationships, bonding, mixing, fellowship. Who do we view as friends and partners, what do we accept as normal life. This says nothing about going to help people in desperate situations. Walking into a bar is not sin, walking in to get drunk as fun or escape is. It's the motive of the heart that matters. We are not to avoid those who most need the light, but we are also not to live like them. Jesus was criticized because He visited and ate with obvious sinners. He brought the light to the darkest. Those who concentrated on appearances criticized Jesus for it. Yet they themselves lived in darkness that was kept quiet. They had hearts not seeking the light, but seeking to live like the world while appearing to be the light. It's in the heart. What is the desire of your heart? Do you yearn to be like your Holy Father? If so... You will. This promise is amazing! God the Creator of the universe will be with you, if you desire to be like Him. If you want His holiness more than the world's pleasures, you will find Him What do you want? God or this world? Choose, and choose wisely. You can walk with God, talk with God, know the presence of our Father as a dad, know Jesus as our closest friend. All we need do is, seek Him. Stop living like the world, stop seeking the world, fall on those knees in respect and submission, and seek Him .
