God Calls us to be Separate
I often feel
like I don’t fit in when friends serve desserts or goodies. I can’t eat pies,
cakes, bread or cookies. Any food I eat that
has wheat, barley or rye flour in it makes me very sick. A doctor diagnosed my problem as a disease called
“Celiac Sprue” which is a gluten intolerance. Some of my friends think I am faking when I can’t
eat everything they are eating, and it can be awkward.
Since most processed and packaged foods are
made with some wheat flour which includes gluten, I cannot eat many processed
foods without coming down with severe tummy problems. I can eat fresh foods, meats, fish, gluten
free breads, fruit, salads, vegetables, potatoes, etc. So, I eat well. But I work hard to hide my
problem from others, and usually no one knows. But sometimes I just don’t fit
in when I can’t join in and eat what everyone else is eating.
The Bible
tells us that when we decide to follow Jesus that we won’t always “fit in” with
what the world is doing. We will need to
separate ourselves out from some of the actions and popular fads of the day. Scripture
says: “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will
receive you. I will be a Father to you,
and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)
Just as
gluten and wheat flour is off limits for me to eat, some things are off limits
for followers of Christ to indulge in. God has given us laws to follow: laws to
love Him with all our hearts and souls and minds and laws to love one another
as we love ourselves. We are commanded to help the poor. We are to put God
first in our lives. Not worship anything
but God. Not take God’s Name in vain. Remember
the Sabbath to keep it holy. Honor our
parents. We are not to kill human life or
steal or commit adultery or bear false witness.
And we are not even to covet (want what is not ours).
This sounds
like a lot of work on our part, but actually it is made easy because we have
help. God gives us the Holy Spirit to
open the way and to give us joy and peace as we walk the new walk. If we let Him, the Holy Spirit helps us stay
away from temptation, failures of our past, pride, and anything that draws us
away from God. So, we have a choice in
the way we live.
Our
citizenship is in heaven – not really in this world. (Philippians 3:20)
Scripture says that we won’t fit into the world because Jesus didn’t fit into
the world and was rejected by it. Jesus
spoke to us with these words: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it
hated Me first. If you belonged to the
world, it would love you as its own. As
it is, you do not belong to the world, but I (Jesus) have chosen you out of the
world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19) We don’t completely understand this
mystery. But someday we will.
Our part is
to offer ourselves to Him. Scripture
says: “I urge you, brothers and sisters in view of God’s mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God – this is your
spiritual act of worship. And do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds.” (Romans 12:1-2)
The Holy
Spirit will lead us to become more and more like the Lord. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot do that on
our own. Scripture says: “The flesh
lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are
contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
(Galatians 5:17)
Our flesh, if left to its own will, will be
opposed to the Holy Spirit in us. Either
we submit to God and the leading of His Spirit or we do not submit. Scripture says: “Those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
(Galatians 5:24) The little secret that those who have not submitted to Christ
don’t know is that there is great joy and peace in submitting to Him.
King Solomon,
king of Israel, started out following God like his father King David had done. God gave him favor and riches and the nation
of Israel was greatly blessed under most of King Solomon’s reign. God commanded
King Solomon and the people of Israel to stay away from worshipping idols. All of the other nations in that day worshipped
idols so the nation of Israel had to separate themselves from the crowd and be
different. But King Solomon promised to
stay true to the God of his fathers. For
awhile King Solomon loved God and followed Him.
But as the
years progressed, King Solomon forgot God’s commands and allowed other idols or
gods to be built and worshipped in Israel.
He was no longer loyal to God and God soon sent the prophet Ahijah to King
Solomon to tell him that his kingdom (Israel) would be torn away from him. Instead of King Solomon taking God’s warning
seriously, he didn’t believe the prophecy and went on allowing the popular
worship of idols to continue. (1 Kings 11:28-32)
Because King
Solomon did not separate himself from the sin of idolatry as God had commanded him
to do, God took his kingdom from him. How
many times have we lost something valuable that God had for us, because we did
not separate ourselves from the world?
We who have
the Holy Spirit in us should be different from those who do not. And part of that difference is being faithful
to God by separating ourselves from any known sin. The Bible says, “Do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) When we receive Jesus, He gives us the Holy
Spirit to live in us as the seal that confirms and secures that bond between us
and God! The Holy Spirit is forever
committed to live in us and help us live the life that God wants us to live -a
life that brings glory to Christ. It
doesn’t get any better than that!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment