So It All Changed

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
1John 2:15-17 (NKJV)

“And the world is passing away”, none truer a statement made in the Bible. I had to go to a friend’s business recently to acquire parts for our lawn mowers. And as I was driving by a part of a town that my wife and I use to live in I took notice on how much it had changed…but it did not look good. It looked as if it too was passing away. It once had held all three of those things that John has stated the world held, the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes and the pride of life. It was the Babylon of its time and now it is just a wasteland in an old American town. It’s sad… but for me it is true.

It was a fine example that what the “world” around us actually promises when you submit to those three vices that John was telling the people around him to avoid. One of the buildings had burned to the ground never to be rebuilt or have a “For Sale” sign placed upon the property. It’s not even fit for a parking lot. One old business establishment that has been closed for years still hasn’t found a buyer. And a home that once was the place to be has been left deserted to decay into a sheriff’s tax sale.

It would seem as if these places were not built on Gods eternal foundation and that would be true but the home once housed a family that needs to hear the Gospel message of the Cross. I met my wife in the one that is not being sold but we now have been given the chance to rebuild on the solid Rock of Christ. The other place was the Gomorrah of its time. So it was only a matter of time before God would intervene and turn that place into the dead corner that it is now. For those of us who saw the movie “Beetlejuice” would remember the scene with “Dante’s Inferno”…it was that kind of place.

You know there is nothing reconcilable between the love of the world and the love of God. John states that quite clearly. And he is reinforced in the book of James just as bluntly. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?” (James 4:3-5)

I believe that John, the Disciple whom Jesus loved, was chosen to be the Watchman of God’s people post-Crucifixion. He warns his readers of “antichrist”. He has explained that there has been made a propitiation for our sin and there being an advocate for us by being in Christ Jesus. That whatever this world tells us we are lacking pales in comparison to the truth found in the shed blood of Christ. That what this world offers is antichrist and can still be put on display in our local cities, towns and neighborhoods. What are you seeing in the area that surrounds you and your families this morning? Be mindful the spirit of antichrist just maybe hiding in the decay. — Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 19; 2 Samuel 6-8; Luke 15:1-10

Dig This Quote: “The Christian who is too Christian doesn’t love the world enough to enter fully into it, and the Christian who is too pagan doesn’t love Jesus enough to make a difference while there. Yet as disciples we are supposed to live out our calling in the world because Jesus commanded us to go into the world as a loving and transforming presence. Those who are too Christian often argue that they avoid the world because God tells us not to love the world or the things of the world.” “Too Christian Too Pagan” Dick Staub

Determined Digging: Level 1 — Psalm 139:23-24; Level 2 — Psalm 51:14-19