They're
"Little Things", little tweaks to what we've been able to
tolerate or have accepted in the past. That's all they are. Little
things that push the boundaries just a little further. Nothing big,
but every little one potentially very dangerous when we consider that
since the creation of man, our God hasn't compromised what He's said
even one "little" bit.
Most
of us live in a world full of things we feel that we have to try to
keep up with. The demands of the world around us can be many and at
times we may find ourselves stretched to our limits to have any time
to pay attention to all of the things we hold to be important.
Sometimes it's hard just to cover all of the basics as well as we
feel we should. Or in the way that society would tell us that we
should. But in the course of our busy lives, there are some things we
need to remember to be aware of and that we can't afford to overlook.
As Christians we have to constantly remind ourselves that the enemy
of our souls is counting on our distraction to allow himself the
opportunity to slowly introduce ever so slight tweeks to the moral
fabric of the society we live in the midst of. They're always just
"little things" - "little" changes to what's
considered acceptable in society. Little by little the boundaries of
what's considered acceptable by this world gets moved farther and
farther out and what used to be extreme or outrageous eventually
seems to become commonplace given enough time.
But
as Christians, we can't afford to forget who we are. Or
that while what the world seems to find acceptable changes a little
at a time, our God hasn't changed even the slightest since the
beginning of time. We have to remember that the society of this world
is not the society of Heaven. It's not the society ruled by our God -
the society that we belong to. We have to constantly remind ourselves
that we're just passing through this place - that we don't belong
here! We're citizens of Heaven and the children of our Father God.
His commandments and values haven't changed in even the slightest
"little" amount. So regardless of what the world is willing
to accept, our goals and our rules cannot be allowed to change even a
little if we want to be found acceptable and pleasing to our Father.
While
we're here, we've been given the rules that we're to conduct
ourselves by. They aren't options to be determined by popular opinion
and they aren't subject to modification or change anymore than our
unchanging God. We've been given the wisest council of our Father God
regarding the truth of our condition, how to receive His blessings
and favor, and how we're to survive our time here. So however much
the world would choose to follow it's own wisdom, we
know that we were given the truth of our own situation as disciples
of Christ and Children of the Most High. The world is the world, but
that's not who we are. We as Christians all over the
world ... are the nation of Christ on the earth, Christ's Church and
the Children of God. Our home is not here and our rules are defined
by our omnipotent God. We were designed and created for a life beyond
this one. Like all men, we've been given the choice to settle for
this one if we choose to. But we aspire to fulfill our Fathers'
reason for our creation. We're reaching for the goal of our Gods'
desire. We choose to be called the children of our Father God and
enjoy the fulfillment of the promises He's made to His Children - not
the destiny He's promised to the children of this world. So the
worlds' wisdom gives us no excuse to disobey the words of our Father.
Because
of my goal of pleasing my Father and given the fact that He's spoken
the truth of all things to us from the beginning, if I boast that
even the smallest wrong thing is right, I have poisoned my own soul
and crossed the line that I can't afford to cross. That line was draw
by our God long before our time and it hasn't moved. The truth of all
things has been set before those of us who live today by our God and
He didn't leave their declaration to our choice. So if I speak of
even the smallest wrong thing as though it were right, then I've set
my face against our God. Our Lord didn't leave these things to
question, He declared them before all men already. So if I now choose
to call a wrong thing right in order to justify my own actions or
desires before men or even silently to myself, then I've declared
that God is wrong to His face ... and He hears even my unspoken
thoughts. So even if my other words and outward actions may show a
desire to please God, I would have already declared myself to be an
enemy of the truth and made myself an opponent of the very one who
holds my future completely in His hands ... the very one I've chosen
to follow.
These
things I'm saying may sound harsh, but we know in our heart of hearts
that our God will not judge the actions of men from the world's
perspective but from His own. His judgement won't be accepting any
little concessions we've made against what He's said, but will be
according to His perspective and according to every word that He's
spoken. There'll be no excusable exceptions and no place to hide
shameful compromises from His gaze. As Christians, our sins may be
hidden in Christ. But consider this: in the day after judgment has
passed, when we live before His throne in the glory of His presence
who will hide the people we have become then? Would it not be better
to prepare ourselves now to live as citizens in Heaven before the
Holy face of our Father? Is not now the time that He's allowed us to
prepare for that day? If I've not taken this time allowed by His
grace to learn, to train myself with His help to live obedient to His
word and to His ways, then who will I be in the days that follow
judgment as I live in His presence? Given that we're creatures of
habit, if I've not learned to live in complete obedience, will my
compromising ways follow me to be lived out before His face?
I
may have the advantage over some younger who may read this in that I
can recall a time when so many things that are so common place every
day now would have caused an uproar - a righteous uproar before our
Lord in favor of His Word. But the source of the worlds' societal
wisdom and tolerance today is man's own sinful nature and ... the
very one who's own rebellion got him thrown out of Heaven. He's the
very one who now sets himself to our destruction and also to
depriving our Father of His desire. So please tell me why anyone
would choose to accept and follow the worlds' wisdom? Our Lord's
already told us what the truth is. So to accept anything else is to
opt out of the truth and accept the consequences our God has declared
for the followers of lies along with the father of lies himself.
How
has so much changed in one mans' life time? Surely, and without a
doubt, these things I speak of have existed since the beginning of
sin in the world. But they now seem so widely and openly promoted to
such a degree as to become commonplace and even acceptable to some
who claim to follow Christ. It's not only frightening, but deeply
heartbreaking. How many people are being sucked into accepting what
is unacceptable according to what our Fathers' told us? How many more
are then deceived by those who accept what our Lord has declared
unacceptable while claiming to follow Christ? I feel strongly that
the massively expanded media in my lifetime has become the powerful
method of deception's persuasion.
Most
every vice, every trap, every lust of any kind that appeals to our
flesh is presented 24 hours every day and 7 days every week in all
forms of media. It's repeated relentlessly to assault our minds to
such a degree that we become numb to it if we allow ourselves to be
subjected to it. Every lust: wealth, possessions, sex, power and more
are not only shoved in our faces, but promoted in some cases as
virtuous. But in the eyes that will judge the world in the end, right
and wrong have not changed and we cannot afford to forget who we
belong to.
The
world has it's own explanations for most everything our God has done
and it's own set of ever changing rules and code. None of it brings
life. In fact most of it only hastens death. But in this crazy world
of man, we can be so grateful that we have the opportunity to know
the truth. We can celebrate a future beyond this world and know the
meaning of life. We can know a peace and security that lives outside
of the ways of this world. We can enjoy a reality that's not
controlled by the chaos of this world, but by the Sovereign God of
the universe. The God whose perspective is so far above anything of
man's intellect and the God who created us for a life that exists so
far beyond this moment.
When
we come to recognize that as our flesh was formed in the womb of our
mothers, our spirits are now in this moment we call life being formed
in the womb of the earth, we will have begun to have the perspective
of our God. When we acknowledge by the way that we live in this world
that we are not yet born into the life that our creator intended, we
will have begun to see a glimmer from His view point. We can then
begin to understand that many of the things in this life that would
seem to come against us are simply the work of the hand that forms
the character of our spirits for our good to live in harmony with our
Father. Only when Christ returns to bring us to the Father will our
time of spiritual forming in this world come to an end and we will
then be born into the eternal life that we were created for. This
"life" isn't an end, it's a time of our spiritual forming.
The LIFE He created us for hasn't even begun!
So
as the spirits our Father has lovingly given life to, we need to
remember “you are what you eat”. We know it’s a fact that our
bodies either prosper or suffer based on what we feed them. Good
mothers know how critical proper diet is to a properly developing
fetus. But how many of us realize that it’s also a fact that the
same is true for our developing spirits. The only difference between
the developing fetus of flesh and the case of our eternal spirits is
that we as individuals before the Lord have the choice to decide what
we will feed them. It’s no less critical that we determine
carefully what our spirits consume, in fact, it’s eternally
critical. Everything that we watch, everything that we listen to,
everything we read or engage in during this time of development is
critical to our spiritual health. Does a good mother feed her
developing baby a “little” rat poison? The answer is obvious. So
why would we as the stewards of our souls before the Lord feed our
own developing spirits things that our Father has warned us are
poison? Things that the enemy makes so readily available.
Remember
that the enemy of our souls is the one who's dishing out the world's
values and compromising ways. Don't allow yourself to be lulled into
accepting the "little things" that the rest of the world is
willing to accept when you know what our Father's said about them.
The changes and tweaks to what the world would have us accept or
allow come just a little at a time so as to not be alarming. Because
if we recognized them we would run away from them. If you're not sure
that you know how to recognize them or what our Lord has indeed said,
you need to be studying what He's said in His Word. It's in there!
Even some things that those who claim to follow Christ allow today
are called an "abomination" by the only one whose judgment
counts. This is scriptural for the end times, so it's incredibly
important that you know for yourself what our Lord has said.
Are
you willing to bet your life that I'm wrong about the things I've
told you here? Because when this life's over, you won't get another
chance. This is the decision you make now. You might say "I'm
saved and that's all that matters". But when the day comes, will
you really know Him? Will the person you've become in the time He's
allowed by grace be someone He's pleased with? Or will He even know
you? How much are you willing to gamble with your eternity? We ARE
eternal spirits with a choice to make. No question about it. We will
exist beyond our time in this world. The only question .. is where.
We are given by grace a measure of time, but when it's over, there
are no re-dos. So what have we done with it so far? What are we going
to do with the time we have left? The day is coming ...
If
our Lord created us solely for the purpose of saving us, then being
saved might be enough. But if you read His Word with understanding,
you'll realize pretty quickly that His desire and intention goes far
beyond that. He created us because He desires to have a relationship
with us. He desires to know us and for us to know Him. He wants to
experience life and interact with us, to be the perfect Father to us
as His children. The time we have now is allowed to prepare and teach
us to relate to Him. Will you use it? If not, will He know you when
this brief moment in time here runs out? Are you willing to bet your
eternal existence on it?
The
world will at times strenuously disagree with you if you hold to our
Gods values, but then who do you choose to spend eternity with? Those
who disagree? They'll have their reward. They may even call you a
"hater" because you refuse to accept what God in His
sovereignty has determined to be sin. Because we hate sin as our
Father does, does not mean that we hate the people who commit them
any more than He does. But to accept or commit sin as something
allowable flies in the face of what The Judge of all man kind has
already said.The world doesn't like having it's great wisdom
questioned and it may reject those who disagree with it. But if we
have to choose knowing the outcome for each, what will our choice be?
Now is the moment for that decision.
"Little
things" could have big consequences when dealing with an
unwavering, wholly righteous and sovereign God as we all will. Are
they worth the chance?
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