What Is Your Will In Christ?

I've posted messages to my blog before that I knew might be a little uncomfortable for some, but not with self intention other than to be obedient to whatever issues the Lord impressed on my heart to relate. But for over a week now, I've been uncomfortable with the message that I posted last. I don't have any concern with the truthfulness in the content of the post, but there was more that I should have said. My heart was burdened beyond what I wrote, but my body and mind were weary and I failed to be still long enough to write it out completely and I cut it short. Consequently it was blunt and lacking much. I apologize for this and ask your forgiveness. If you will, please allow me an opportunity now to add what needs to be added... The underlying disturbance in my heart that led me to the posting of the previous writing is an urgency to to separate myself from the spirit, the thinking and habits of this world that I inhabit for now and a call to my fam...

Chances are that if I were to tell you that we live in a materialistic world, as a true Christian, you would know what I'm talking about. Further, chances are that because you love Christ also, you're just as alarmed by it as I am. So the question becomes: what do we do about it? In just one example of the spirit of the world that we live in, we note that as we come upon the season that we celebrate as Christmas, we find that from year to year it's driven with increasing intensity by commercial enterprise. In other words: m-o-n-e-y. The "trappings" of Christmas appear earlier and earlier every year on store shelves and in media presentations designed to get us thinking about separating ourselves from the money they desire. The motivations for the parting that are given are both what we should buy and what we should expect to get. The commercial invitations to spend appear a little earlier and in greater urgency every year. They urge us to save money b...