Jan. 11, 2004

[Kidan]

Quote[/b] ]As they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon . . . , and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus
—Luke 23:26

Today's UTMOST

Believe it or not, but others do pay a price for your obedience to God. Following God can alienate those you love, who don't follow God.

As today's UTMOST says

Quote[/b] ] If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, "You call this Christianity?"

People want Christians to be this perfect, creature that never upsets anyone, and takes anything anyone dishes out. Yet at the same time, they wish to ridicule us for this behaviour. It's the perfect catch-22.


While we are expecting them to ridicule us for our behaviour, we should not worry so much over the not upseting anyone. People need to be upsetted. When we take stands for Christian morals and behaviours, people will be upset. There's nothing we can do to stop it. If we uphold our beliefs, there are those out there who won't agree with us, and they won't agree with us violently.

What's sad, is that often these people are our loved ones.

 

[Fleck]

The first part about being obedient to God but not loving him and trying to be with the world reminds me of some of those verses that say things like "You cannot love both the world and God" which to me, if you read it doesnt make alot of sense but if you think about it in certain parts of your life it makes you think about where you are.
Also Kidan thanks for doing the Daily devotional thing. I'm just getting back into doing my devotionals and you're helping me take more away from them. I wouldn't mind if people prayed for me to get more out of my devos though.

 

[Kidan]

I've never really thought of the concept of "You cannot love both the world and God" as being that difficult. You must remember that the NT deals with the spiritual and mental aspects of worshipping God (as opposed to the OT's emphasis on the physical aspects)

So think of it this way:
"You cannot love both the spirit of the world and the spirit of God"

Where the spirit of the world is sin, hate, unacceptance. and the spirit of God is love, kindness, humility, peace and acceptance.

These two things are in direct opposition to one another. To put them togethor has similar results as if you placed two magnetic poles togethor.


and it's not a problem to be doing this forum, and I'll pray.

 

[Fleck]

I havent really confined my definition of the spirit of the world to just sin, hatred and unkindness. Not that those things aren't of the spirit of the world. I think that the world represents many things, even things that people consider good. Like the friends that you have that are a negative influence on you spiritually and even food can become an obstacle because of gluttony. Sometimes I just don't see things like that the way i should. Thx for the prayer!