March 13, 2022
Greetings and blessings to all of you. The Word says in I John 2:15-17 “ 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. The world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” Many Christians seemed to be completely unaware or unwilling to see that serious dangers threaten the church or the (Body of Christ) from within. We are currently living in a societal chaos and an unstable age. The church cannot afford to be wishy washy. Our Pastors ministers to people desperate for life answers therefore they cannot tickle their ears with unsound doctrine. If we make friends with world, we set ourselves at enmity with God. We are supposed to be different than the world. Recall the history of the people of God…the Israelites. They were explicitly forbidden to imitate the Gentiles manner of dress, grooming, foods, religion, and other aspects of the culture. God told them, “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. (Lev.18:3) We are called to be like Christ. Christ was different. The crowds drew near Him because they felt there was something different about Him. The world expects us to be different. Where did the idea come from that in order to win people to Christ, we must show them that we are like them. What happened to the verse in 2 Cor. 6:17 “Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord”? What happened to the sin of worldliness? We seem to have forgotten the definition. Re-read the verse above. It is allowing one’s appetites, ambitions, or conduct to be fashioned according to earthly values. Are we trying to get the unsaved to accept Jesus by somehow make Him more likable or making the Scriptures less offensive by omitting the difficult parts or reinterpreting the difficult parts so the unsaved or baby Christian can like us and our Jesus? True evangelism does not require salesmen but men and woman of God who loves and stands on the truth no matter what the culture says, does or feels. Remember the cross is offensive.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC