Be Not ..... But Be

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 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.  (2Co 6:14-18 NASB)

Not just wise words but an imperative that Paul gives here.  We cannot be “bound together” with unbelievers.  The literal meaning here is to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.  That is to keep a respectful distance from them – to not see them as “brothers” or even ”cousins.”  We have to be very careful of our associations.

One reason is that we want to maintain the Christian distinctive.  They are not us – not even close and we must make that gently clear.  We can be friendly with them but we cannot be friends with them.

This is tough, especially when they are kind and friendly people.  But we have to keep a respectful distance in our relationship for they are of the devil no matter how “nice” they are.

They are, to put this boldly, both the harvest field and the enemy at the same time.  They do not want what is best for you nor even what is good for you.  They want what is good for them.  They are idolaters worshipping another God who stands in opposition to our God, the God.

Other verses that go with this one are:

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.  (1Co 5:9-10 NASB)

But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.  (1Co 5:11-13 NASB)

Tough verses!!!!!!!!

How do we do this?  Carefully!

This does not mean that we do not admonish and counsel the erring brother but that we do not relate to them in a manner that even seems to condone their error.  Of course, we must seek to correct the erring brother, but all the while making it plain that we are out of fellowship with them.

Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."  (1Co 15:33 NASB) 

We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  (1Th 5:14 NASB) 

It is clear that we have to make and live out tough choices and it can be very frustrating and painful – but

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.  (1Th 4:1 NASB)

These scriptures should guide both our feelings and our actions toward others.  We must maintain the Christian distinctive while, at the same time, being kind and gentle, looking for and taking the opportunity to evangelize the unbeliever or admonish the so called brother.

NOTE that these brothers are called a “so-called” brothers – He or she is not a legitimate believer and that must be kept in mind – they are not of the faith – not related to us in Christ and they bring shame and disrepute to the Gospel.  Have little to do with them as possible and seek to win them to Christ – pray for them and the opportunity to witness/testify to them, remembering we just deliver the mail we can’t make them read it.

Remember;

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.  (Psa 1:1-6 NASB)

We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.   (1Th 5:14 NASB)

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  (2Ti 4:2 NASB)--

"Tetelesthai!" - but I am not -

Michael Sanders

336-549-2081

Finger Thinking 081514

Well, we are in Midland, Texas which we suppose God intends to be our new home.  It was a tough road getting here but through the prayers, encouragement and support of “family” we made it safe and sound if not a little bedraggled.

What have we learned from this journey God has taken us on?  At least, what have we learned so far?

Certainly we have learned that God is faithful.  When we follow His lead, and we suppose we are doing so, He provides and protects.  There were so many times along the way when means and methods were unknown.  And there were times when we committed to “tough it out” in the flesh and He intervened with a solution.  He also provided the peace to pass through any glitches and upset we met along the way.

He provides and protects when we are yielded to His will and His way.  His way may be simple but never confuse that with easy.  Of course we’re the ones who really make it hard. We make our plans and projections and we make our assumptions and we charge ahead without really taking the time to pray and read the Word and reflect.  We certainly find it hard to seek godly counsel (Oh, my – you means share my trials and doubts?)

So far I’ve learned that, at least for me, it is important to be responsible and to make plans BUT I’ve got to leave the final outcome – even the process to Him.  Many things didn’t work out the way we thought they would.  BUT they did work out and are working out still.  So far all the “endings” have been blessed.

I’ve also learned that the Christian family that one builds – that may or may not be members of your particular “church” – are to be cherished and loved and cared for.  It is, at least in our case, through this “family” that God has so richly blessed this move, this great change in our lives.

We ARE very blessed to have such a wonderful “family” back in G’bo.  Through you God sustained us and through you God got us where we are.  We are humbled by your love and faithfulness and grateful for each of you and the part you played in getting us here.

We miss you and pray that from here we may continue to be a part of your lives and growth - just as we hope you will be part of ours.  We refuse to close the page on G’bo.  There is just too much of us still there for us to be able to turn the page much less start a new book.

I hope in the coming days to write for you like I used to and that you and I will be blessed by the interchange.  You are missed, you are loved.

Getting a Grip when it all Hurts Part 5

Getting a Grip  When it all hurts  Part 5

1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. [8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. [11] To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Restore
Confirm
Strengthen
Establish

Do you want it - or not?

I ask that often.  Am I willing to suffer (for a little while) in order for God to bless me with these four mercies?  I take them as indesputable promises and so my answer is a weak but firm "yes."

I don't like the suffering part but I'm not sure we're supposed to like it anyway.  I do think that we are to keep the end in view - add everything up so we may:

James 1:2 ESV
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

and let's not exclude:

James 1:3-4 ESV
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. [4] And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Is this really what we want?  Or do we want to have a haven here instead of heaven there?  Oh how the love of the world smothers all our sense and sensibleness.  How the flesh warps and twists our hearts so that we desire the best here where it can never be available.  How poor and weak are we that we (and I mean WE) seek to live here without a deep desire for heaven.


We are so infected with the;
1 John 2:16
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions-

We forget that all of this, "is not from the Father but is from the world."

We are promised food, clothing and shelter.  We are not promised what kind or how much.  And I am learning that I have too much and that this too much has trapped me in the world.  I am being restored, confirmed, strengthened and established in ways I never suspected. And were it not for the suffering we are experiencing I'd have probably never even seen it.  As we live close to poverty I see the real poverty under which we lived.  As needs grow larger and more un-meetable I see what my real needs are - to which I was blind.  As a sense of worldly failure overwhelms me I discover what true success is - must be.  As the world in my life slowly diminishes heaven grows larger and His mercies and blessing grow more and more grand.

Brother and sisters I encourage you to live in such a way that God does not need to teach by a hard lesson.  Live with little, fight the covetousness that so easily infects our feeble hearts.  Begin now to loosen your grip on the world so the world's grip on you may be loosened.  Fight the real fight - the fight to live in humulity and submission to Him.  Question every eyarning, every desire, every choice.  Examine every thought and inclination.

If you are suffering, you are not alone and probably your suffering pales in comparison to most -  But suffering, no matter how bad is suffering.  I pray for you that you will not suffer long and that you (and we) will soon be the joyous recipients of the mercies God promises in this verse.

Getting a Grip When it all hurts Part 4 040414

Getting a Grip  When it all hurts  Part 4

1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. [8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. [11] To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

[10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

"After a little while."  How long is a little while?  How long?  As we count time a little while is days - but when days pass it is weeks but when weeks pass it is months and on it goes.  God counts time differently and we have to get a grip on that!  But He does mean a little while.

Several years ago I got sick.  Noone could tell what was wrong.  It was just a matter of a few weeks but it seemed like forever.  Every minute was longer - every hour lasted 2 - every day seemed to be 48 hours long.  A little while seemed like ages.

Hopelss, in pain, high anxiety and loosing weight at an alarming rate every second seemed an eternity.  But it was just a few weeks.  A little while.

God counts time differently and His timetable does not run like ours.  His timetable, I believe, runs on our receptiveness to His work in our lives.  Why did Joseph have to be in prison as long as He was, what's up with 400 in Egypt?  Why did Jesus only have 3 years of ministry?  What's up with God and time?

I don't know.  But I do know that in this passage Peter uses "a little while," and I will take Him at his word on that.

Regardless of how long this little while is - isn't it worth the promise of restoration, confirmation, strength and being established?  Is the promise worth waiting through the period of provision.

Perhaps if we could come to see suffering as a period of provision we might do better than we do.  God is never idle and in our suffering He is at work within us and in His creation.  He CAN change things in an instant - He CAN change us in and instance - but except for a rare occurance we just don't see Him doing that in His Word - so can we really expect to be the exception to the norm?
A little while - it can be a tough little while if we are not believing that what is promised is behind the time and circumstance.  We can't know what the restoration, confirmation, strength and being established will look like.  Things may well be very different from what we desire or expect but a promise is a promise - right?  And is it not the promise that should guide us in counting the moments.  Should our "time anxiety" really be a strong expectation for His work to be done and for us to come to that moment of restoration, confirmation, strength and being established?

We live in a, "When you absolutely, positively need it overnight," world.  We want next day shipping from God.  We want it and we want it now.  But when we will come to see that this is not how God always works?  When will we see that for whatever good reason He works in His creation within our time.

Finger Thinking 091113

Psalm 73:25-26 ESV
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. [26] My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

How often is this a statement that we make or even consider?  It is so very easy to get caught up in the everyday to the point that we forget the only hope that we have.  It is so very easy for us to become numb to this truth.

Caught between the World and the Devil our flesh is so easily empowered and our hearts so easily benumbed.  It is only in those providential acts of merciful affliction that we desire to cry out as David does.  It is only in the loss or hindering of His mercies that we see how very precious they are.

There are no small blessings, so insignificant mercies and yet we are so very prone to treat them so.  We miss so very much of His wonder and lovingkindness simply through inattention and diversion.  We hope for heaven and miss the awesomeness of His providence in the everyday.

It does us little good to determine to not be diverted - there is little strength in our determinations.  It does us less good to approach Him as though it were some business or social goal we have set for our selves.

No, it is only in His strength that the distractions of the World and the Devil can be dispelled and we can regain the sight we need to whole-heartedly adore Him and see the value of all the mercies He pour out upon us moment by moment.  

We are to live in and by the Spirit and not the flesh - but this takes - no, demands a submission, a humbling that we are not prone to give.  We are so very oriented to achievement, to works that we bow not our knees for the common and the ordinary.  We have been fooled into thinking that we can deal with those things and only need Him for the "big things."

There is none in heaven for us but Him.  There is truly nothing here of any comparative value.  But we don not live that out in the everyday.

Pray that He will strengthen your heart, your soul, to bend your knees for the common and everyday things we have seen as the products of our efforts.  Do not be fooled into thinking that you accomplish anything apart from His providence.  

There and there alone will we find the peace He has for us.

Free slaves?!? Faithful Master!!!!

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.   (1Pe 2:16)

Free!

Free?

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   (Rom 6:22)

This is the whole of our freedom.

Whether Peter is referring to a freedom from the Law is not certain, but we know that Paul references it:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.   (Gal 5:13)

We are free from the bondage of sin and free from any pretense that we can in and of ourselves resolve the conflict we had with God when we were still unredeemed. 

We are free but it is not a wide-open freedom rather it is a freedom in Christ, by Christ and for Christ.  What we undertake, that we cannot undertake in His name, is never an act of freedom.

Jesus said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (Joh 8:34-36)

Sin and freedom are mutually exclusive.  We are free from the imposed rule of sin but when we sin, we are submitting to that which has no rights over us.  When we sin, we are re-shackling ourselves – binding ourselves to that from which we have been loosed.

We receive our freedom for we have been redeemed, forgiven, saved.  But though the grace of God has no limits for us, to abuse and misuse it, to rebel against His rightful authority over us, is to bring into question the surety of our redemption. 

Consider:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,   (Heb 12:1)

Forgiven we may be – free of sin’s bondage we may be – but free of Christ, never. 

It is sometimes the way of believers to see themselves so utterly apart from the “world” that they may do or say what they will for they are “saved.”  Yet ours is a freedom that is defined by the One who provided it, the One into whose hands God has delivered all things.

Many use their freedom to vilify unbelievers.  Many use their freedom as a red cape to a bull.  Many use their freedom as an excuse to disassociate from those to whom they are called to witness.  Many use their freedom to – just go along as they have – only avoiding the grosser types of sins.

But this verse has a catch.  We are free – free servants of God.

But – that word “servants” is troublesome.  The “authorities” I regularly consult in my studies hold that it is more accurately translated slave.

One reason for this is quite simply:

for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.   (1Co 6:20)

and 

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.   (1Co 7:22-23)

We were bought out of our bondage to sin to be the slaves of Christ.  In this we have great freedom – freedom from sin and freedom to serve God as His.

Though it may irritate some, our freedom in Christ is far beyond any freedom a document written by man can give – anyone.  The tough side of our freedom is that we are free to be oppressed, harassed and even killed because of it. 

In chains, on the rack, in dungeons, on desert islands, and even in the flames we are free.  We have to keep in mind that this freedom is not of man and indeed is often opposed by man.   With this freedom we need to accept:

Luk 21:17  You will be hated by all for my name's sake.

Father, help me understand and appreciate my freedom as well as Your ownership of me.  Make me quiet and trusting under Your loving hand.  Teach me, patiently, to be a good and faithful servant.  Teach me Your faithfulness as my Master.

Calm my heart and still my mind with the assurance of Your sovereignty and grace.

Amen