Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Or God and any idol. God is jealous to have us in entirety. He made us. He made us in His image. He made us to be loved by Him, in unity, Father and child, Shepherd and sheep, Christ the protective groom who honors His beloved bride, the church. Our existence is through Him. God knows His world and set up and what’s best for us. He wants our heart in full. He deserves it. It belongs to Him. And He’s worth it. We cannot live for Him and simultaneously allow ourselves to serve things outside of His kingdom and heart.
Romans 12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. •
MERCIES — We live in a fallen world. God has stated in His word that it is fallen because of the acts of sin/ disobience to His righteous/good commands. It is these sins that lead to harm, hurt, and death in the world. God will judge the world for the sin/ destruction it participates in. It is wicked in His eyes, and even we notice and name the pains caused in this world as wicked, but we don’t always notice the part we play in it, nor want to be judged by God. God does not desire His creation to perish either, but forgiveness is an unrighteous action for Him to simply do. Still, the love of God included in His plan a redeemer. One He’d bring in the flesh to be like mankind, in all ways (temptation and physical weakness) yet without sin: Himself, in flesh. His perfect Spirit in flesh, as the man Jesus Christ who’d be bruised and abandoned and reciece the wrath of God due to us upon Himself, as a voluntary sacrifice paying our debt.
We are free through Christ/ our Lord, to enjoy the original deisgn and favor of God, simply by hearing the Good News/ Gospel, and believing it. God’s mercy, through Christ, awakens us to the truth of our stance in existence and reunites us with the good purpose we were intended for. Hallelujah! It lifts the burden of death, and makes us an ally with the One who against our enemies where His main enemy (Satan) is working evil in and through the world. He grants the peace our being longs for, by the graces shown by our Lord Jesus Christ.
By Him, believers recieve the Holy Spirit that begins a purifying work in us. The world (under the domian of the first fallen away being Lucifier) continues in sin and can be an influence if we grieve our Spirit and don’t know how to guard it and walk in it. So God’s word seeks to establish us out of the lie and in the light and truth and freedom. God’s people come out of the world, seeking not to be conformed, and rather in fellowship and likeness (a true, renewed image bearer) with their Father/God.
I Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Christians seek for God/Jesus to be our Lord, not the old ways of the world. So, even when that involves push back from the world for the supernatural change exposing corruption and/or by our separation from sin by the light and new honor in us, we persevere for continued relationship with the living God. We count the cost, acknowledge the worth of our God and agree to seek Him despite odds. True faith/ believers choose to love Him and turn away from what’s against Him, rather than letting idols overcome our affections. We remember the promises, and mercies in Jesus. If need be, we remember God’s just and wrathful nature.
Matthew 10:24-33
““A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
“Have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
Phillipians 1:19-20 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
Phillipians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Hebrews 11:1-3, 33-40
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
(A little remembreance from my personal experience: The enemy tries his best to decieve us, make us try to gain from the world, fulfill our lust of the eyes, instead of loving and trusting our Father and gaining from Him, the only place good comes from. Sin will always reap something negative. It never fulfills what it promises. Any shortcuts, or backsliding will do damage in our lives or those around us. So truly recognize the worth of God!, and realize the good in the work and light He call you too.
Only walking in truth, His will, can profit the fallen soul of the world and give it hope for redemption and salvation from it’s continuous acts of painful sin. Don’t partake in sin or doubt, but sacrifice knowing settling does not reap gold. God is gracious to give your desires if they are available and will not hurt you. He is gracious to fulfill your heart and make you special in His hand and sight, as you draw near to Him empty handed. He will be your all and He promises to withold no good thing for those who trust Him. Trust His timing, and abilitiy to satisfy the needy and searching heart!
Promise:
Mark 10:29-30 “So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”
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