Sunday, August 19, 2012

Fireproof Your Relationship With God

     Man was given the potential for passion and if we do not direct it toward Christ, the inevitable will happen.  We will end up serving our flesh in one way or another..  If we are completely sold out for Christ, we will not have time to serve our flesh.
Holiness/ Righteousness
The meaning: Separateness, withdrawal; pure, holy, 
loving, having the nature of God which is separate from evil
     Holiness applies first of all to God, although it is implied by the fear, the dread or awe that we have before Him.  Wherever God was, that place becomes holy for as long as He was there.
     Jesus was recognized as the holy one of God.
     When someone is holy, they will be pure, holy, and loving, carrying the nature of God; which is separate from evil.
     In the Old Testament anyone who came into the presence of God had to be purified physically as a sign they were pure before Him.  The New Testament, however, requires our hearts to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and as a result of our faith in Him, we follow in obedience His command of water baptism.  The symbolism in the Old Testament is carried out in reality in the New Testament.
  • I Thessalonians 4:7,12
  • Psalm 24:4,5
  • Ephesians 4:1-7
     What does it mean to walk worthy?
     Jesus Christ paid a dear price so that we can even be called.  When we walk worthy, we are not a reproach to His name or His sacrifice.  We will have lowliness of spirit, meekness, a longsuffering attitude toward others whether people or things, forbearance, striving to keep the unity of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Lowliness= not lifted up, humble
Meekness= gentleness, humility
Longsuffering= patience
Forbearance= tolerance, self restraint
     There is no way of getting around it, if we are a true Christan, we can not be lifted up in pride or selfishness.  This is a basic fact of the Christian life.
  • I Thessalonians 5:1-28
     Watch, pray, be sober, be girded with the armor that God has provided you, encourage each other, be at peace with each other, warn, comfort, rejoice, give thanks, do not quench the Spirit, despise not prophesying, prove everything, stay away from the appearance of evil, and pray for your leaders.  Be obedient to God's commands, and be sensitive to His will in your life.
     We must purpose in our hearts not to defile ourselves with the prince of this world's influences and character.  David said, "I will set no evil thing before my eyes".  When David sinned, it was because of his lack of carrying out his purpose.  We can not expect to win victories over the devil if we are not willing to exert effort for the cause.
  • Philippians 4:8
     We must carefully guard what goes into our minds inlet.  Like with a computer or mp3 player we put certain things in and that is what surely comes out.  In our own lives, if we are dwelling on bitterness, anger, darkness or even death, that is what will come out of our darkened soul.  God forbid that we should dabble in darkness or death.
     To fireproof our relationship with God, we must be completely sold out for him.  We must sacrifice everything for Him.  The lusts of this world must be avoided or they will become your god and dictate to you what you do.
     Are we so busy doing "good" things that we have let other things slip?  We must always be watching and praying.  Matthew says, "that ye enter not into temptation".  It is part of the armor that God has given us and we must don it for the battle.  We will not be fully prepared unless we are guarding every area of our lives.  We must also pay attention to the watchmen in our lives.  They were given to us as our protection and not to spoil our fun!
  • Isaiah 62:6
  • Romans 12:1,2

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