Wilted Witness (with audio)

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…to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
(James 1:27 – NKJV)

Just doing good things isn’t enough; we can’t do the first part of verse 27, visit orphans and widows in their trouble, at the expense of the second. Unspotted means that we don’t partner up with the world, even when it means we have to leave off at doing some “good” things for others. We must be careful not to let the good become the enemy of the best.

However, so many of today’s so-called Christian leaders just don’t get it. They think that we need government and business help to spread the supposed Gospel they are carrying. Think for a moment about Lot, he was the mayor of his town but that influence didn’t stop it from suffering the judgment of God in flaming fire and brimstone! How dare we think that if we could just get our legislators and judges to be Christians that then everything would be hunky dory? We could have every governor, every senator, every politician in America, and the world for that matter, as professing, born again Christians and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference! Don’t you know that God already has the king’s heart in His hand and He turns it any way He wants (Proverbs 21:1)? Yes we can vote, but this world is passing away and we are just passing through; our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20).

Holiness means not to yoke ourselves with the world in order to further a common cause if it means that we must compromise the Gospel, and being a saint means not to act and think as the world in all of its wicked ways. Not compromising the Gospel isn’t just about being able to declare the truths of Christ, it also means not believing that we can look like the world, like we can be separate in heart but we can still adhere to the latest and greatest trends in society, being worldly, fleshly, centered on self, and what the Old Man Adam wants rather than centered on heavenly things (Colossians 3:1-3). No person can live a life separated unto the Gospel in their heart and still be living and looking like they used to in the world. We must be progressively becoming more detached from the world. There are things that I did last year that I by the grace of God will never do again, even if they aren’t sin per se they are at best dead works, and at worst they are the makings of an idolatry of self. It might not be all bad, but it is absolutely no good. I’m tired of being cool, now I want to be clean. Being reverent is relevant.

It isn’t about what you are allowed to do; it is what will leave you in a static state rather than having a living, growing, dynamic relationship with Christ. Don’t think for one minute that you can go on doing like you do and still get moving on with God. Yes, it may not keep you from Heaven, but that thing you won’t let go of, that thing that you defend as your right, that thing that you know isn’t right but you tell everyone else that it is none of their business, that thing that you keep as your little secret, that thing that you have to do in certain company but refrain from amongst others, that thing will keep you from God’s greater glory, it doesn’t glorify God, and it ruins, yes I said it RUINS your witness!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©