The Overcomers Get All the Good Stuff! Part 3

The Overcomers Get All the Good Stuff! Part 3
Brad Reiches
May 21 2008 11:12AM

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

GodThoughtsWired!

          

  "The Overcomers Get All The Good Stuff!"

PART 3:  OVERCOMING...THE WORLD

"To him who overcomes..."

Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21

The third (no particular order) of the five key areas in which we must {attain the knowledge, develop the skills, and cultivate the will} to overcome is:

-The World.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world."

1 John 2:15

How do we overcome "the world?"  I used to think that discipline was enough.  It's not.  Don't get me wrong.  Discipline is important!  Indeed, discipline is vital to a successful Christian walk...but it is not enough.  "He who walks with the wise shall become wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" (Proverbs 13:20).  If the alcoholic spends all of his time in bars, he will eventually fall no matter how much discipline he has.  The compulsive gambler will fall if he spends too much time hanging out in casinos.

"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14).  In the world, but not of the world.  That's the key!

"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...Therefore come out from their

midst and be separate, says the Lord."

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

We are called to love those who are in the world.  Reach out to them.  Be-friend them.  Care about them.  Witness to them and be the hands and feet of Jesus for them.  Enter into their lives in order to expose them to the "light" of Jesus.  "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).  But PLEASE always remember:

It is never God's will to diminish our light in the hopes of reaching those who are in the dark.  That's called compromise.  Jesus calls it being "lukewarm" (see Revelation 3:15-16).

I call it...BEING DECEIVED!*

*Beware the preacher who is embraced by the world.  Jesus said of His true followers, "I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14).  And He also said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18-19).

"It is amazing the distance some Christians go to seek persecution

and all so unnecessary.  Draw a little nearer to Calvary, and

persecution will seek you.  The world still hates the man who hates his sin.

-A.W. Tozer, A Word in Season, p.110

THE WORLD WILL ALWAYS HATE THE MAN THAT HATES SIN!

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