All is Vanity

[ted]

I'm jumping late on this one, OA, but I've noticed the same thing in my life too. And I was about as worldly as one could get.

Can't seem to shake some old things, though, like pizza and ice cream and other stuff like that. I reckon not all things of this world are bad. After all, God DID create it. I guess that the things that kept me from His Word in times past are shown for what they truly are after they are seen in the Light.

Thank God that He allowed me to know Him!

t.

[Adstar]

The weirdest part of all this for me is the compassion I feel for them. I know that is truly not from me because the me I know would like to blast them. But I have this overwhelming feeling of wanting to help them get out of their darkness.

Thats the Spirit Sister working in you

All praise The Ancient Of Days

[traveller]

It is very sad, their ideas about how refined and worldly they are, and how out of touch my husband is.  Like he's got blacked out teeth, wiggly toes and a banjo to boot, that he plays in his little back woods world.      We're so out of touch you know.   

Anyway, it's weird.

In His Love,

Suzanne

And what is wrong with blacked out teeth, wiggly toes, banjos, and back woods?

[tsth]

Hey! Nuthins wrong with that, but I DO put my foot down on the snake handlin! I don't let him take them snakes to work!

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest rmj7]

Okayyy. Got a question for you guys then. How is a young person suppose to feel contempt with all he/ she has when the possibilities for us in this world still seem so endless? This is especially for tennagers and young adults who are perhaps getting out of school, going or graduating from college, and getting a real taste of what life is really about. Are we suppose to just, sigh, I dunno.....

I mean, what if we're still in search for that career, that wife/ husband, that family......that place in the world and all? What if we are still at a place in our life where the majority of our life is still in the form of a big question mark? I can see how people who've made it to wherever they need to be can be happy and contempt, but what about those who still desire so much more in life?

[Guest ChosenOne]

What is with the seperation?

Dr. Luke what is with the seperation?

I find in I Peter 2:9 that we are to be a peculiar people. I remember reading that we are to come out from among the world and be a seperate people.

Why?

Ephesians 5:27

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

That's why Dr. Luke. He is working in the hearts of the church, the real blood washed church, and He is drawing us closer to Him. And he is cleasing us from every taint of the world.

Oh the joy of being found in that glorious church!!

[traveller]

Okayyy. Got a question for you guys then. How is a young person suppose to feel contempt with all he/ she has when the possibilities for us in this world still seem so endless? This is especially for tennagers and young adults who are perhaps getting out of school, going or graduating from college, and getting a real taste of what life is really about. Are we suppose to just, sigh, I dunno.....

I mean, what if we're still in search for that career, that wife/ husband, that family......that place in the world and all? What if we are still at a place in our life where the majority of our life is still in the form of a big question mark? I can see how people who've made it to wherever they need to be can be happy and contempt, but what about those who still desire so much more in life?

Matt 6:24. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

rmj7, it is what is in your heart that is important. Our goal must be to serve God. And friend, He knows you are in this world and have to exist. He put you here afterall. You do have to learn to be in the world and not OF the world. It's not easy and something I battle daily. The apostle Paul battled with the same thing you are talking about. Our priority must be the kingdom of God. Whatever you do, be it school or job or raising kids or shopping or whatever, do it for the glory of God.

[Guest Teri]

rmj7 we are not advocating that you stop persuing your goals, or setting them. What we speak of is an acknowledgement within our spirits that all of this really isn't as important as we thought it was. And all the things happening in our day to day worlds are not as huge as we like to make them out to be. It's like waking up one day and realizing that we live in a dimension with the spirit world and what is going on here is not just what we see, but there are forces beyond the physical. We become smaller in this and our goals become more God centered like telling others of Christ, and we develope this acute understanding of things going on in the realm of the Spirit not just the realm of the physical.

We don't seek to ignore the things of the physical world because it is that interaction within it that determines our grace in the spiritual. But it is that acute sense of the spirit realm that decides how we act and interact in the physical. For instance as my desire becomes less and less for the things of this world I find myself having extra income, and because my heart is tender towards the suffering of Gods other children I put that extra income towards their needs. If I didn't have this separation of the world and the things of the world I would want to hold onto my money and keep it for myself for the things I want.

And rmj7 I am not content because I reached that place in my life where I made it. I am content because I have come to know Christ. If I didn't know Him my life even at my age would still be a big question mark. Things, marriage, giving birth, getting a college education did not remove that question mark. But knowing without a doubt that I'm going to spend eternity with Christ did.

In Yeshua's love

Teri

[tsth]

This was my devotional for today, and I thought I would share it, since it was about looking toward the hope of our future.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.

Philippians 3:13

The world will tell you that the dominating influence in your life is your past. If you came from a difficult home life, that will determine the direction of your life. If your culture was treated unfairly, that will dictate the condition of your life today. If you were hurt or abused or if your youth was spent in rebellion, the remainder of your life will be spent struggling with your past. The world is preoccupied with the past because it faces an uncertain future.

Christians, on the other hand, live in freedom because Christ has overcome our past. The "old things" have been done away with and "new things" have come (2 Cor. 5:17). God has so totally forgiven the Christian's sin that He chooses not to remember it (Isa. 43:25). Christians do not forget the past, but we are not controlled or motivated by it. The Christian looks to the future with hope.

The people of the world focus on what they are overcoming. Christians focus on what they are becoming. Christians know that the Holy Spirit is conforming them into the image of Christ. Christians know that ultimately they will stand before Christ to give an account of their actions and will spend an eternity in the presence of God. Christians know that eventually every injustice will be addressed and every hurt comforted. They know that Satan, and death itself, will finally be brought to an end. The Christian's future is so full and rich and exciting that it supersedes whatever happened in the past.

If you are preoccupied with your past, ask God to open your eyes to the incredible future that awaits you and begin, like Paul, to press on to what is ahead.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[traveller]

Amen sis!

Luk 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.