Have You Truly Separated Yourself?
I hear Him say: (7.25.22)
“You shall be holy as I am holy. It’s your mandate. Like John the Baptist, I call you out from the ways of the world. I say to you be free from this wayward and perverse culture, just like Peter said to the crowd on the day of Pentecost.
Prepare your hearts and minds for action! Stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvelous grace that is coming to you. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled, a greater measure of grace will be released to you. As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on him as your heavenly Father, the impartial Judge who judges according to each one’s works, live each day with holy awe and reverence throughout your time on earth. For you know that your lives were ransomed once and for all from the empty and futile way of life handed down from generation to generation. It was not a ransom payment of silver and gold which eventually perishes but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who like a spotless unblemished lamb was sacrificed for you.
You are called church, my ekklesia, my “called out” ones. You are made to be separate. You are called to no longer love the things of the world but love the Lord God only, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.
You are called to rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh, sins that contaminate their lives.
Examine yourselves. Are you living called out holy lives, no longer conformed to the patterns of this world? Or do you look and act the same as the world? Are you like Lot’s wife- looking back at your sinful life longing for what I’ve rescued you from? Come, lay your unholy desires down on the altar again. Give them to me and let me renew your mind. Allow me to flood you with my love and change the desires of your heart.
Listen to my words through John, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
And my words through Paul, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.”
So I plead with you, You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
1 Peter 1:16
John 1:23
Acts 2:40
1 Peter 1:13-18
Matthew 22:37
Jude 1:23
Romans 12:1-3
1 John2:15
Romans 8:7-9a
Revelation 3:17-21
Kaeley
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