05/10/2018 — One of the great frustrations in the Church these days involves a misunderstanding of grace. It is, tragically, too often taken as the basis for license – the assumption we can do whatever we want and remain in God’s favor, because we prayed a salvation prayer once upon a time.

The truth is that Christian believers need to be, and be seen as, radically different than the culture we are called to influence. Instead, too often we strive to be relevant to the culture. But that makes us irrelevant to the Kingdom we are called to serve.

God calls us to influence the culture, not to become part of it.

EDUCATION

2 Peter 1:3-15

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence, by which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through these things you might become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

“For this reason make every effort to add virtue to your faith; and to your virtue, knowledge; and to your knowledge, self-control; and to your self-control, patient endurance; and to your patient endurance, godliness; and to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things reside in you and abound, they ensure that you will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the one who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

“Therefore, brothers, diligently make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly provided for you.

“Therefore I will not be negligent to always remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I live in this body, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that soon I will take off this body, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. And I will also be diligent to make sure that after my death you will always remember these things” (MEV).

APPLICATION

• Today with regard to Christian theology, the Church is all surface and no depth. We don’t have an understanding of the Gospel we are proclaiming, and as a result those who believe it are unprepared for the demands of the authentic Gospel.
• We are too often seeking to be relevant to the culture. But that was not Jesus’s approach. He sought to influence the culture without being influenced by it Himself. And likewise, we are to be in the world but not of the world.
• We don’t have to be like the people we are ministering to, to win them to Jesus. We need to bear evidence of the Spirit of God inside us until those we are ministering to recognize it in us and decide that they want it for themselves.
• WHC is surrounded by communities filled with people who will only enter a church building for a wedding or a funeral, if not for our influence. We need to call upon the Holy Spirit to empower us to make disciples of these people instead of calling upon Him for a tongue to speak in a church service!

IMPARTATION

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for calling me to a life of grace that becomes Your Gospel! Order my steps so that I would reject my natural inclination to become like the culture that surrounds me. Make me instead a model of Your Kingdom to others, so they would understand Your love and Your power.

Give me supernatural favor in my circles of influence, that I may reflect who You are without becoming who they are. Make me an example of You, for You! I understand that this is my calling and my privilege as Your child.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ–Jehovah Joshua Messiah–I pray. Amen!






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