Heritage

I always cringe when some one that the world labels 'christian' is accused of some wrong doing. The scriptures tell us that not all who call themselves by the name (Christian) are what they profess to be, but the world doesn't always make a distinction. And even worse, the world takes special delight in holding people who profess Christ--who say one thing and do another...or who make a very public mistake--it takes great happiness in using them as an example of 'see this is what these christians are really like'.

2Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

What are Christians really like? They are like everyone else in that we feel emotions-- happiness, sorrow, passion, apathy, anger, love. It has been said that the sins of the flesh are perversions of things that God ordained. In Hebrews 13:4 it says "Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." Marriage is the God ordained place for the husband/wife relationship--anywhere else and it's a perversion of what God had intended.

Anger? Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27) neither give place to the devil. Sin should make us angry. Unrighteousness should make us angry, and the such like. How we handle this anger is important. Do we lose our temper and commit sin? No, as Cain was told in Genesis 4:7, "If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it." We need to handle anger-- no matter at what--carefully, and 'rule over it'.

The definition for the word 'lust' is- 'a very strong desire'. 1Peter 2:1 "Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;" Did you catch the 'long for...'?

Christians need to walk in this world, but not be of this world, and therein lies the 'rub'. Too many times we look at the Israelites of days gone by, as they fall into sin, then they are sent a 'saviour', a judge, who brings them back. We read about their cycle of sin and the 'Judges', and we think how dumb of them, can't they see? And why didn't they get their act together?

Temple prostitutes? The commenter on another post is adding his two-cents worth. I don't know if they wore anything different...or if they wore anything at all...but they wore lots of makeup. And it depended on the proximity to the temple....

And I'm wondering, where is the local 'temple' and what idol do the women around here support? Because there are a lot of females running around here with hardly any clothes on, most of them have more makeup on than they do clothes. The men aren't any better at times, either. You see some fellows walking around shirtless, in shorts-- some of them their physic isn't terribly offensive, and some of them it is, but no matter which--you wonder did I really need that? Or why do they think we want to see that?

Sadly, these things have rubbed off on those who profess to wear the name of Christian. Christians don't see it as 'worldliness' they see it as fitting in, being one of the crowd, but wait...

2Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17) Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you,

It is a question...why do we who desire a heavenly home, have difficulty in leaving the earthly desires behind? What do we desire more than our home with the Father? The children of the world can tell the difference--why-- so they say...these people are no different than I, so what is the benefit to be one of them? If there is no difference in our lives here, there won't be any difference in our eternal reward either--they know this--and we should also.

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end: 12) that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.... 19) which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil;

As Jesus himself said in Luke 17:33 "Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."

Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife. --Don't look back--

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14) I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!