World Spots

I woke early and had some good time with my Papa God. I've been busy all day but chewing on some of the stuff I've heard. Here are my thoughts: Pure undefiled religion is to make ourselves part of the life of people who are alone (widows and orphans) and struggling through illness and difficulty (affliction) and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We seem to have the benevolent thing in our sights.  Most of us give ourselves to that frequently in one aspect or another.

So I've thought a lot about world spots this morning. Jesus paid our sin debt on the cross. He said some pretty hefty things like ‘uttermost’, ‘everlasting’ and ‘never perish’.  We know grace by faith.  We know whosoever believes in me… I’m thinking we understand the way to be accepted by God, but that doesn't leave us free to live as the unredeemed world. Religion is the purposeful worship of God. So this word would tell us a few things. First it's possible that our religion can be defiled. I have ideas about what that looks like according to some other scriptures, and I’ll not follow that train of thought right now. But I've never really thought about what world spots look like. Another thing it tells us is that much of what we consider religion isn't. I'm not downing church services or the church itself. That's not my right or my desire. But the assembling of ourselves is for our strength and equipping. Yet living lives that are not tainted by the thinking patterns, desires and purpose of this world is something we just don't aspire to very much. Identifying through our love for other Christians is something we just don't really consider, even though Jesus said it was the one crucial character of a disciple.

Leaving all that be, I’ve been asking myself “what do world spots look like?” The one real impression I got from talking to the Father is that they are very individual and personal.  There are several ‘don’t do’ lists in the New Testament.  I’m not going to deal with those, because whether or not we do those things, most of us know they are wrong.  So what are world spots that we are to keep ourselves from.  First of all, they are things that we are in control of.  Yes, we need the power of the Holy Spirit and his job is to convince the world of sin- because they don’t believe, of righteousness- because Jesus bought that and sits at God’s right hand, of judgement- because Satan has been judged. But I believe world spots are in our control.  Sometimes it’s as close as the remote. Other times, it may be the ability to walk away from insults and sarcasm that would make us bitter and useless to the kingdom.  Sometimes it might be to choose to delete before we post or to turn something off when we feel the flesh rising in us.  Sometimes it may be praise instead of complaint or encouragement instead of reprimand.  It may be following instead of marketing Christ for some. In all cases it is a personal rejection of the world’s rule over our thinking, wanting and doing.

If I ask God to show me my world spots, I believe he cares enough to do that.  If I see them, by admitting and renouncing them God’s word will wash me and Jesus is arguing my case before the Father. He’s already paid for every missed mark.  He deserves my worship! True worship.

I was listening to Jimmy Evans early this morning and he said we need to turn away from the labels and accusations Satan tries to put on us and accept what God has to say about us as his beloved sons and daughters.  He said to ask God where we have accepted the definitions of the world or Satan on our life and then begin confessing the word God speaks instead.  I think that’s a good place to begin with the spot removal.