A Word From Pastor Way, and A Litte From Me

Here's part of an eye opening devotional by Pastor Phillip Way on "Worldliness" in the Church:

"AW Tozer is known for a quote where he says something along the lines that he went looking for the church and found her in the world and then went looking for the world and found her sitting comfortably in the church. And yet so much of the New Testament is devoted to telling us the dangers of worldliness - why can't we stay away from the world?

There truly is a lot at stake here. If we are worldly then we cannot be holy. If we cannot be holy then we cannot commune with or worship God. This week we will study a few facets of this message I preached as we search the Scriptures to see how we are not to be like the world.

Consider this as we lay the foundation today for our study:

We are commanded to be holy. We are commanded to live godly lives. We are commanded to be without spot and blemish because Jesus is coming and He when He does He will judge the living and the dead. In 1 John we read, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

There has been a theme in our sermons these last few weeks. Jonah told Nineveh, "Repent or you will be destroyed." Nahum said to Nineveh, "You've embraced your sin. You've not turned to God. You will be destroyed." Jesus says, "Behold I'm coming quickly" and Peter tells us when He comes the elements we dissolve this world will be done away with. So we are awaiting a new heavens and a new earth. Indeed, we are told in 1 John 2 that the world is passing away.

Think about the foolishness here then when the church embraces the world. The church is holding on to something that will not last. To try to do things like the world, to think like the world, to talk like the world, to dress like the world, to act like the world, to worship like the world, to try to entertain ourselves, to try to please ourselves, to try to build up self, to try to do all these things is to do things in the way of the world and the world is passing away...for the rest of Pastor Way's post, go here...

I think many of our churches today have forgotten that "compromise" is a dirty word when it deals with "the things of God". Be it in worship, the Word, evangelism, etc...we are never allowed to compromise God's Truth. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" 1 Corinthians 5:6

We should ask ourselves, "Is it so hard to just 'come out from among them'"? 2 Corinthians 6:17