Thursday, February 01, 2007

"Go Dogs, And Eat The Garbage!"

"So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:15

"I believe that one reason why the church at this present moment has so little influence over the world, is because the world has so much influence over the church! Nowadays, we hear professors pleading that they may do this, and do that—that they may live like worldlings. My sad answer to them, when they crave this liberty is, "Do it if you dare. It may not cost you much hurt, for you are so bad already. Your cravings show how rotten your hearts are. If you are hungering after such dogs food—go dogs, and eat the garbage!

Worldly amusements are fit food for pretenders and hypocrites. If you were God's children, you would loathe the thought of the world's evil joys. Your question would not be, "How far may we be like the world?" but your cry would be, "How can we get away from the world? How can we come out of it?"

"Whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable,
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy
—think about such things."
Philippians 4:8

--Charles Spurgeon, "The Soul Winner"

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn't it incredible that a preacher preaching 100 years ago would speak of his world the way we speak of today. I am reminded of the words of so many leaders today who cry out lets retake America for Jesus. I do not want to be critical of their zeal for the Lord or their love of this land, but I often wonder why each generation sees his as the last and the worst. Maybe there are none good and the error is rather that we see ourselves better than we really are. I am reminded of the words of Solomon to his people almost 3 millenia past II Chronicles 7:14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. I realize this was spoken to a different people but the word of God to each generation says, "Salvation is of the Lord." I am inclined to think the error is more in us who understand the truth (imperfectly), yet strive to conquer in the flesh and not the Spirit and are not motivated from the heart of love and a heart that relies on the Lord to accomplish His will. I judge myself here as I was convicted by a sermon delivered by Tim Keller. His sermon was about how to do evangelism in the post modern world. I was confronted by the lack of love that I have for the lost city of Miami and possible the United States that for the last 50+ years has insisted God (the God of the Bible) is irrelevant to the function of this pluralistic culture. I am convinced the culture is not so lost the Christ can not atone for her sin, but I question what is necessary for this to begin. The will of God obviously. But some would say we are too far gone, yet 'Salvation is of the Lord' and I am not the one to judge too far gone nor that way in which we should engage this culture. ( At this point I can say honestly and humbly, without extraordinary grace I would haver been too far gone.) Rather should I not pray and fast to see the will of God for me to engage this dilemma? I struggle and pray to be lead by the Spirit with others who seek the face of God to be His tool to do His will.
HK

10:11 AM  

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