Published by Deborah Negron – Child of God
August 11, 2022
In Self Reflection and Examination
Paul the Apostle did not mince words. He was not worried about being politically correct. He did not pussyfoot around in order to make things sound better. He was not concerned with our feelings. He was more concerned about our never dying souls.
We find, that today people are more concerned about sugar coating the gospel. They want the gospel to be all inclusive and encompassing everyone.
The Bible is not a book we can modify to fit our lifestyle. We cannot change how it is written to cause it to somehow magically to work. It is not a book of spells and encantations.
Some have tried tactics, blab it and grab it ideas of scripture. Some have said, if you use these specific verses in this specific way God will have to respond in your favor.
Lies. All lies. The Bible is clear.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:7-8
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
I Thessalonians 4:1-8
God expects us to live lives that are different than those who live without faith in Christ in the world. He expects us to walk in a way that demonstrates Christ lives in us.
Tall order today. When people want to dress provocatively to fulfill their own sinful lust.
Difficult to do, when people want to fit in so desperately that they compromise their faith. In how they walk and talk, dress amd carry themselves.
Too often we hear, the desire of people to look sexy, inviting, younger, more provocative.
As a child of God and a servant of God, our apparel should show we are His. It should demonstrate to the world that we are set apart for God.
Today, we are not so concerned about being holy. We would rather be included in the company of those who will accept us. We appear too concerned with what pleases the eyes rather than what pleases the One who is supposed to be the Lord of our lives.
How we live and speak and dress and what we do, say and take part in are all demonstrating our proximity to God. The more we commune, relate, seek, follow and reflect the Lord, is a direct result of how much we love Him and how commited we are to Jesus. How we walk with with Him, and how we know His Word will determine how we are led by His Holy Spirit.
The closer we come to Christ, the less we desire to please our own desires and the world. We begin to measure our words. We are more concerned with what not to watch and what not to do that displeases God. We guard ourselves from associations and relationships that will hinder our commitment to God. Holiness comes when we truly acknowledge that He is our Lord and Saviour and our love for Jesus supercedes our earthly desires to be gratified.
The Apostle Mathew was also quite clear,
He writes,
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Matthew 7:16-20
Paul exhorts the church in Rome with these words.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
Romans 12:1-5
Paul wrote and Mathew wrote clearly. There was no ambiguity about their teachings or in their words.
As we come to the throne of grace daily, as we walk in the light and seek the Lord first in our lives … (Mathew 6:33).
We must consider how we are to walk diligently and circumspectfully. That is carefully and concerning ourselves with how and what pleases God.
The dress, it shows too much of the legs. It can provoke sexual and immoral thoughts by some man that looks at you.
The pants, they are so tight they cling to areas that show your manhood, provoking others to sin.
The cleavage, that woman wants to be lusted after. The way the clothes calls attention to specific areas, is this pleasing to God?
Our speech… The way we speak, write and address others in communicating, does it please God? Are there words of profanity in our daily conversation. Not a slip of the tongue by mistake, but rather a daily practice that is an habitual offense as we talk with others.
Whether to talk about or to retell of someone’s failures do we understand that this is to murmur, that it is to gossip? Do our words edify or tear down?
Do we offend God?
Are we so wanting to fit in to the mold of the world that we have forgotten; That what we do, how we live sends a message.
Yes, what we say and how we think is an image we portray to a dying world, a humanity without Christ.
It should be the opposite. We should cling to what is good and holy and acceptable of God. We should point to the One who has washed us clean of our sins.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
What is the image we are portraying? Are we a clear and beautiful reflection of Jesus to a world that desperately needs him?
Or are we just a Christian in name only but our actions and reactions tell a different story?
Be not conformed to this world!
Listen, we cannot make it in to heaven if we are living like the world.
If we are living in sin we cannot make it in.
Scripture is clear.
“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Revelation 21:22-27
Paul in writing to the Galatians makes it even more clear.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:1, 16-17, 19-21
If we provoke others to thoughts of fornication( Wanting sex without marriage) we are causing them to sin. If we look like the world, we cannot be shining God’s glory.
If we are tall tale tellers and murmur or gossip we cannot enter in.
If we cause others to be divided because we bring up the past sins of our brethren who have already been forgiven and who have repented of their past lives, we act as Satan who is the accuser of the brethren.
If we hold grudges and do not forgive we cannot be forgiven.
Look at what Jesus said, as recorded by Mathew,
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Matthew 6:14-15
Our fruit will show forth it will demonstrate whom we truly serve. We cannot serve two masters.
The fruit of the Spirit must be evident in the believer.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16, 22-25
What do I portray? Whom do people see in me?
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30
I begin my prayer Lord,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
Psalms 51:10-13
Lord, this is my prayer today, Forgive me. I have not always been a bright light that shines your light. Others have not seen the evidence of your life clearly In me. My light has been poorly lit. Illuminate me again. Wash mw clean again. Let me point others to your love.
Let there be more of you and less of me. Let me bring honor Lord, to thee. Let my life shine your great story. Let me be found truly in thee. Let my words and my life show congruency. Let my life mirror clearly that you live in me. Forgive my wayward ways and honestly, Let there be less of me and more of thee. Please, I Pray, Lord instruct me, cleanse me and restore me.
I want to shine Brightly and Be Pleasing that My Life will be a Testimony of Grace others will see and come to faith. Let me be clearly defined and identified as a Child of God, a Follower of Jesus, a true Disciple and Believer of God. Let there be no ambiguity in my walk Lord. This is my prayer.
Amen.
Life and Faith By Deb 
Leave a Reply