Friday, March 24, 2006

Growing old

Turned 50 a few months ago. I dont usually get too worked up about birthdays, no matter which one it is, but this one made me stop and think. I have thought about the past few years of my life, and honestly I have some regret. I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a loving and faithful wife, and four incredible children. God has blessed our business in many ways, and we have all the stuff I could possibly want. He has been very good to me. Thats where the regret comes in. There are many warnings in the scripture about allowing this world's system to draw us into its tangled web.

Along the way, the cares of this world have slowly but surely grasped my heart, causing the Word to be unfruitful in my life. Oh...not completely. I can see some of the ways that God has worked in me and through me. And He has never stopped drawing me to Himself. He is always faithful to meet me when I seek Him. But I also know the cares and concerns that weigh down my heart each day. I just gathered a little sampling of what the scripture has to say about this world. Its actually pretty long, but I challenge you to read through it. Even better, I encourage you to study and meditate on these words. They are in no particular order. They are quite sobering...

James 4:4

4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.


Matt 16:24-26

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

Matt 18:7

7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

John 15:18-20

18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

John 18:36

36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

Rom 12:1-2
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

1 Cor 1:20

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Cor 7:29-31

29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

1 Cor 11:32
32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

Gal 3:22
22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin,

Gal 4:3
3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.

Gal 6:14
14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Eph 2:1-2
2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Eph 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

2 Tim 4:9-10
9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me

James 1:27
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

1 Peter 1:1
1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, strangers in the world,

1 Peter 2:11-12

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

2 Peter 1:3-4
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

1 John 5:19
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

John 16:33

33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Wow...

No comments: