God says to be holy (1 Peter 1:13-16 and other places), but what does that mean? God is Holy, which means that He is flawless. Does that mean we need to be that too? Well, ideally, yes, but God knows that we're fallen and can't (or more precisely, won't) keep His perfect law. We're to fulfill the spirit of the law and be active in the pursuit of holiness. We're to strive to be God's vessel of light and exhibit His qualities in the world. We're not to love the things of this world/worldliness/fleshly things, but we're to use them for Him.
Many current movies are looking at "the end of the world" or something ridiculous like a sudden appearance of zombies. I'm not saying anything about those movies one way or another (that's another post for another day), but I am saying that the people preparing for something like that are confused (and maybe crazy?) about the end. Quoting my pastor, "I don't know when the end of the world is gonna be, but I do know Jesus is coming." Many take the decline of America to be a sign of the end of the world; I take it to be a repeat of history: a great nation is fading.
History buffs have looked for patterns throughout history and found many; one in particular is applicable to this topic. The number one sign that a culture, kingdom, nation, or empire is fading is not the economy, not the president/king/queen/emperor (though that might have something to do with it), but the suppression of Truth (Romans 1:18). If any culture has ever suppressed Truth, this one has. In fact, not only has it suppressed it, it has denied it's existence!
The Spirit of the Age will try in every way to get us, as Christians, to compromise. No matter how hard we try, we will be unable to resist because our own flesh nature is in league against us. The Spirit of the Age is stronger than we are. Why then do we not cave on everything? As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit helping us to conquer our own worst enemy - ourselves. The Spirit of the Age is NOT stronger than the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
In our pursuit of holiness, we can't just sit around. God doesn't do all the work. The pursuit of holiness is a war! This is the only war that is more peaceful on the front lines than anywhere else. By fighting sin, God gives you peace. God gives you His peace for it's duration, but there will be turmoil at it's conclusion.
Have you ever been sitting around in a room with a window, where the light's shining in? What do you see? Among other things, I see the little fuzzy things floating around in the air. Without that light you couldn't have seen them. That's one of the things the Holy Spirit does. He is like the light that shows us all the fuzzy things, the dirt, the contaminants in our lives. Once He shows you a fuzzy thing, though, DO NOT "Try harder" to fix it; fix it by drawing closer to God (Galatians 5:25).
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