READ: 1
JOHN 2:15-17
Some years
ago, I went to the University of Ibandan, Nigeria, to preach and spent the
night there. In the evening I told my driver to fill the car with petrol. The
following morning, the driver got into the car and started the engine. However,
each time he tried to engage the gear, and move forward, the engine would stall
and stop. We had t tow the car to a mechanic’s workshop where it was discovered
that the man who sold petrol to my driver had mixed water with it. The tank had
to be drained and filled with good petrol. When we started the car after
changing the fuel, the car moved. The above story forms the background to
today’s exhortation. “” (1 Kings 18:21). How long shall we go on mixing water
with fire? How long shall we go on saying, “I belong to Christ,” with one side
of the mouth, and “I belong to the world,” with the other side of the same
mouth? How long shall we praise the Lord, sing and dance, only to go back into
the world without any visible difference in our lives? In the Old Testament,
there was a clear line of demarcation between saints and sinners. The prophets
of Baal had their own altar while Elijah had his own too. There would always be
two altars, one altar for the world and the other altar for the Lord. However,
you cannot be at the two altars at the same time. The altar of the world is a
very dangerous altar. It has a lot of beautiful things to offer. It has a lot
of things to appeal to the eyes and the pride of life. It has a lot of things
to the lust of the flesh. However, God has warned us in 1 John 2:15-17: “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.” Do you love the world? If you mix
water with petrol you won’t get anywhere. Where do you stand?
MEMORIZE:
ROMANS 12:1 –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.
