Who Has Our Friendship?
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4.
The Scriptures furnish abundant evidence that it is safer to be joined to the Lord and lose the favor and friendship of the world, than to look to the world for favor and support and forget our dependence upon God….
The Lord Himself has established a separating wall between the things of the world and the things which He has chosen out of the world and sanctified to Himself. The world will not acknowledge this distinction. . . . But God has made this separation, and He will have it exist. In both the Old and the New Testaments the Lord has positively enjoined upon His people to be distinct from the world, in spirit, in pursuits, in practice; to be a holy nation, a peculiar people, that they may show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. The east is not farther from the west than are the children of light, in customs, practices, and spirit, from the children of darkness. This distinction will be more marked, more decided, as we near the close of time. . . .
There is an element called love which would teach us to praise and flatter our associates and not to faithfully tell them of their dangers and warn and counsel them for their good. This love is not Heaven-born. Our words and actions should be serious and earnest, especially before those who are neglecting their soul’s salvation. . . . If we unite with them in lightness, trifling, pleasure seeking, or in any pursuit which will banish seriousness from the mind, we are constantly saying to them by our example, “Peace, peace; be not disturbed. You have no cause for alarm.” This is saying to the sinner, “It shall be well with thee.”
If we profess to be sons and daughters of God we should pursue such a course toward the unbelieving that our souls will be clear of their blood when we meet them in the great day of final reckoning.
That I May Know Him p. 308
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Prayer Requests
—–update— Kathy has had vascular surgery on her legs and probably needs more of the same surgery. . . . She has been working on trying to get stronger. She gets up a little and does little walking. My prayer is for MUCH MORE strength and that a miracle happens where the kidney starts working again. I know she gets tired of dialysis. Maybe one day she can get another transplant. Also a cousin, Mary Ellen, recently (three months ago) lost her husband to cancer and is trying to battle the grief process alone. She needs prayers to both sustain her and for her to get grief counseling. Bill
—–[This was a time sensitive prayer request from last night but I can’t figure out how to send it out special. Let us claim the promise “before they call I will answer.”] — Please pray for our daughter, Stephanie. She went by ambulance to ER this morning in severe pain coupled with chills, fever and throwing up. Turns out she has a huge stone stuck in the bile duct that runs from her gallbladder to her stomach. The doctor said they will for sure go down through her stomach and remove the gallstone and dilate the duct. She also said when the specialist got there that he would most likely remove her gallbladder tonight. Please pray the doctor will do what is best for Stephanie and will guide his hands if he opts to remove the gallbladder. Please pray that God will give her peace and move her to do whatever the nurse tells her to do. Fran
—– Please keep my son and daughter-in-law in your prayers. Katie was at work & Jeffrey had left for a short time and when he came back someone had kicked in their back door and stole some things. Since he wasn’t gone long they assume it was someone that was watching and knew they were gone. He works 3rd shift so he would normally be home. I worry about them. Jami
—–I have a private prayer request. Please pray for it. I
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Dear Friends,
When Ron and I were first married, we lived at Berrien Springs , Michigan . There were many fun things to do in the area at that time, and it seemed like Ron always wanted to do something in the evenings. Somehow he found out about a place where we could ride horses and decided that was going to be the entertainment for the evening. I wasn’t too excited about that because I’m allergic to horses and had not even been near a horse since I was about five. That didn’t matter. He had not been on a horse in years either.
Of course, we went. I managed to pull myself up on that huge animal which was not an easy task. As soon as I was in the saddle, that beast knew that I had no idea what I was doing. Animals can sense those things. Since I did not know how to control that horse, she decided that she would control me. We were supposed to follow the guide as he took us on a trail ride. My horse was tired of seeing the same scenery. She decided to stray from the path. I made an effort to get her back on the path, but she knew who was boss. She was! The guide came back to where I was and gave me a few instructions. Not too far down the path, that creature spied a delicious clump of tender grasses. Off the path she went to eat her delicacy. Since I was her captive, I went along too.
The guide was getting a little impatient. This trail ride was taking much longer than it was supposed to. Several times this happened and finally he just took the reigns away from me and led the horse the rest of the way. By that time I was beyond caring. My eyes itched, my nose was running, and I was miserable. Humiliation was the least of my worries.
How often we are attracted to sin. It may be just a small thing that we are sure we can try just once and never do again. At first it seems like it will give us the pleasure we are looking for, but soon we find that there is no controlling it. We try our best; but no matter what we do, we are held captive by it. The sin that looked so innocent becomes our master.
We realize our condition, but we are so helpless that we cannot do anything to change. We are taken wherever our sin carries us. We cry out in our helplessness for someone to help, for someone to save us from our condition. Praise God, there is Someone Who hears. He hears our voice and supplications. He inclines His ear unto us. He gives us the help that we need. He assures us, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isa 41:10, 13 “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.” 27:5 “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” 30:21 Precious Saviour! He is our Helper, our Comforter, our Guide, our Salvation!
Let us pray as did David, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Ps 119:133 Let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us determine that by His power and grace, sin will not reign in us or have dominion over us, is my prayer.
Rose