Leaving the World Today

Life in God must be progressive.  We are either growing or dying.

Leaving everything to follow God's will is progressive. For Jesus it ended with leaving His mother, who was precious to Him:

John 19:24-27 NLT — So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.” So that is what they did. Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

This was not easy.  Jesus was on the cross, in excruciating pain, thinking of His mother, and leaving Her voluntarily.  He could have stopped it. There were 12 legions of angels in the ready.

God gives grace.  No one leaves everything in the world all at once.  It's our lives to give. God will not take them.  God gives more grace the more we give God.

James 4:4-7 NLT — You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud

but favors the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

If we give everything to God, He gives everything to us.  This happens in a process called "working out our salvation":

Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV — Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

God wills it, and God does it. Our part is to let God lead us to more and more obedience, even in the face of more and more separation from the world, and all the world calls good.  People that truly follow Jesus end up being seen wrongly and persecuted for it. That is what marks them as His.

There is nothing good in the world without God.  Without God's leadership, even unto death, there is no world worth saving. With God's leadership, all things are made new... Even the dead don't stay dead in God's will!

Worldly Christianity is the Harlot Babylon.  If we don't come out of it, we are in it. But, God gives more and more grace.  Anyone who comes out a little more today, will find grace to come out even more on the next day, and the next, and the next....

Most people will stay in the world because completely coming out of the world is too much and coming out into God's leadership today is too little.  We just want to control life ourselves, even salvation.  That is the fallen state of our heart. We fell into vain and futile control that only brings death, not life. 

God gives grace to come out of that death, but, it's God's to will and to do.  It's ours to trust Him as He leads us out, for real.

Jesus didn't lose His mom. He gained her forever. Do I believe that about my own obedience?!  If I really believe it, obedience into leaving this world behind becomes more and more hopeful, even as it becomes more costly.

How are you progressively coming out of the world today, more than yesterday?  If you don't know, you aren't.