James 4:4-You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

I think definitions that the history of some churches have had when describing how a Christian should not be "worldly" can at times bring more confusion than clarity. What it does is restrict certain acts like smoking, drinking, partying, etc as what "the world" does, but doesn’t deal with the self-glorifying mentality of the world.

So what about "our own little world" that we fight to hold onto? It maybe plain for everyone to see if we struggle with drinking, smoking, and partying. But many Christians struggle with "unseen worlds" of pride and self-image that uses church as an "add-on" to our own glory. So we never deal with a glory-seeking mentality that is like the world and hostile to being made into the image of Christ.

I’ve realized that the easiest thing in Christianity to sacrifice are things that don’t bother my "old self-image". But what will fight you to the end of your life is the temptation to hold onto what exalts you, not necessarily what is best for you. That is why the times I don’t want to change are the times I don’t want to be like Christ, and hostile to God, wanting to be like the world.

In His Love, Ld

On Dec 4, 2012 9:31 AM, "eldoret gentry" <eldorets> wrote: