Serious? God Loves/World Hates

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of this world. This is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18,19 NIV)

Monday!

Motivating Monday! A good cup of hot tea cannot be without heat to boil water. I’m not out to anger anyone to a boiling point- I want enough heat to stir thinking to take this serious. How serious are we about being a Christian?

Hated?

Being hated on by worldly minded individuals is hardly a bad thing. Easy for me to say twenty years after learning this lesson. I was a sold-out Jesus follower, people loving person, thrilled Jesus hand picked me the best husband, more than my mind could ever have imagined. One little, itty bitty detail God left out- or I failed to ask…the very hot fire awaiting me, refining my walk with Christ.

Surrender 

As serious as I thought I was…surrendering all- really means to let go of every area in our lives. Not…I’ll give you one area and keep this area. We give it all. We know when touching hot areas, we immediately pull back. The Lord knows I jerked back several times… yet, now can tell you on the flip side of refinement- every repeated lesson until I aligned my thinking/actions with God’s principles, is worth every sense of joy and completeness I have in God’s perfect will.

Serious?

How serious are we willing to be? Once we have been chosen- God does choose and you have been chosen, we will not have peace until we surrender all. The world hated Jesus, including the religious pharisees. Modern day pharisees are in our midst. Do not mistaken theses individuals for ones God has called to stand firm on truth. The Bible is God’s infallible Word. Taking Christianity serious- we study, learn, and apply scripture to our daily lives. In this process…refinement begins cleansing worldly actions and attitudes from our entire being. Leaving us to love like God loves…in a world ruled by hate. Please take serious. If the world loves you…time to wake up.

Be encouraged!