Goodmorning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
When I was a child, I used to have a little job in the kitchen, because I had been placed in charge of making all of the dressing for our salads. We used to have a clear premade bottle that you would put the powdered ingredients into, followed by the oil and the water, and I would shake it for a minute, and when it was mixed thoroughly I would set it on a supper table. But by the time we all sat down to eat, I noticed that even though I had shaken everything up, everything had separated. All of the powdered ingredients were on the bottom, all of the water was in the middle, and all of the oil was floating right on the top! No matter how much I shook that bottle up, it was only a matter of time until all the ingredients separated.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
To separate means to cause to move or to be apart from each other, and just like oil in salad dressing, the Holy scriptures teach us that we need to come out from the world and be separate.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (KJB) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
The Lord teaches us that in order for us to be received by Him, we first must be capable of coming out and being separate. God wants to be a Father unto us, but we need to separate ourselves from the world and its ways. Separate means viewed as a unit apart or, by itself. Think of the North Pole for an example, which is completely separate and all by itself. There are numerous tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific that are completely isolated and separated from the world. Just like these places, God wants the followers of Jesus to be separate from the world. Separate means to move, to divide, to break into parts or to keep apart. When you are divided, it means you are in two separate groups or parts.
When things are separated, they are divided, and when I think about division, I often think about the Laurentian divide. This is a place up here in northern Minnesota that separates the watershed of streams that flow north to the Arctic ocean from the watershed of streams that flow south through the Great Lakes and finally into the Atlantic Ocean. The Laurentian divide is a cause of division when it comes to water. The Lord Jesus also came into this world not to produce peace and unity, but rather division.
Luke 12:51-53 (KJB) Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
In the Christian church, division happens because of your beliefs and your faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ. To be faithful to the Heavenly Father, we must come out and be separate.
Revelation 18:4 (KJB) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Jeremiah 51:6 (KJB) Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.
The doctrine of separation is an extremely important doctrine in the Christian life, whereby faithful followers of Christ Jesus must keep away and be separate from those who are still abiding in their sinful condition. You are not supposed to be closely associated and fellowship with others who are outside the teachings of the Christian faith. Imagine talking to your parents one night at the supper table and telling them that someone from school asked you to go with them to steal some things from other kids lockers. If your parents are God-fearing people, they would advise you to keep away from them. This is what it means to keep separate from the world
Remember that the gospel of peace needs to be preached to the world, but when people completely reject it, you need to shake the dust off and keep separate from them. Keeping separate from them honors God. Lot chose to come out from Sodom and Gomorrah and be separate, because it was going to be destroyed by God. Although he obeyed God and found favor in His sight, his wife didn’t, because she wanted to return to the city, and because of this she was destroyed. People must consider what happened to her when God commands you to come out and be separate.
Remember that Abraham kept away from the world, and lived a fairly solitary life. Noah kept away from the world and spent most of his life building the ark that would save his family from the flood. Moses kept away from the world, turning his back on all of the things of Egypt, to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. To separate means to set or keep apart or to make a distinction between. If you choose that you love Christ, and you truly want to inherit the promise when He says, I will be a Father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughter said the Lord Almighty, then you need to come out from among them and be separate, something that I’m always reminded of when I think back to the days of my youth, when I was charged with the responsibility of preparing all of,…..
…….The Salad Dressing
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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