James 1:27-33
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Pure religion undefiled, what is it? The greek meaning is to look after, take care of & provide for this is an act of worship when we do these things and are pleasing to God and the Father. As the body of Christ, we are to give ourselves to serving others, often we excel at that, and other times we fail, and we are selfish in our desires. But if this is a part of our worship, why would we not do it? There are many ways to help someone in need; sometimes all they need is a listening ear or a kind word, other times they may have a real need, and if we can meet the need we should, without counting the cost!

But today I want to focus on the latter part of these verses. “to keep himself unspotted from the world.” How does one go about doing that?
All too often we get caught up in the agendas of this world, we operate like one of its citizens and not like a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
We hang on to every word that comes out of the newscaster’s mouths, we listen to the arguments around us, and we get caught up in the causes that divide. Often, we dislike people groups, because the world has said we should. No group or nationality of people is better than another. All are created in God’s image. We think the President is the final say in everything and that he can do no wrong. WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!! We do not belong to this world, we are aliens just passing through. The only thing we should be caught up in and defending is God’s word, and anything that goes against it, but even in that we should do it in love.

If you are the person who thinks the news, even so-called Christian news is complete & undefiled truth you would be wrong. To some extent, all news is skewed to some degree, wanting your loyalty to them. The President is a man, yes we should respect the position of authority God has given him, and we should obey the laws in place as long as they do not violate scripture, God’s holy word, however, we need to remember that the people who hold office are flawed, they have sinful natures and an agenda. Power so easily corrupts people. The only truth is the truth God has given us between the pages of Genesis and Revelation. God’s word is living and active, able to change even the vilest sinner. When we take up the banners of the world and start looking and acting like them, we become spotted with the weight of sin that the world carries. We are too entangled in the goings on around us. Our focus has been lost.

Another way we get spotted by this world is to get caught up in all the nastiness of the celebrities out there. Not all are bad, some are Christian and live their lives displaying their faith, but more often than not they make nasty movies, and tv, and their clothing and behaviors should not be worshiped and glorified. Man cannot handle glory and should not receive it. God alone is to be glorified. We need to hate sin, just like Jesus does, however, in the hating of sin, we do not hate the person. So many things are sinful and flat-out wrong and against God’s word, homosexuality, abortion/murder, gossip, etc., and the list goes on. We need to call it what it is, but in doing so, continue in love, you pray for that person, and you should be kind to those people if it is in your ability to do so.

We should not be so like-minded in our thoughts and deeds with the world that the world cannot tell us apart. We need to remember that we are the only bibles some will ever read. To the best of our abilities we need to live Christlike lives, fully surrendered to the Lord, obeying his commands, loving and forgiving as he does and has done for us. We too were once dead in our trespasses and sin, and are now made alive through the cleansing power of sin, & the unmerited favor of God.

Our world is under a curse and is passing away. Every generation has its stuff it picks up and marches forward with, but as Christian, we need to be very careful if we walk arm in arm with it. Through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live in this foreign land, I believe we can do it in such a way as to be pleasing to God. If it were not so, he would already have removed us!

Do you want to live unspotted? Do you want to hear those words “well done” when you enter heaven’s gates? Do you want to hate sin and love well? It is possible, but only when you allow God’s word to feed you; it is living and active, and only when you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, purposeful in prayer and eyes fixed on the prize before us. I pray that you will; I pray that the so-called causes of this world, the entrapments of stuff, celebrities, and all the other silliness will not hold you captive, only Jesus!

One day all this stuff will be gone, I look forward to that day when I will see my Jesus face to face, the one who bled and died for me, whose unmerited favor saved my soul. I want to live a life pleasing to him, I want others to see Him in me, I want to love as he loves, forgive like he forgives, fully surrendered, fed by his word, and filled by His Holy
Spirit until he either calls me home or returns in the clouds to get me. I do not want to stand before him with the stench of this world on me.
How about you?

Blessings my friends… I love you and pray for you!

Lord, may each of us cling to you our God and Father, to your word so that this world will not have any hold on us.