Stop Pretending

"We believe that the policies, practices, and worship of the church should be ordered by the Word of God. The Word clearly says that the local church is "the house of God, the church of the living God" (1 Tim. 3:15). As such the will of God revealed in the Word of God must regulate church life. `Lord Pragmatism' (`what-will-work') and `Lord Tradition' (`the-way-we've-always-done-it') rule in many churches, not the Lord Jesus. Our modern generation of church-goers needs to be told that when these two `Lords' rule the church the result is condemned as "will-worship" (Col. 2:23) by God's holy Word!"

So concludes a brief portion of testimony from a modern day baptist confession.  In Titus 2, Paul exhorts a young under-shepherd to teach sound doctrine and more importantly - to live it in reverence to a Holy living God.  He ends by stating, "Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority.  Let no one disregard you." 

Imagine a church claiming such confession, where the Senior Shepherd has lived a life of reproach and shame both by the words of his mouth, the thought life which those words betray, documented immoral and unprofessional actions, witnessed, documented, and recorded false witness, bending local ordinances and breaking laws for selfish causes.  In this church, all this is excused because the Senior Shepherd is loved by his people.  

Now imagine a church, the worship leader will not talk to their own in-laws and has not for years, even though they attend the same church - because of family dispute.  This same leader allows all kinds of evil entertainment into thier home with the excuse that if they did not, their children would not "fit in" with others.  This same worship leader is adored by the church because of great skill in the lead musical instrument which is played in service and because the father of this individual has always been involved in worship leading, even though the other biblical red flags are common knowledge.  Ephesians 4:30 says that such behavior [specifically within the body] grieves the Holy Spirit.  Christ says in Matthew 5:24 not to worship before being reconciled to one another.

Now imagine a Church where the elders have on several occasions, chosen to protect these and other individuals rather than obey Gods Word to correct and rebuke these individuals in private and, if necessary, in public so that others will fear God [Holy Fear 1 Timothy 5:2
20-21].  Paul tells the Corinthians [1 Cor] in 5:11-13 not to associate with someone inside the church who claims to be a Chrisitian, but acts in such manners.  He actually says to "cast them out" of the local body and calls them "evil".  He later says that doing so publicly with love, reminds everyone that God is Holy, and not to be mocked(1 Timothy 5:20-21 gives the strictest charge and imperative to obey this command without exception).  


Imagine a group of elders charged with governing God's local body, who don't know the biblical qualifications to be an elder, and in many cases, the instructional content of the Bible.   Because of this handicap, they are forced to continually uphold their actions and decisions by referring to every conceivable authority [denominational decisions, websters dictionary, church constitution, their own poor memory] except for the Word of God.

Now imagine all of this in the same local body.  Would you call this the Kingdom of God or a kingdom of a few men, maybe even one man?  Would you call this Christ's Church or man's?


God has given us His words and a few non-negotiable directions for governing for a purpose.  Some things in church government are negotiable, others are not.  Contrary to popular pinion, we are to judge each others conduct within the Body for the purpose of honoring God.  To withhold obedience to these instructions in order to "preserve unity" or "peace" is a facade and a condemnation on those who know.  

When men choose to love each other over Gods holiness, they have deceived themselves into believing they are demonstrating love.  Anything that denies a love for God's holiness, a respect and fear for His Word, and a humility that the Kingdom belongs to Him first and foremost, is not real love.  It is a false love and a masquerade of peace.  Proverbs calls such people who continue to operate as such are misusing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and calls them fools.

The Lampstand has been removed from such Church's because their first love is not the Lord Jesus Christ and His sovereignty, but their own proud establishment (Revelatins 2).  To remain with them if not possible to cast them out or reform, is a direct disobedience to God in lieu of Titus 5:11-13, 20-21.  


God wants true worshipers.  He is interested in His glory and His kingdom not ours.  This is the problem with the emergent church and church leaders [elders] who do not know how to rightly divide the Word of truth.  

The sad thing is that many churches today are like this.  Leaders rule ignorant congregations through ungodly manifestations of authority, loyalty, and truth hoarding.  People simply don't want to believe that their leaders or their family members are part of this group, so they ignore obvious signs.  There are many buildings filled with dead people every weekend singing songs about themselves and thinking they are praising God and thinking they are headed for heaven, but Jesus says he will tell them that he never knew them.

The time has come for people who claim to know God and His Word to become leaders of the Church of Christ.  The Church is the greatest Living Image Bearer of our Great and Holy God.  Problem is, the lost world is justifiably disgusted by the dead, man-centered zombies claiming to be the Living Churches.  There is a difference between fallible and being a foolish steward.

We should be appalled at weak willed, apathetic, poorly educated, unqualified, and subjectively prejudiced men leading others in a masquerade of worship; those who lead others "in the name of Jesus" but love a false peace more than the integrity of God's Word and His Bride.  Thank God for His grace.  May He bless the blind to see and worship Him in Spirit and Truth that all may know the Glory and majesty of our God.  The tragedy is not that churches are closing, but that the local bride of Christ somewhere is completely estranged to the words of their own Lord.  The only idea they can gleam from Scripture is "love", but they don't have any idea what God means by it.  


It time to stop pretending that everything is ok as long as we use the words "love" and "peace".  God forgive us and open our eyes.  Please remove false shepherds and give us those whom would honor You in all that they do.  You said that the leaders of Your Church are to lead so that they may present to You a mature Bride in every way.  Please, please deliver your Bride from her captors, and give us those leaders.

With you for His glory

Elephants in Our Midst series: Part 6 Respecting Parents

I heard Pastor James Macdonald say the following on the radio once:

God commands all of His people everywhere to “honor your father and mother.” From small children to middle-aged adults to older adults, we never outgrow the need to apply this biblical principle. It is for every race and every culture, regardless of your parents’ success rating, whether they are living or not, and regardless of how you may feel about it. God says straight up, “Honor your mom and dad.”

Honoring your parents is an attitude of respect. It’s the admission that says, “You are the person God sovereignly placed in my life.” They may have failed you or hurt or disappointed you at times, but God commands all children to honor their parents for what they did right.”
Pastor James Macdonald
“How to Honor Your Parents”
(2007, Walk in the Word)

The word honor is a word that means “weight.” To give honor to something is to give it “weightiness.” In other words, to give it value. To honor is to value. Do our lives give value to our parents for who God has made them to be? This is where we need to start.

Honoring parents in today’s culture is not as popular as proving one’s own autonomy and earning the right to be respected as an adult. Today’s culture encourages us to stand up for ourselves and demand respect. Everything from advertising to babies’ clothes and toys express the opinion that we all need to be seen as or treated as little adults. That desire for a common ground among children and adults has invaded the home and, in many circumstances, the church. This, in turn, is eroding the fabric of honor and respect for parents. Self-image has taken a priority over the family image and the intentions of God’s heart.

I believe if we trusted God’s heart when reading this commandment, we would walk in holy, humble fear—and it would become a lot more important.

When we are young, we can’t wait for adults to see us as equals and view us as mature. We forget that God is not only our Creator, but, if we are saved in Christ, He is our Father too. If we can’t honor our earthly parents, how is it possible to honor Him? Dishonor of human parents is disobedience to a direct command of God given to all people for all time. We cannot live in blatant disobedience to God and call it honor. We cannot represent his image to those who know us best if we do not learn to love through honoring those we were given to.

Do you have the elephant of parental disrespect in your life? Have you compromised and turned God's command into a negotiable clause? Are you diligent in persevering for righteousness sake? Are you serving God or yourself?

Read Ephesians 6:1-4
I would like to hear some feedback on this if you are willing. What do you think are some of the most difficult challenges of being a teenager that most parents don't get today? I would like to see if your thoughts are common.
If you were to say something to your friends parent to help them understand what your friend in this situation is feeling, what would you say?
As always, be an Image Bearer for everyone to see. God bless.

With you for His glory

Elephants in Our Midst series: Part 5 Respecting Parents

This will be the last topic in our 'Elephants in Our Midst' series. Elephants are big destructive realities in our life that trundle about causing destruction while we pretend they don't exist or simply ignore them thinking they will leave us alone if we do.
The first week, we talked about the elephant of video games and entertainment. One of the greatest triumphs of Satan is to convincing us that the battle for our spirit has nothing to do with our minds or our past times. As long as we believe in Jesus, we can partake of whatever we want. We saw that this is a lie from Satan and that God doesn't accept our excuses for not loving Him fully with our whole heart and mind and strength as well as our soul.

Last week we looked at the elephant of ungodly relationships. While there is so much that we could have talked about, we ended up focusing primarily on what God desires of us in honoring the Image of God in each other. We talked about several things such as pride, cruelty and selfishness that compete for our God-honoring behavior toward each other. We saw that it doesn't matter if the relationship is a dating relationship or friendship or a married relationship. God's standard is a respect for others that acknowledges God's righteousness in everything whether it be physical, emotional, or mental.

Today we are going to talk about respecting parents. This is probably one of the most ignored elephants in church today. The command of God to "honor thy mother and father - period", has been turned into, "honor thy mother and father as long as they respect your privacy, independence, don't embarrass you, or ever do something you don't agree with. It's an especially hard lesson to learn today because the older people we call parents usually haven't seen the hypocrisy in their own lives when they demand unquestioning respect, but don't apply the same standard to their own parental relationships.

Add to that tv's depiction of children being miniature adults today with equal footing in their homes as parents, and the entertainment and clothing industries designing products that advocate the same level of maturity for children as for adults, we have a Cultural-faith crisis in our midst that looks a lot like a big bull elephant. The difference between this elephant and the first two is that people actually believe that this one is not really an elephant. People will admit that they shouldn't seek the entertainment they do or act with their friends the way they do, but their is almost no discernment today that identifies that cultures presentation of parent-child relationships is completely unbiblical. Modern pop-psychology has taken over authority from Scripture in this area. Let's take a look at the elephant of parental disrespect.

Look at Romans 12:9-11.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.


Last week we looked at vv. 10-11. Today we'll look at v. 10 alone. it says, "Be devoted to one another with brotherly love." But just like last week, it does go on to say, "Outdo one another in showing honor." 11 tells us that our motivation and our attitude is Godward, not manward or personal.

Two questions: Are you diligent in the difficult time of your teenage years when parents and children usually have disagreements? and, Are you Serving the Lord in your relationship to your parents?

Many people are aware that the commandment to honor your mother and father is the only commandment with a promise. But many of us have taken that word promise at some point in our lives and replaced it with the word clause. That means we dismiss the brevity of the command and say to ourselves, “Oh, it’s not that big a deal; life has changed.” We reject the importance that God put on this commandment and excuse our behavior to cultural evolution.
Why do we do this?
Usually for one of two reasons: Either to excuse unrighteous behavior that is already present in our lives or to allow for unrighteous behavior we think we are finally entitled to express. The difference is past offenses you already committed or future offenses you plan to or want to commit. The rationalization sounds like this: “I will honor my parents if they respect me or treat me the way they are supposed to.”
The difference between the promise and a clause is that the promise comes with a commandment that requires specified behavior of us regardless of whether or not we want the promised reward, and a clause requires specified behavior from us only if the other party does what they are supposed to. God’s version of the commandment ends with a promise to reward obedience and discipline disobedience, not a clause. God is not saying, “If you want long life, then do this; if not, don’t worry about it.”
How many Christians do you know that live out this commandment as if it was only a clause? I was one of them. I acted as if I only had to honor my parents if they respected my rights as a teenager, didn’t embarrass or hurt me, didn’t betray me, listened to me sincerely, admitted their wrongs, and stayed out of my business. If they did that, then I would honor them. If they didn’t, then I was free to criticize them publicly, privately, and indiscreetly. That was not the image I was created to bear.

I encourage you to think about this today. Examine your life and whether you have been living for God in this relationship , or if this is an area of life you need to attend to in order to give God the glory due Him as Lord? Tomorrow, we will finish our look at this last elephant by seeing what scripture has to say about "how" to make it right. God Bless.

With you for His glory

Elephants in Our Midst series: Part 4 Ungodly Relationships

The world tells us things today like, "You deserve the best" "Don't settle for second best" "Don't let anyone treat you like less than the best" "If you see something you want, go after it" etc. etc. etc.
It tells young men and women to satisfy their playful sexual desires. It tells men to treat women like property. It tells women to manipulate men into giving them whatever they want. It tells men to use force to get what they want. It tells women to use the lust of men to get what they want. The world tells us to honor ourselves first and others second. As long as everyone honors themselves, everything will be fine. If someone chooses to be humble and meek and go against this strategy, then it's their fault for getting hurt.

Jesus said, " Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

It sounds like Jesus thinks a little differently than the world does.

How do we dishonor each other in relationships and thus displease God?
the opposite of poor in spirit is pride
the opposite of those who mourn is apathy and un-compassion
the opposite of gentle is harsh or violent and usually comes from uncaring
the opposite of thirst and hunger for righteousness is conformity to the world
the opposite of mercy is cruelty and legalism
the opposite of pure in heart is a seared conscience and defiled mind and heart
the opposite of peacemakers are grumblers, mockers, gossipers, and decievers
the opposite of being persecuted in the sense of this passage is being readily accepted by everyone because you don't stand for righteousness when it is mocked.

Paul says in Romans 13 that love is the fullfillment of the law.
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

But then he says two remarkable words immediately after:
"Besides this". In other words, he says this is the fulfillment of the Law, but there's more to being a Christian than just loving. So - what is the more?
Romans 13:11-14
"Besides this, understanding the present time, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Put off fleshly desires, put on the armor of light and put on Christ.

Do you have the elephant of ungodly relationships in your life? Are you and everyone around you ignoring it just to avoid the unpleasantness of confrontation or not being able to satisfy fleshly desires? This is usually one of the most obvious and yet remains one of the most deadly elephants in Christianity today. The Bible is clear on what makes a relationship ungodly. We need to deny self and put on Christ in order to get rid of this elephant.
If you find yourself in an area you don't know how to get free from, please peruse the links I have posted to the upper right of this blog. They are all wonderful ministries full of helping resources!

With you for His glory

Elephants in Our Midst series: Part 3 Ungodly Relationships

We are in the middle of a series discussing three elephants that are wreaking havoc in our midst as Christians. Elephants are enormous creatures that, if we try to ignore them as they trundle around amongst us, would end up seriously harming us or killing us. Over the last couple days, I talked about media and entertainment that is counter to the work of God through Christ in our lives. I talked about how God calls us to love Him with everything we are, not just a little bit. I also talked about what God expects from us behaviorally and we looked at some of the excuses that we give God to justify doing what we want. We finished by looking in God's Word to see that God already knows the excuses we are going to offer and He doesn't accept them.

Christians are not supposed to blend in and look like the rest of the world.

Today, I am going to talk about the elephant of ungodly relationships. The shameful part of ungodly relationships is similar to our last elephant in that usually it is an elephant that many people recognize, but they don't say anything about it. Most elephants that take the form of ungodly relationships aren't secret things that other people don't recognize. Usually, people can identify ungodly relationships through the amount and type of touching that goes on, the way that people interact with each other and the emotional impact of their arguments on one another. To put it simply, people who are not married and who are supposed to be pure physically, spiritually, and emotionally, should not act like people who have been married, shared in a God honoring sexual relationship, and submitted to each other emotionally and mentally.

The elephants of ungodly relationships aren't always simply premarital impurity. Ungodly relationships can look like many things:
Abusive dating relationships
Relationships that degrade one person or groups of people to make themselves feel good.
Relationships that foster unrighteous behavior.
Dating relationships that involve emotional and physical behavior reserved for marriage.
Dating relationships that involve male and female submission and ownership ideas that are reserved for marriage. Ie. Dating is not the moral equivalent of marriage, no matter the duration.

All of these situations have to do with man perverting relationships in ways that satisfy their own desires, and they deny the truth that God actually does have a clear standard for relationships, especially for Christians. Are ungodly relationships one of the elephants in your midst right now?

Look at Romans 12:9-11.
We already looked at v. 9. Today we'll look at vv. 10-11. We're going to start with the last part of 11 because we are going to come back to that in our last elephant discussion. The part we are looking at right now says, "Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."

The first big part of getting rid of the ungodly relationship elephant has to do with honor.
We have to remember that God created each person in His Image regardless whether or not they are a Christian. Every one is made in God's Image. Our relationships need to begin and end with the honor of that Image. Jesus said that to love God and love others as you love yourself is the sum of the law. Do you honor God by loving Him and those who bear His Image?

The early Christians had a real hard time with this. The first Christians were divided into two groups: Jews and Gentiles (the rest of us who aren't Jewish). Jewish Christians didn't like gentile Christians all the time. Gentile Christians didn't like Jewish Christians all the time. Gentiles did gross things, they were dirty, they thought differently about life and the world, and other people. Jews were stuck up, wierd, and their life experience was really limited. Problem was that they didn't honor each other even as Christians.

Paul wrote this to the Phillipians 2:1-4,
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Is "honor" at the center of your relationships?

Tomorrow, we will finish looking at what the world has to say about it, and what our Lord says about it.

With you for His glory

Elephants in Our Midst: Part 2 Media and Entertainment

The Worlds Lies:
Types of entertainment the first Christians had to use discernment for.
Gladiator games (gory, bloody, no respect of humanity, celebrated violence, pride, and strength. What does God want us to focus on? (peace, humility, and meekness, others first, Image Bearing of Humanity) This relates to what in kids lives today? Video Games, movies, Ultimate Fighting championships, World Wrestling Entertainment.
Lavish Dinner parties which led to drunkenness and immoral behavior - this was the purpose - this was the entertainment for those who had money. This relates to what in kids lives today? Parties where kids go intending to focus on/participating in immoral behavior.
Plays and oratorios- entertainment that celebrated the immoral lusts and relationships between people, and between men and ancient Greek Gods. What does this relate to in Kids lives today? Novels that feed on the fantasy, lusts, and adulterous passions of youth.

There were plenty of good entertainment choices too, like:
races, good dramas, wrestling, good parties.

Like us, the people in the early Church had a cultural challenge. They had to risk being thought of as snobbish or out-of-the-loop in order to please God by living counter-culturally. In fact, one of the problems for the early church was that they were being socially persecuted for their reputation of abstaining from gladiatorial bloodbaths and immoral parties.

We have the same problem today. We ask questions like, "How will I be able to be with the in crowd if I'm not playing everything they are? If I don't know what they are talking about? I don't want to be ridiculed for taking a stand."

Well if you aren't willing to take a little ridicule for the sake of the name of Christ, then you might now have the relationship with Christ that you think you have.
In John 5: 22-23, " Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."
If Jesus is the Judge, then we should take seriously the following thing he said,
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." He further said,
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, 
a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Right before all this he also said, " All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." All this is in Mathew 10.

Paul also said in Titus 1:16, " They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good."

God makes it pretty clear that He wants those who profess to follow Him to have nothing to do with behavior that goes against His awesome work for us. He also makes it pretty clear that He already knows the weak excuses that people will make in order to justify their actions and even more clearly says He won't accept those excuses.

What Entertainment elephants do you have in your life?

Christians are not supposed to blend in and look like the rest of the world. What kind of entertainment do you need to repent from?

With you for His glory

Elephants in Our Midst series: Part 1 Media and Entertainment

A baby elephant can weigh up to 250 lbs. It will stand somewhere around 3 feet tall as an infant and consume around 3 gallons of milk a day. When it grows up, a female can weigh up to 6250 lbs (3.25 tons!). If it is male it will weigh somewhere around 12,500 lbs (6.5 tons!!) There is a reason that the Elephant is the largest living land animal. Elephants are huge!
Imagine if you were to go on a safari hunting for what hunters call "big game". You head off to Africa to bag yourself one of the big cats or one of the larger animals like a rhino or an alligator. For most of us that would be a pretty crazy, scary, or exhilarating experience.
Now imagine that you were out hunting and you wandered into the middle of elephant grazing grounds. Suppose your partner decided to put up camp in the middle of the elephant grazing grounds for the night. Upon your objection to the obvious danger of being smooshed in a random stampede or angry bull elephant feeling threatened by your presence, your partner says to you that it's not a problem, just pretend the elephants aren't there and they will leave you alone!
How would you feel about that?
Assuming there's twenty to thirty elephant's together in a herd, that's an awful lot of elephant to ignore and pretend aren't present.
Well we do that very thing in our Christian walk. There are some very big elephants in our midst, and we often pretend they aren't present or that they aren't important to deal with. Elephants are a big deal and tonight we are going to start a three-week series identifying three of the largest elephants in our midst. But we need to move beyond just identifying them; we need to plan how to eradicate the elephants from our midst.

First Elephant: Media and Entertainment.
The Bibles guidance:

Look at Romans 12:9-11.
Over the next several days, I will be addressing three elephants that are wreaking havoc in our midst as Christians. Today, I want to talk about Media and entertainment that is counter to the work of God through Christ in our lives.
Romans 12:9 says "Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good."

God did a work in us. He sacrificed His son Jesus Christ to accomplish it. Jesus said above all, to love God with all your heart , soul , mind and strength (Luke 10:27). Most people quote Jesus saying the next part, "And love your neighbor as yourself." but they dismiss the first part. People say I am a nice person and I love others, but at the same time, these people turn their back on loving God fully by indulging in video games and watching movies or entertainment that is totally counter to the Work he accomplished. Can someone tell me how a horror movie that celebrates evil is not offensive to God? Can someone tell me how it is not evil?

Can someone please tell me why they think a bloody game of killing and violence and sometimes even sex is not offensive to God?

Can someone tell me how Ultimate fighting championships or WWE are pleasing to God?

again, Romans 12:9 says "Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good."

If we're are willing to be honest with God, these things are attractive to us because they gratify our fleshly desires. God says, "don't do that."

A great teacher has said, "Asking if Christians can do 'this or that', is always the wrong question. The question should always be, 'How can I please God?'"

Just think on it.

Come back tomorrow for part two: What the world says about it and how we should be renewed in our thinking.

With you for His glory