At the Mt. of Olives

July 22

“Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues," Revelation 18:4.

"When the early Christians were told that the love of the world and the things of the world meant they did not love God, they do not hold discussions on what the world meant or how far they could go and still please God, they got out of the world; they separated themselves completely from everything that had the world's spirit. The result was that they brought down the world's fury on their own heads.

"The world is no different now than it was when they crucified Jesus and martyred the first Christians...The reason we get along with the world so well is that we have compromised our position and allowed it to dictate to us...The result is that very few of us are in any way embarrassed by the world.

"What the church needs to fear is becoming accepted in the community. Any church that the unsaved, worldly community accepts is never a church full of the Holy Spirit. Any church that is full of the Holy Spirit is separated from the world, walking with God and will never be accepted by any worldly community," A. W. Tozer, The Crucified Life.

Our Brother Tozer has expressed a truth many of today’s Christens cannot begin to understand. We are to be salt and light in a decaying world that is enshrouded in darkness. The salt of the truth of Christ that we bear is to preserve those who will receive Him and bring them forth from the darkness of the world into the light of His Kingdom.

If we succeed at this mission, they will become born again (see John 3:3), they shall accept the veracity of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life,” and they shall be transformed.

In II Corinthians 5:17, Paul says of them, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; all things become new.”

Jesus Himself says of them, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,” John 17:14.

In Jeremiah 10:2, 3, the prophet states very clearly, “Thus says the LORD, Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them; for the customs and practices of the nations are futile and worthless.”

As believers in Christ, we must fully separate ourselves from the futility and vanity of the world. We must not desire its accolades; we must not yearn after its treasure; we must not seek its rewards, for none of its trappings are of any eternal value.

All we must do is separate ourselves as completely from it as we can; we must keep our hearts and our minds and our vision fixed on Jesus, for we are new creatures with new aspirations.

And our aspirations lie at the Mt. of Olives where, as the angel said, “…This same Jesus, who is taken from you into Heaven, shall return in like manner as you have seen Him go,” Acts 1:11.

Jesus is coming...nothing else matters.