God Will Rescue From Evil, to God be all the glory!
Lift up your eyes so you can see from where you help comes from.
Eyes wide open.
You heard me. Billy Graham is a full out criminal and the poor ole Mother T., we all know that name was her alias. The list could go on and on about the horrific crimes these Christians have committed, but what about the criminals Moses, Noah and Abraham too, they were some of the first to go on trial. What am I talking about? No, I have not lost my mind, yet.
This morning in my devotional book I read the statement, "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Did you get that (or am I the last person on earth to ever read that?)
"IF YOU WERE ON TRIAL FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN, WOULD THERE BE ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO CONVICT YOU"?
Wow, this is really getting' to me almost as much as my born again experience. I really don't think I have committed enough crimes for Jesus yet. No, really I must fully engage my criminal mind if I am going to compete in this legal game. When I face a jury I want nothing more than there to be enough evidence to convict me of being a On Fire for Jesus Christian!
Can you just imagine a modern day courtroom with a judge and jury, what about Judge Judy? Would she be able to throw the book at you and sentence you to life without parole. Would the evidence in your life, your character witnesses, your family, your co-workers be able to testify on your behalf or would they all be like "No man, she never mentioned Jesus to me, this is the first I have heard her claim to be a Christian, she never even invited me to church." Wow. I got to go, I am headed out to commit a few crimes, I have to build the evidence against myself. I will send you a post card from my Christian jail house. Do you think Christian jail will be anything like Mayberry? Will you be there?
I promise you, if you can't understand this concept of being unequally yoked, you can regain this wisdom of the Word if you just sit down and remember third grade math. It's so simple. In the third grade Mrs. Stewart taught me the concept of equal and not equal she also taught me (<) less than and (>) greater than. Some things are just equal they are so close that they appear to the naked eye to be the same. Your partner in life and your close fellowship with others was meant to be like this, so close that you appear equal.
How many of us throughout our school years told our parents, "This stuff is so not worthy of my time, I will never use this when I grow up." Ha! Who knew? Then there was Algebra, I still have that nightmare, the one that I failed Algebra and did not graduate from High School. Bad news bears!
X + Y = ______ A - C = _______ Who knew I would use this again, X + Y = Jesus.
Faith + Hope = Jesus, every time. And that ole less than or greater than issue, I thought to myself in third grade, who cares! However, I use this math problem every single day of my life. (I still can't spell or punctuate, my bad)
1 John 4:4 says.........."You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is (>) He who is in you than he who is in the world, (<)." Greater than - Less than! It's Third Grade Math, Hello! Word.
If I can get this, anyone can. It's too bad Mrs. Stewart could not have followed me on throughout my life, just think of the times I could have been saved from so much pain. I am the queen of unequally yoked.
You see, the Bible tells us we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, darkness and light just don't mix well do they? I once heard a preacher speak on this and he told his congregation that we (Christians) are to be the light of the world and the Bible did not mean that we would never encounter the dark side of the world, we are living on this planet and are surely surrounded by the spirit of darkness everyday. Trust me, this comes into play even when you don't see it. Preacher Man said we (Christians) are meant to be witnesses to the unbelievers, we are not to shun all of them, who else do we think the lost is for St. Pete's sake? Now, I for one am not sure if I want to walk into a seedy place and whip out my testimony and start saving souls in a brothel ...........but guess what we don't have to go to the extremes all the time, there are folks in the next cubicle or your own home who don't know Jesus either! Yes way! Where am I going with this?
When you follow the Word and surround yourself with equally yoked partners and Godly fellowships there is nothing you can't do for the Kingdom. It's in the power of yoke, the equal yoke. Just like a mule wagon, when you hitch up all those mules and put on the harness and yoke them all together, what do they do? They pull the wagon and everything in it to the same destination. So if you are one of the mules, passengers or maybe you are the mule wagon driver and holding the reins at least you know that you have been equally yoked with other believers and you are headed for the mountain top, together.
So the moral of this story is, keep your mind in the third grade math class, it was simple then and it is simple now. Hitch your wagon to the mules that are equally yoked and on the way to the mountain top not the one that is headed for the dry creek bed. Remember, equal not equal, greater than or less than. God Bless Mrs. Stewart.