Email from Abiding Place Daily Bread – January 15, 2025 (The Fourth Day – Genesis 1:14-19) 1 John 2:15 – Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. We Are Not Of The World, Even As God Is Not Of The World God is absolutely separate from the world, and has a burning wrath against all its sin and iniquity (Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6). This should not be hard for anyone to understand, especially in view of the fact that the world is controlled by every evil enterprise of Satan (John 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 4:3-5, 5:19). If we are on the Lord’s side, then how can we do anything less than hate those things that oppose the purity and the goodness of the Father? How could we ever be in league with all the things that grieve the Father’s heart and violate His way of life? We have been given the blessed gift and invitation to come out from among them, and be separate with Him (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). We are called to separate ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1). The door into His presence has been opened unto us. We have been given the life of Christ. This glorious fellowship with Almighty God in which everything pertaining to life and godliness is ours –so why would we ever go out and return to the place of death that despises the ways of the Lord? (John 15:1-5, 17:21-23; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 1:13; Hebrews 10:19-21, 12:22; 2 Peter 1:3). We are not of this world, even as He is not of this world. We have been changed and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit to live a godly life (John 15:19, 17:14, 16; Titus 2:11-12, 3:4-5; 2 Peter 1:3-4). Our hearts have been united with the heart of the Lord, and our spirits made one with God. We are His sons and daughters, created in Christ Jesus to live in His ways (Ephesians 2:10, 4:24; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Luke 1:74-75). We have no love for worldly lusts, but rather are at war against them. We have been given the gifts of God’s holiness and righteousness, and could not be more opposite from an ungodly world. We are to despise the evil, and have no fellowship with its works of darkness and its spirit of disobedience. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and as strangers and pilgrims, we walk in the Spirit and abstain from fleshly lusts –following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, clothed with His majesty and honor. Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 1/15/2025
