“My kingdom is not of
this world.”
~Jesus Christ, the Master and great
Shepherd of the sheep
As recorded in John
19:36
If we have chosen to follow Christ, we have committed to a
life that is clearly outside the world’s cultural norms and is governed by
heavenly priorities instead. The lives of those who have chosen to homeschool fall even farther outside cultural norms. But even in the homeschool world, we
are not immune to distraction from what is of central importance to our Lord. In fact, especially in the homeschool
world, we may be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to our
priorities. It is often said that the good can be the enemy of the best. It is of prime importance that we regularly take stock of
our lives to make sure that we have not received His grace in vain.
Might it be possible that we have become yoked to things
that are really not of Him? (See II Corinthians 6.) Are we honestly
and truly not of this world?
Or could it be, that in spite of a valiant attempt to keep from being conformed
to and entangled in “the world” and its pagan, cultural wrappings and trappings,
we are sometimes unwittingly lured into what is simply an alternate “world” to keep us occupied?
“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.
For all that is in the
world,
the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life,
is not from the
Father, but is from the world.
And the world is
passing away, and also its lusts;
but the one who does
the will of God abides forever.”
I John 2:15-17
Could it be that an
obsession with a morally clean cultural world might serve Satan’s purposes
just as well—to sufficiently distract us from God’s real priorities?
The world has dark and dirty hobbies to keep its lives too
busy for God. Those who claim to
follow Christ may have refreshingly clean hobbies, which ironically, however, often
accomplish the same end. Neither
group has much time for God’s priorities.
My fear is that we are far too often energetic—exceptionally so—for things
that are empty, feverish in our activity for that which is fading.
The world’s teenagers follow the latest fashion
trends—daringly envelope-pushing, immodest ones. Meanwhile, Christian young people can be equally enthralled
with fashion, except, of course, that theirs would
tend toward modesty.
The men of the world love sports and beer. Multitudes of Christian men, too,
can talk of nothing but sports. They
just generally prefer a less addictive drink to go with it.
While the world may be addicted to the dark side of
technology, the Church may be equally addicted to its cleaner forms.
The world takes it view of Christianity from everything but
the Bible. And tragedy of
tragedies, so does most of the “Church”, as is evidenced by way it whole-heartedly
embraces the core beliefs of the rest of the world’s religions, while having not
a clue where the ideas have come from.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him. . . .
See to it that no one takes
you captive
through philosophy and empty deception,
according to the tradition of men,
according to the elementary principles of the world,
rather than according to Christ.”
Colossians 2:6, 8
Honestly, is what we let ourselves be consumed with actually
prescribed in the Bible, or has some smooth talker just convinced us that it
is? Do we latch onto things, thinking
they are worth our time, when in reality they, too, are passing away? Are our priorities really the same as His?
It is imperative that we ask ourselves these questions. These are the kind of questions we need to be asking. I have to ask myself these kinds of
questions on a regular basis, and especially at holiday times when our schedules get even tighter than usual. If
we don’t ask ourselves these
questions, and honestly stare the answers in the face, we may find that our
dear Master is grieved with our hardness of heart and with our willingness to
be distracted from what matters most to Him.
Lately, I’ve been reading the last letters of Peter and Paul
(II Peter and II Timothy). They’ve really gotten to me. I have felt their emotion, as they knew
their time on this earth was coming quickly to an end. Those dear men, under the Spirit’s
influence, were intensely passionate—and increasingly so, it seems,
as they aged—that we should faithfully carry on what Jesus passed on to them,
without getting sidetracked, deceived, or lead astray from their—and
our—beloved Master.
I was going to
share some verses from II Peter and II Timothy but couldn’t narrow them down; they
were all too relevant. So instead, I
urge you to go pull out the actual letters and soak them up as you would
precious pen and paper letters that just arrived today in your
mailbox. You certainly won’t
regret it; in fact, it may save you from regret.
“And now, little
children, abide in Him,
so that when He
appears, we may have confidence
and not shrink away
from Him in shame at His coming.”
~From yet another
intensely devoted follower of Jesus Christ
As recorded in I John
2:26-28
