Dare to Be Different / No Partnership With the World

Dare to Be Different

 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:14

  Those who claim to know the truth and understand the great work to be done for this time are to consecrate themselves to God, soul, body, and spirit. In heart, in dress, in language, in every respect, they are to be separate from the fashion and practices of the world. They are to be a peculiar and holy people. It is not their dress that makes them peculiar; but because they are a peculiar and holy people, they cannot carry the marks of likeness to the world.
  As a people we are to prepare the way of the Lord. Every iota of ability God has given us must be put to use in preparing th people after God's fashion, after His spiritual mold, to stand in this great day of God's preparation. . . . Many who suppose they are going to heaven are blindfolded by the world. Their ideas of what constitutes a religious. education and religious discipline are vague, resting only upon possibilities. There are many who have no intelligent hope, and are running great risk in practicing the very things which Jesus has taught that they should not do, in eating, drinking, and dressing, binding themselves up with the world in a variety of ways. They have yet to learn the serious lesson so essential to growth in spirituality, to come out from the world and be separate.
  The heart is divided, the carnal mind craves conformity, similarity to the world in so many ways, that the mark or distinction from the world is scarcely distinguishable. Money, God's money, is expended in order to make an appearance after the world's customs; the religious experience is contaminated with worldliness, and the evidence of discernible by the world or by the universe of heaven.
 The question to be settled is, "Are we willing to separate ourselves from the world, that we may become the children of God?" This is not the work of a moment or of a day. . . . It is a lifelong work. Love to God must be a living principle, underlying every act and word and thought.

No Partnership With The World
 ". . . Know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James 4:4

 Christ and the world are not in partnership. The apostle says, "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" . . . Conformity to the world will never be the means of converting the world to Christ. Christians must be entirely consecrated to God if the church is to be efficient in its influence for good upon unbelievers. The slightest diversion from Christ is so much influence, power, and efficiency given to the enemy.
  A Christian, as described by the Scriptures, is a person who is separated from the world in his aims and practices and is united with Christ---a possessor of the peace which Christ alone can bestow, finding that the joy of the Lord is his strength and that his joy is full. Christians will not leave the world to perish unwarned, and make no effort for the reclaiming of the lost. . . .  Those who truly love Christ . . . watch for every opportunity to employ the means at their command in doing good and in patterning after the works of Christ. They will not yield to temptations to make alliances with the world. They will not unite with secret orders and bind themselves by intimacies with unbelievers. But those who are not wholly on the side of Christ are to a large degree controlled my the maxims and customs of the world. . . .
  Satan is rich in this world's goods, and he is full of cunning to deceive, and his most effective agents are those whom he can lead to take a form of godliness while they deny the power of God by their un-Christlike characters. The children of God are to stand firmly for the right under all circumstances. They are not to be deceived by those who have the mind and spirit of the world. . . .
  God has His faithful witnesses who are not attempting to do that which Christ  has pronounced impossible---that is, seeking to serve God and Mammon at the same time. They are burning and shining lights amid the moral darkness of the world and amid the gross darkness that covers the people like the pall of death.

Standing by a purpose true, heeding God's command, honor them the faithful few, all hail to Daniel's band! Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone! Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make it known!