Saturated

 "Therefore, 'Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.' " 2 Corinthians 6:17....."What would happen if everyone in the church spent the week alone with God and then came together? It would change everything." Francis Chan

Can anyone walk through a sewer and not be covered with the filth that is found there? I know I'll offend some when I compare this world to a sewer, but how far does the average person go in their day to day living without seeing "sewage" pass before their eyes? It happens with the advertising we're bombarded with, the entertainments we watch, and the music we listen to. The world is catering to our various "lusts" in ways never imagined just a generation ago. Even the one committed to purity is challenged to maintain it in today's world. How tragic that many of we who confess Him as our Savior regularly invite many of these things into our homes on a daily basis. Worse, we see no real problem with it.

I once asked a good friend who was a believer how he could watch some of the movies he did when they were filled with coarse language, and sometimes, explicit sexual scenes. He told me that he didn't notice any of that and just concentrated on the story. I'm not a legalist, but as one who once freely used that language and beheld such scenes, I knew how they attached themselves to my mind and made return "appearances" again and again. We deceive ourselves if we think that maintaining a holy mindset can happen when we're saturated with such words and images.

So how does one maintain a holy way of life in the midst of an unholy world? A world that seeks to saturate us with its values, thoughts, and desires? There is only one way. We must be saturated in His Holy Spirit. It has to become our way of life. Too few of us know how to live such a life, and too many don't want to. Even a sewer can become "home" if we spend enough time in it.

Whether we wish it or not, we are going to be confronted every day and all day with that which seeks to take our hearts and minds away from Him. The enemy knows how to appeal to our flesh and has endless ways to make his appeal. In our own strength, we have no way to defeat that. We can only overcome as we walk in His Spirit, saturated in His presence. This means time, real time, spent in His presence. This means living with a conscious awareness of Him at all times. This is an everyday lifestyle, not a once a week visit to a church building.

No matter how hard we seek to entertain and hold the attention of people, they're in so many cases, bored with church. They don't see it as relevant, or they don't believe in the power of the God they say they believe in. With as little time as the average believer spends with Him, how could they? He's not real most of the week, how could He be real at the end of that week? This is why we need to soak in the truth of Chan's words. What would happen if we set ourselves apart for Him? What if we made real time to soak in Him, hearing His heart, listening to His voice? Going ever deeper in our knowledge of Him. As Chan writes, it would change everything. How badly do we want such a change?

Jeff Deyo in his song "Lose Myself," sings, "Saturate my life, fill every part of me with You. Drown me in Your love, let me lose myself in You." We will be saturated in either the ways of the world or His Kingdom. Oh Lord, may we lose ourselves, be saturated in You.

Blessings,

Pastor O