My Upcoming Book

In The World – Not – Of The World

The priestly prayer of Jesus as we read it in John. 17: 1–26, however, verses 14—26, tell the story of what is meant by in the world but not in the world.

John 17Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)

17 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: ² as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. ³ And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ⁴ I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

⁶ I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. ⁸ For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. ⁹ I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. ¹⁰ And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

¹¹ And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. ¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³ And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. ²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ²³ I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

²⁴ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, the world hath unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.  not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. ²⁶ And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

This among other scripture passages teach us that we are not of the world (as Christians), we are physically present here and doing our level best to cope and move forward in the power and might of Jesus, to do our level best to be like him, in our Christian character, however, in Christ Jesus we are not of this world, we are of the kingdom of God, and sojourners upon this terrestrial globe.

One morning in November of 2015, I was midway through my usual morning routine of getting my coffee, and setting down at the computer to sort through the hundreds of emails, I simply skim them and see who they are from and what the news headlines are, actually only reading the personal and certain breaking news, if indeed it is new.  On this particular morning I looked over the emails, there was well over a hundred and I thought of how the enemy had sidetracked me from a book that I had started years before, and now, here I was stuck in a routine that was serving little purpose, except an occasional blog, and a lot of comments on articles.  I was absolutely doing nothing about what is so wrong with our nation, our church and the lives of our future generations.

The book, which I had been kicking around for several years is a book about circumstances surrounding clients in a faith based recovery program which I was the Director/Counselor/Pastor and the cause in effect of some of the problems and the characters who brought these debilitating problems to the camp.  However, over the past seven and a half years the nation has accelerated in decay, headed towards a horrific end if changes are not made.  Closely related circumstances are front page tragedies in an out of control anti American culture movement of government and liberal socialism. 

By no means is it all one political parties fault, but the purposely exploitation of the citizens of the greatest nation in the history of time, by political forces who are mere puppets to evil ideologies.  Nonetheless, “In the World Not of the World” is by necessity priority number one as far as writing goes, two others are in the wings and I will deal with them when the time is more appropriate.

In writing this book in a non-politically correct style, I pray to show a bit of our history, our heritage, our values, principles; when and where we began to lose them, to change them, to eliminate them.  I do plan to name those in leadership and the intent of where they enticed the people to listen to the lies and false promises of a manufactured utopia that will never happen.  The liberal movement, Marxist movement, and the liberal theology movement against conservative politics and Christianity. 

The obstacles which are the only resistance to an otherwise free falling great nation.  It is my purpose to do this in some sort of order and systematic method of alternating between our politics, social order, and Christianity.  For certain, to bring an understanding that God is in control, God can and will fix it, however, God will only act through the people to bring about the change in direction, to build the resistance which is needed to slow and arrest the free fall to destruction which we now find ourselves. 

It is basically aimed at the Christian, especially the ones who think they are, and the ones who are not, but love the nation enough to want to do something about our condition.  Pray for me that the Spirit lead, and I do the will of God for His sake and not of my own.  I keep one thing at the front of my thoughts, it is what God has led me to do, then I realize I will not be real popular, I will be demonized, and the world will come against the book and me. 

How do I know this, you ask?  Because the world hated Jesus, and He told us, that we would be persecuted and hated because they hated Him first.  I am not comparing myself to my Lord Jesus, for I am just the least amongst a multitude of servants in His house; I am only standing firm on his admonition.

Please take note, that this book is not to argue creation or evolution, it is to point out what is wrong with our nation, and corruption and evil that is advancing, nearly unchecked.  As I said, this is not a book that I would expect a liberal or progressive to pick up and read, it comes from an “evangelical” Christian perspective; the redefined, redefinition, of the redefined conservative theology.  Who did the redefining? Christians who were looking for a compromising church, and a theology that would not be demanding and not in conflict with the ideologies of the world.  One that would not be bullied, by intimidating name calling, where the authority of God’s written word would not be the measuring stick of acceptable practice and behavior. 

After all, Jesus didn’t really mean that Christians would persecuted and hated by the world, did He?...  looking for a watered down gospel that didn’t offend and confront sin and man’s sinful nature.  Well they found it in liberal theology, which has nothing to do with modern liberalism, except they are compatible.  Perhaps that is the reason that once strong denominations like the Presbyterians, United Methodist, some branches of the more than 30 something, Baptist sects have left their faiths and went to liberal theology.  It has become so divided that the Christian church is no longer recognizable as the Church of the first century, you know, the one that Jesus started and was the foundation of. I have no idea how people of liberalism and liberal theology have such a problem with loving the person, and hate the sin.

Political correctness has become the standard of how people relate to one another, yet carries such a double standard with the liberals who promote it.  It is okay to divide the church down to three, which are fundamental, conservative Christian and yet they are the three not willing to compromise so the bully politicians can continue their attempt to intimidate them into submission.  For me let them continue, let them continue to support such a septic evil as Islam, and mock real conservative Christianity until the cows come home, nevertheless, it will not be the cows that come home, but the chickens who will come home to roost.  “For me and my household, we will worship God.”  That is the God of the Bible, not the moon god of Muhammad.

Basically this is the unedited introduction to my upcoming book, which is as I used to say in some of my sermons, "Where the rubber meets the high-way."  It is a request for Christians to stop playing at church, and Christianity, Satan is not playing and is dead serious about what is going on, as all the evil of the world is inspired and initiated by him, and is the product of the world.