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Refreshment in Refuge

    by Gina Burgess

One the loneliest number?
Date Posted: August 4, 2013

We are told to “follow your heart” in some of the best books and films. Is that the best advice that man can conjure? Or does that actually come from Satan? Follow your heart, do what your heart tells you. Is it your heart or is it chemical reaction? Is it your heart or is it lust?

I have often thought it would be nice to have someone to share things with when God reminds me that I do that with my Mom. Then I wonder if I am to live out the rest of my life alone as Paul did. And God reminds me that His grace is sufficient for me. God tells me that I do not understand His plans for me.

In third grade we learn that one times one is one. One times anything is one, except when God gets into the mix. God times you is God. God is always God

I do not understand why Christians who have proclaimed Christ for most of their life are suddenly turning their backs and embracing the world’s ways. Why is it? Have they lost their sense of eternity? Or are they so embossed with the world that they are bent and conformed to its ways without even sensing the loss of the Holy Spirit’s influence?

Three Dog Night had it right, “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.” In the worldview that is.

Here is a seeming conundrum. Go with the world and you have lots of friends. The prodigal son had many friends until he lost all he had. Then he understood what lonely meant.

Choosing the world over Jesus is the fastest track to doing the loneliest number you’ll do here on earth. The secular world hates Jesus. He warned us of that. John 15:18-19 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

And John reminds us of that. 1 John 3:13 Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you.

This is the worldview, not a godly view. Just because we cannot see or taste the LORD does not mean that He is not there inside you and beside you. Of course you need to be reminded of this. We all do. Our finite minds think in finite ways. Sadly, we must be reminded which is why God wrote His words down for us to read daily, reminding us of His works and His ways that are far above us. Therefore, you will not dive into the lake of fire because God has sealed you with the Spirit.

Embracing the ways of the world is the best way to encounter the number one ending. You We don’t hear that kind of preaching often enough, I’m thinking.

Christians tell each other that our actions speak louder than words, for that is how we are known to the world as practicing Christians… but, how often do we tell each other that our actions display to God how we feel about Him? Now, that is a different black kettle. The Bible tells us we are one in heart, and one in the Spirit:

Ephesians 2:18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conduct be as becomes the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you, or else am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel.

Yet, we are spatially apart. We argue. We allow emotions to divide our Spiritually joined minds. When we think in the worldview, Satan does the Snoopy dance in glee. When we dwell on supposed injustices rather than carrying the loads of our sisters and brothers, we project loneliness, and present apartness to those we are supposed to be drawing into the fold. Our feelings may be hurt, but what are feelings? Flighty things that change with the ebbs and tides. Rather we should remember God made us one in the Spirit. When you hurt, I hurt.

Our physical bodies may be single, but our hearts were given to us by the greatest power of the universe. Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 2 Corinthians 5:17 So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

God times one is God, and we should act like it. Pardon my slight paraphrase of James 4:7 Resist the world and it will flee. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners! And purify your hearts, double minded ones! For what is your life? It is a mist that for a little while appears, then disappears. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit for this is the sense of eternity and is the permanency of God. Singleness is no longer a sting and the loneliest number is banished forever. Live for the joy past the cross of today’s world, for something far, far better awaits us on the other side.

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"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

The Servant Leader

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Biography Information:

Gina Burgess has taught Sunday School and Discipleship Training for almost three decades. (Don't tell her that makes her old.) She earned her Master's in Communication in 2013.

She is the author of several books including: When Christians Hurt Christians, The Crowns of the Believers and others available in online bookstores. She authors several columns, using her God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world. You can browse her blog at Refreshment In Refuge.

If you'd like to take a look at some Christian fiction and Christian non-fiction book reviews check out Gina's book reviews at Upon

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