The Enemy of God

“...know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God.”

“You cannot serve God and mammon.”

“Choose you this day whom you will serve...”

“A weed is just a plant out of place” This saying is never more applicaple then when we talk about the dandelion. I like dandelion, and think that a field covered in these little yellow dots of sunshine is a great sight to behold. Dandelions can also be useful. They are one of the honey bees first sources of pollen in the early spring And the tender baby greens are quite nutritious. But there is a sinister appendige lurking under those bright sunny dots. The Root! The root digs deep into the earth and pushes out other roots and hogs all of the nutrition.

Because of this root we have to be very leary of the quick spreading Dandy—Lion, and diligent to keep it away from anything that we want to be productive.

The world is like the dandelion in relation to our spiritual lives. There are a lot of good things in this world, but if we allow them to take root and grow they will take more and more of our time and push out the the things of Christ. In short we will be fruitless.

We can only be fruitful if we reject the unfruitful. We can only serve Christ if we reject the world. That is what James said in James 4:4, when he said that friendship of this world in enmity with God. In this verse a we see that double-mindedness is to be avoided. This is a major theme in the book of James, and can also be followed throughout the New Testament.

In Ephisians we read “...Have no fellowship with the works of darkness...”(5:11)
Christ said it this way, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” (Mat 6:24)

This is the cost of following Jesus, we cannot embrace the things of this world and embrace Christ. Our arms are too small, our Garden is not fertile enough. Oil and water don't mix!

In I Samuel 17 we read,one of the most well known Bible Stories, the story of David and Goliath, In this story Goliath is mocking the Israelites, and no one will fight him. Then David comes to bring his brothers provisions and sees this great man of war mocking His God. He knew exactly what needed to be done, and he did it. He faced the giant. And he whipped him.

Sadly, a little further on we read,in II Samuel 11, that David was faced with another foe. He came face to face with his own lust and committed adultery with someone else's wife and eventually killed that man to cover it up.

Often times as Christians we see the big battles and we are ready to fight. We want to end abortion, lower taxes, get the government out of our schools and lives, and the list goes on. Don't misunderstand, the majority of these things are good and we should be invovled in them. But the question we each must ask ourselves is who are we Serving.

So I give you the same charge that Joshua did, in Joshua 24:15 “Choose you this day whom ye will serve..."