Beclouded or Beloved…you choose
Beclouded or Beloved? What does that even mean??
The definition of “Becloud” is to cause to become obscure or muddled.
The definition of “Beloved” is dearly loved.
Today, many Christians are finding themselves facing many adversities, hardships, disappointments, fear and confusion and frankly finding life quite MUDDLED UP!! Romans 12 verse 2 admonishes us to “not be conformed to this world”. This letter that Paul writes to the Romans was intended to prepare the Church of Christ to partner with him (Paul), partner with one another, and partner with God’s holy plan for reaching His people. He’s speaking to an audience that he’s gently exhorting to grow up and be Christians marked by Christ-likeness, marked as “different from the crowd”. Romans 12 is written to the CHURCH folks…thats us!! He was admonishing them to BE THE CHURCH and not fall into an obscure, uncertain way of life. To not get caught up in what society, the news, the government, social media, or any other platform has to say, but to focus our attention on things above!! What God has to say!! Paul emphasizes by saying, “I beseech you therefore brethren” ….the word beseech is defined as to “ask someone URGENTLY AND FERVENTLY to do something. In this passage God is calling out to us to fervently and urgently be aware that we are not to masquerade as the world and its standards, but have behaviors marked by Jesus himself. Ephesians 5:1 tells us “Therefore be IMITATORS of God, as beloved children.” This world is marked with BECLOUDING…..obscurity and muddled lines of values, standards, morals, etc. The mere word muddled even sounds wishy-washy and uncertain. Our Father calls us HIS BELOVED (over and over again in scripture)…..the dearly loved ones!! He cares about us, He sees us, He hears our prayers, our cries, our groanings!!! It is only in the recognizing that we are THE CHILDREN OF GOD and that we are HIS BELOVED that we can navigate through the worlds uncertainty, instability, confusion, and bewilderment. And IT IS ONLY BY BEING IMITATORS OF GOD that we can truly partner with Him to bring His children home!!!
2 Corinthians 5:20 “Now then, we are AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST; AS THOUGH GOD WERE PLEADING THROUGH US!!!!!”
2 Corinthians 6:17 “Come out from among them and be separate(recognized as different), says the Lord…..”
SELAH!!!
