180 Degrees

Joseph was an amazing person whom I used to look up to. He was nice, smart, athletic, and best of all, he was a proclaimer of Christ. He went to a church somewhere in Plainfield, and did a lot of great things there, like help organize a student leadership team, initiate various service projects, and brought a couple people to Christ. He was going to do great things...until he started dating Laura. Laura was this really pretty, really smart girl who incidentally had a really bad party habit. Needless to say, Joseph made a 180 degree turn with his life. He started to party hard, and slowly slipped into drinking and smoking. His grades dropped, he stopped going to church, and he started spending all his time with his girlfriend and her group of friends. He graduated two years ago when I was a sophomore, and is going to NIU currently. I didn't hear from or about him until I found out that last year he had been arrested for possession. Possession of marijuana, that is. During his rehab sentence, which was pretty lengthy, he saw the utter darkness that he had fallen into and how he had turned away from God. During that time he was so tortured that the rehab sentence was nothing compared to the shame and guilt he felt. Eventually he came back to Christ and is slowly repairing his relationship with God.

Read 2 Corinthians 6:11 - 7:1

This world is stained and dirty. Think about it, the only way we can truly do God's work is if we remain set apart and pure. Thus, it is in our purity that we proclaim God's awesomeness. I'm sure many of you have seen the Doulos “Everything” Drama (if you haven't click here). You are the person wearing the white shirt; allowing yourself to integrate with those that live in darkness will result in stains on your white shirt. If you have a dirty shirt, then when you go to spread the word to those in the darkness, they will see you and say, “You hypocrite, you are no cleaner than me!” So keep yourself distinct and separate from these people! There is nothing in common between us and them, as we try to take those out of the darkness to join the family of Christ. But keep this in mind: if you're shirt becomes stained, the only way to get a new shirt is to truly, passionately, wholeheartedly turn away from the sin in your life. Don't lie to yourself, because it will become very apparent that your shirt has turned into a nice shade of gray.