Set Apart in the World

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John 17:15-17 (The Message)

"Now I'm returning to you. I'm saying these things in the world's hearing So my people can experience My joy completed in them. I gave them your word; The godless world hated them because of it, Because they didn't join the world's ways, Just as I didn't join the world's ways. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world Than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I'm consecrating myself for their sakes So they'll be truth-consecrated in their mission. "

Im realizing the only reason I am in the world but not of it; ultimantly is because I am IN CHRIST - and He has no part in the world's system - for HE is King of a higher Kingdom coming! My one means of being out of the world is my close-knitted-ness to Him. To be "sanctified" means to be "set-apart" - so I am consecrated by His Word. I need to be drenched in His word, saturated in the scripture, hearing His voice and obeying, so I can remain in Him, and be a shining light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation...