The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Category: community (Page 8 of 8)

Susan’s Musin’s – Gossip

January 7, 2010 / / 5 Comments

This subject has been on my heart over the past year after witnessing its path of destruction personally.

To backtrack a bit, I grew up in a home where, thankfully, gossip was never very comfortable or welcome. I’m grateful to my parents for creating and maintaining that environment. I don’t want to paint an incorrect picture here though. Every person is born into sin with a carnal man who loves to gossip and lower others in order to raise himself. I certainly had, and still have, those temptations; but the environment in my home did not create a dark, moist place for those seeds to grow and produce bad fruit.

Living in mainstream Christianity can be very sterile and convenient sometimes, and you are able to just walk away from someone you don’t like or someone who gossips, etc. So I ended up playing “dodge ball” many times in the church and schools I attended in order to escape much of the drama that goes along with hanging out with gossipers. I inevitably was sucked close to the drain a few times while trying to help friends who had been hurt, and that was plenty.

Gossip truly is like a cancer, damaging everything in its path, and left unchecked can turn into a vicious monster.

Now that I am living in Christian community, it requires an entirely different perspective. The Bible is very clear about loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. As much as you try to put your best foot forward, all of your faults and weaknesses are eventually exposed, and vice versa; and you can’t just walk away from people who are this or are not that, gossipers included.

The Bible is also very clear about gossip and how God views it. And it generally comes as a package deal bringing along its invested partners: (“Good morning, law offices of Gossip, Jealousy, Pride and Envy, how may I help you?”)

And I believe that women are especially vulnerable to gossip, although men are certainly not immune. Again, I don’t want to paint myself as some kind of “saint.” I’m not. I struggle with things all the time. Thankfully, my husband really helps me to nip my gossipy thoughts and words in the bud.

As you can see below, God is VERY vocal in His Word about gossip. The more I have studied about it, the more I have been convicted and impressed of its gravity — a very serious sin, and an indication of a sick spiritual heart condition.

Lev. 19:16: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour; I am the LORD”

Psalm 5:9: “For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue”

Psalm 34:13: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile”

Psalm 101:4-5: “A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer”

Proverbs 6:16,19: “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:…… A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren”

Proverbs 10:18: “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool”

Proverbs 11:9: “An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered”

Proverbs 11:13: “A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter”

Proverbs 15:4: “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit”

Proverbs 16:28: “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends”

Proverbs 17:9: “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends”

Proverbs 18:8: “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly”

Proverbs 20:19: “He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips”

Proverbs 21:23: “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles”

Proverbs 26:20: “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth”

Proverbs 26:28: “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin”

Matthew 12:36: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment”

Eph. 4:29: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers”

Eph. 4:31: “Let ALL bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice”

2 Thess. 3:11: “For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies”

1 Tim. 3:11: “Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things”

1 Tim. 5:13: “And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not”

Titus 2:3: “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things”

Titus 3:1-2: “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men”

James 4:11: “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge”

1 Peter 2:1: “Wherefore laying aside ALL malice, and ALL guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and ALL evil speakings”

1 Peter 3:10: “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile”

These are just verses on gossip. There are also many on the fruit of the spirit, meekness, humility, and how we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, even MORE so if we do not like them.

A.W. Pink states: “Remember we cannot successfully ‘pursue peace’ if the heavy burden of pride be on our shoulder: pride ever stirs up strife. Nor can we ‘pursue peace’ if the spirit of envy fills the heart: envy is sure to see faults where they exist not, and make trouble. Nor can we ‘pursue peace’ if we are loose-tongued, busybodies, talebearers.”

My husband and I, as most of you know, have lived in Christian community with like-minded believers for over four years now. Over those four years, it has been exciting to watch our community grow in the knowledge of God’s Word, in repentance, obedience and maturity. However, there was a spirit of gossip, jealousy and pride in a few people that managed to shroud the community; and I watched it come to a head several times after it had pulled other members of the community into its web; and it had to be reprimanded back into submission, which lasted for a while until its ugly head couldn’t help but show itself again and again.

I am a person who believes, in general, no matter what a situation looks like, there are always two sides; and it is best to hear both sides before coming to a conclusion. The interesting thing is that, living in such close relational proximity with the community members, I was very familiar with both sides.

Finally, when jealousy and envy couldn’t get their way anymore in a few members, I witnessed a monster manifest itself when, knowing both sides, it was easy to identify when lies and conjecture were injected into the mix to feed the needs of the beast. I had never witnessed such vile perversions of the truth and betrayals of confidence, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was truly, truly sad. What is saddest to me is that the husbands of the women involved fueled the fire and did not stop their wives from sinning in this manner but joined in with them. What a mess.

Sadly, those people chose to leave the community rather than pursue peace, grow in longsuffering and love towards the brethren and submit to godly, proper authority — all because of gossip and its partners leaving a path of destruction behind them (and probably ahead of them). Thankfully, there is a peace in the community now that could not be found before, but not before friendships, trust, and Christian community were deeply wounded.

So I would gravely challenge my sisters in Christ to truly examine and check yourself and your motives before opening your mouth. And then, STILL choose to keep your mouth shut and pray, pray, pray by yourself for the situation. God is fully capable of handling things the proper way in His time. Our duty is to pray. Nobody else needs to know about it. Ask God to grow in you proper perspective, wisdom, discernment and maturity. DON’T DO IT when you are tempted to talk about someone — and this includes crying on someone’s shoulder about perceived mistreatment, etc. If you must speak to someone, limit it to your husband or proper spiritual authority. Meditate on the Bible and what it says about this sin, and ask God to write these truths on your heart. And if someone comes to you with inappropriate gossip, nip it in the bud.

Gossiping is a horrible example of feminine Christian graces, especially to younger girls who are always watching older women and their example. I pray for God to grow each of us in maturity, and for the Holy Spirit to keep our consciences soft to recognize and stop ourselves immediately before committing this ugly sin.

Susan (“Did you hear about that lady, Susan, who wrote that blog post on gossip?……..Well, who does she think she is!?…….”) It’s your choice.

A House – Update II – Foundation

August 19, 2009 / / 14 Comments

We just wanted to catch you up on the progress of the house the Lord is granting that we be able to build right now.

I decided to use a pier and beam foundation, using 12 inch concrete piers.

And here is the first hole! I’ve found that below the surface is a layer of boulder rocks; and so I’ve been digging down to that point and leaving them so the piers will sit on the rock, hopefully creating a more firm foundation:

I cut rebar pieces and pounded them into the sides of the hole in eight places to help hold the pier in the ground against any lift that might occur:

And I tied them together with cross pieces so they act as a single piece in the concrete:

Here I tied in some vertical rebar pieces that would actually stick up into the pier:

And here is the base after the concrete pour:

For the pier part, I decided to use concrete tube forms. We’re finding the height of each tube by using a water level, which is just clear, plastic tubing with water in it. One person takes one end to an already established pier, the other person the other end to a leveled, empty concrete tube in place on the concrete base. The person next to the unfilled concrete tube gets in place, and the person at the established pier moves the tube up and down until their water level is level with the top of the pier. Then, the other person marks the concrete tube where their water line is showing. We’re doing this on four places on the tube, then marking a line all the way around the concrete tube and cutting it to size on that line. Also, we take each measurement from the same pier so that any error introduced only affects the new pier and doesn’t compound from pier to pier:

Once the tube is cut to the proper height, it is re-leveled on the concrete base and held in place by a wood form and stakes pounded into the ground:

This is the bolt that is set in the concrete which will hold on the brace which holds the beam. I tied in a couple of small pieces of rebar at the bottom to a washer held on by a nut to better lock it into the concrete:

And here the bolt is ready to be set into the concrete using the plywood to hold it “suspended” in the concrete:

Here is the pier after the concrete pour with the bolt set into place:

I decided to do the first two front corner piers so I could run a string between them so as to be able to line up the whole row of piers:

And here is the first row completed!

This past first Wednesday of the month was our community work day, and the men helped us with our foundation work. We poured a pier and three new bases:


I decided to complete the other two corners so I could have straight lines for all of the other outside piers, and here is where we are now:

We are again grateful to God for the provisions, ability and community to work on the house.

— David

 

Fellowship and Fun

October 7, 2008 / / 5 Comments


Although the work we do on the land is important, one of the main reasons we’re all here is because the Lord has graciously granted us the fellowship of like-minded brethren. While some of it is serious, some of it is not so much; and God has afforded us the opportunities for leisure-types of fellowship with each other and with some of the events and people in the local communities.

Lord’s Days

On the Lord’s Days, we meet in the morning for singing (shown in this picture to the left) of Psalms (which for us are the Psalms from a psalter we purchased here), hymns and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16); and then midday we commune around the table to enjoy the Lord’s provisions together in representation of being nourished by the spiritual provisions from God. We usually meet at different peoples’ homesteads each week, but in this picture we decided to go to the park in our town for this time of fellowship:

And after eating, the guys enjoyed some throwing of the horse shoes:

On a different day, the adults joined the children in a game of kick ball:


Community Work Days

We have set aside every first Wednesday of the month to be a community work day, where we all gather to work together in fellowship around the land, either on things that benefit the community in general (like working the roads) or to assits someone who might need help with a specific project:

This pair looks like they’re having way too much fun for pulling fence! 🙂

The ladies will get together during work day to help outside or to work on inside projects:

And then it’s time for some leisure together:

Means of Grace

The Lord has blessed us with a gifted teacher in Michael, for whom we are very thankful. In a given week, we will typically meet together as a group to be nourished by the means of grace God has graciously granted us.

The first meeting is a sermon, where Michael teaches. After an opening prayer, we sing a Psalm from memory to practice learning the psalter songs by heart, and then Michael preaches.

And the second is Saturday evenings, where we again sing Psalms from the psalter, and then have a question and answer time with Michael, which is followed by general fellowship time:

Childrens’ Plays

Several times since we’ve been here, the children have put together plays on various subjects (like Esther’story and Passover) and then have performed them for the community. Now, this is not cheap “community theater”; this is the real deal! We have to buy tickets, and they offer a concession stand at the performance. And it is worth it!




Curtain call:

Preparation and Education

In light of trying to live a preparedness life-style, Michael thought it would be important that we experience and learn what to do if we ever were to find ourselves having to survive in a cold weather situation. Now, coming from comfortable California and comfortable city life, I have an acute aversion to being cold; and so this was not going to really live up to the “fun” part of “Fellowship and Fun”; however, after some exhortations I tried to have a good attitude about it. There’s me in the back and in black, frozen solid (or at least I thought I was):

This was my shelter the first night. All I had were my clothes and a sleeping bag, no tent. It got down to 17 degrees that night. I’m pretty sure it was the coldest I’ve ever been, as my shivering kept waking me up:

However, part of my “experience” was for me to be set up the next night in a different situation, where we made fire beds on top of which we’d sleep (actually we only made a couple of beds, but I was allowed to have one of them 🙂 ). Here’s one of the guys helping dig the bed out for me. Needless to say, that night I was quite comfy; and when I awoke the next morning, I was so warm I couldn’t tell in the slightest how cold it really was, which again was 17 degrees. It was very nice:

Overall we learned quite a few things. Thanks to Michael for taking the time to teach us those things.

Also, after reading a few of the slave labor camp “Gulag” books by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I was thankful to not have it as bad as they did, where temperatures would get to 60 below zero; and only then were they not forced to go work.

Neighbors

Soon after we moved here, one of our neighbors came by and introduced himself; and he has since become a good friend of the community. His name is Homer, and he is a very nice and generous man who, after being reared locally, is retiring now out here.

Here is Robert getting to ride along while Michael’s field is being baled for hay:

And here, Homer is giving rides on his dune buggy:

He also purchased and gave all of the Bunker children bicycles.

We pray the Lord grants him and his family salvation.

Community Events

During the year, there are various community events, some of which we might attend. Here are a few to which we’ve gone.

Interestingly (and I don’t believe incidentally) in our life paths, directed by God, Sue and I both enjoy listening to and have sung in barbershop quartets; and so we have gone to the local barbershop chorus’ annual show for the last couple of years:

This was the Coleman rodeo from the first summer:


And from this year, this is the Coleman rodeo parade:



We always pray we represent the Lord well when out in the community, for His glory. May the way we live be a witness to those around us here in the world, and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms, as a testament to His efficacious work in the hearts of sinners and to so great a salvation. Amen.

(Thanks to Jordan and her The Ranch Weekly blog for several of these pictures!)

— David

In a Nutshell

April 6, 2008 / / 1 Comment

A few months ago I was asked by a cousin I haven’t seen for probably 30 or so years, who had indirectly received our update emails, the following: “Wow! It seems like a huge undertaking that you are doing. What brought you to that decision? We heard that you live off the land and are kind of getting back to how life used to be. We would be interested in hearing all about it.”

“Wow!” back atcha! Explaining some 5 years of doctrinal, belief and worldview changes to someone unfamiliar with the whole process we had been through I thought was something of tall order. However, I tried; and so I post it here, in the hopes someone might benefit from this brief synopsis, which was my reply:

As far as what has brought us to come live this life, that’s something that happened over some time with changes to our doctrinal beliefs and worldview. For people who ask us this kind of question, or even when we’ve tried to explain things to family or friends as we’ve gone along, because they haven’t gone through the same studies, it makes it difficult for them to understand why we are doing what we are. But I’ll give it a shot. And so, several years ago the Lord led us to an understanding and belief in what are typically called the doctrines of grace, which talk much about God’s sovereignty, including over salvation itself (sometimes people call it Calvinism). This is in contrast to what we were brought up believing, which is the more commonly held belief of free-will salvation (also referred to as Arminianism). We came to believe these doctrines of grace to be true, and believing them led to us leaving our current church at the time as it didn’t hold to those beliefs. Through the process of learning about these doctrines, we came in contact with folks who believed them down in Texas. Over time we got to know those people generally over the Internet, and then through visits to Texas. Further over time, one of the beliefs we came to understand is the Bible’s call for Christians to separate themselves from the world and ungodliness unto Christ in Christian community. Through much study over yet more time, we began to believe that God’s prescribed way of living as described in His word (in how His people lived in the past and in most forms of teaching throughout the Bible, including the Lord Jesus’ parables) is an agrarian lifestyle. And so, as the world and its systems of functioning (which include dependence on it for all of our necessities, including food [grocery stores], clothing [department stores], electricity and water provided by the government, etc.) began to appear more ungodly to us, and since we believed in separating from worldliness as much as possible, and since we believed the Bible teaches man was to till the soil and work with his hands (in command and by examples throughout the Bible), and since we believed we should live in Christian community with like-minded believers, we left our corporate jobs to buy land here in Texas in fellowship and community with those like-minded folks we had gotten to know, so as to start farming the land and raising animals for food. Since our moving down here a little over 2 years ago, the Lord has seen fit to grow our community by adding several other families. We’re not a commune, in that, each family owns their own land and stuff; we’re more of a neighborhood than anything else; and we fellowship together more of as a home church, with singing, meals, teachings and just living our lives together as family.

And so, there you have it, in a nutshell.

— David

 

Anti-World Worldview

April 5, 2008 / / 10 Comments

Hello again!

Hopefully and prayerfully you have perhaps spent some time reading and prayerfully considering some of the things mentioned in our previous post and some of the information located at our old Web page (By God’s Sovereign Grace and Mercy). Not that there is much ado about it, but we do however pray the Lord grant you whatever light He may from it.

At this point I must interject that much of our beginning doctrinal changes (mentioned in the previous post) began at reading the articles of our teacher Michael. Over time, the Lord apparently led him in his teachings to consider more than just what we say we believe: that our lives as Christians involve ALL of our lives. For Michael, this led him to start to publish his “Underground Church” series, which is located here.

Sue and I listened, studied and prayed about the things he brought forth, which in short, partially, is that as Christians we are required to separate from the world, because the following verse really does apply: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 Jn 2:15). Not only from this verse but others in the Bible (such as 2 Cor 6:14 – “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”) are very clear about separating from the world. But what is the world then? Here, it is anything that in essence isn’t Christ. It became apparent, by God’s graces and mercies, that the ungodly world (as described in 1 Jn 2:15) was all around us and a part of every aspect of our lives, from the world that is in charge of bringing water to our house to the world that we worked for to bring in our “daily bread.” How could this be right? Are we not to look to God only for our provisions? Besides the commands to not be yoked to and to love not the world, what happens when the world in charge of my water supply decides to not give me any water? What happens when some person in my food chain (farmer, farm working, trucker, grocery store person, etc.) decides he’s not going to do that anymore? Then what do I do? There is an obvious “chink in the armor” of our very basic well-being, for which the ungodly world is the provider.

Not only are there commands to separate and the obvious problems with the world being our provider, but the Bible specifically talks about how God set up man to live his life: He told man to dress and keep the garden before the fall (Gen 2:15); and after the fall, that didn’t change other than those works would be much harder to do. The command to dress and keep the garden never went away!

Hmmmm……

Well, this led us to the following, and why we left our corporate jobs to move to Texas and hopefully and prayerfully live a life closer to God’s creation:

We are called to separation:
It evidences the character of God, which is holiness (which means separate). His character IS separation. Every time the Israelites started to join with the society around them, they became more like them and abandoned God. Purity is always lost when impurity comes in; impurity is never made completely pure by adding purity.

We are commanded to this:
1 Peter 1:16 – “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy”
2 Corinthians 6:14-17 – “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

We are holy or separated positionally by God:
2 Timothy 1:9 – “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,”
1 Peter 2:9 – “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;”
Hebrews 7:26 – “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;”

Touch not the unclean thing:
Haggai 2:11-14 – “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.”
Proverbs 13:20 – “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

How were the Israelites handled with Egypt? God separated them out. How was Lot handled with Sodom? God separated them out. These are pictures of God separating FROM AMONGST THE HEATHEN His chosen people.

Do not join with other false beliefs to accomplish some sort of mission, and in fact, stay away from them:
Romans 16:17 – “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”
1 Timothy 6:3-5 – “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”
2 John 1:9-11 – “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

Even from the brethren in error:
2 Thessalonians 3:6 – “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”

From the world and false brethren:
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”

To what do we go then?
God instituted work in the garden, which was to tend it. After the fall, work was going to be harder. Cities were formed 1) as monuments to man and 2) as a way to skirt the curse (to make work easier). Also, the Bible is replete with examples and parables that are agrarian; living an agrarian lifestyle would make it easier for any children with which we might be blessed to understand the Bible. Plus, an agrarian lifestyle is solely dependent on the providence of God – we plant and water, and He grows it according to His will. This is a picture of our spiritual evangelism, in that, we plant and water, and God grows. As a lesson for any children, they will be LIVING the physical picture of the spiritual lessons taught in the Bible. Further, our work glories in the miracles of life that are demonstrated in God growing things out of the land.

Further thoughts on why we moved:
We are trying to separate from and become less and less dependent on a corrupt and ungodly system.

The work we do in our corporate jobs profits nothing from an eternal or spiritual aspect.

Living in the world environment places us dependent on ungodly entities and people for our livelihood. The food chain is also very long; at any time if one link along the path were to break or be broken, we could be potentially unable to eat.

We want to live in a place that still supports family freedoms to build our lives, rear and educate our children ourselves, and support our families the Bible would have us do so.

We reject the ungodly culture of the day seeking a proper Biblical culture. We don’t syncretize with the culture to change it; our evangelism occurs when we stand against the culture (by not participating in it) and biblically show it for what it is. Now, we still interact with the world in some ways because we are still in the world (on earth and not in heaven); but generally our lives involve being separate and different.

We wish to live in a community of other like-minded believers, which is very, very important. True believers are family, even surpassing the temporal families the Lord has granted us (Matt 10:34-37; Matt 12:48-50) . Christians are meant to be together, functioning locally as the body of Christ, loving each other as God has commanded (1 John 3:14). It’s very difficult to live a life of love for the brethren when your life doesn’t really involve them (much how like trying to love God without prayer, Bible reading, etc. doesn’t work); and, although I suppose it is possible, but it seems to me that being involved in church gatherings and Sundays and other days is not really being involved with them very much.

And so, this is how and why our worldview has become what it has: basically we want a worldview that not only doesn’t include the world’s ungodliness as much as possible, but is one in which the sole focus is on God and His eternal, spiritual and temporal providences.

— David

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