Come out of WHAT My people?

Something I picked up on very early in my Christian life was the phrase "Come out of her My people" which appears in The Revelation of Jesus Christ, that last book of the bible where the typesetting instructions are ("Let no man add or delete from this book..." you know, that one).

What or who are we to come out of? and when, is perhaps the main thrust of the question.

Was God asking us to separate totally from the world as some sects have decided He did?

Another scripture "Be in the world but not of it" seemed to countermand that one, so I discarded that concept, though I fully understand why the Amish and their Mennonite associates would have taken that stance.

Life becomes less challenging when you immerse yourself in the Christian culture with like minded brothers and sisters.

But I'm not sure it covers "Preach the good news to all the world" and it almost seems as though they took the job but never expected to do any work for the owner, save living Godly lives unattached to the 20th century.

Anyhow, assuming you are a believer that is actually forced to deal with the world, what should you do about this challenging verse?

I was fortunate when I came to faith. There was virtually nothing in my prior lifestyle or belief system that could be applied to living in faith with Christ.

I never had to combat that insane belief that I was a nice person or get over the feeling that God should accept me as a consequence.

My amorality was total and therefore it was no contest, I turned up at the door of eternity naked and rotten, so it was simpler to leave the crud behind and dive deeply into the pool of sanctification Christ offered.

God was good to me, and afforded me two years more or less when I could feed on the word for up to 5 hours a day.

I was not incarcerated or anything, God simply gave me employment which meant that I worked five days a week in Barcelona, which was a couple of thousand kilometers away from where I lived.

On Fridays, when my flight home was scheduled for the weekend, I invariably missed my 4.30pm flight and ended up in the Iberia Club Lounge for an extended 5 hours study whilst awaiting the 10.30 flight that followed.

It led to a very fast absorption of what God was saying to me.

I started off by accepting one primary ground rule.

I was to take the bible literally, which means that where my intellect clashed with what the bible stated, I needed to seek Gods face to give me the wisdom and discernment to UNDERSTAND what God was saying, and to bring MY life in line with scripture, rather than try to make the God and the bible fit my concept of how life and things should be.

"My ways are not your ways" was the byword, and "Nevertheless your will and not mine" formed the start point of my studies.

When I got to Ezekiel and "Eat the words of this scroll" I knew that letting this all settle deep into my soul was the answer, that marination was better than immersion.

Finally, when I read "Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you" it was obvious that for the 42 years I had been ignoring God, He had been carefully watching over me.

Actually, that was not finally, I don't thing we ever get to the final word until we expire, but the final word in this sequence of verses God engraved on my forehead and heart (whoops, there is another verse) was "I will make you a prophet to the nations" and despite it taking a while to come to fruition, He did, when I spoke to about 150 million people on CNN one night, during a discussion about cloning, and of course HubPages is also a platform to reach folk.

My approach was to re-examine everything I had previously held as fact against what the bible said about it, and amazingly the bible actually covers all aspects of life as we know it.

This led, over a period of time, to some aspects of what I thought were taboo issues in Christianity being clarified, so I refuse nothing food wise i.e do eat pork, with thanksgiving and follow what some friends described as 'the spirit filled diet'

But these things are ancillary aspects of faith, they make a difference to those you fellowship with, but inherently God will not be scoring our card on what we eat, it's what comes OUT of our mouths that will be observed.

The major part of 'come out of her my people' is surely HOW we interface with the world.

I enjoy worldly comforts and treats as much as any ex hedonist would, but my focus has changed dramatically.

Driving a decent car is great, but what am I prepared to compromise to do that?

Does a decent car make me any better than the other guy in an rustbucket?

So in my mind it is how we perceive what the world has to offer that makes the difference, do we LUST after things to make us feel better and superior, are we concerned about what others think about us, if it makes a difference to how you see yourself when people look down on you, you may have a problem.

My 'self esteem' arises from how God see me, I care not one jot about how the world views me, the world is inconsequential.

Sure it can cause me grief if the world decides to reject me, but it cannot affect my inner peace, nor my eternal destiny.

The world is irrelevant to what happens in my eternity, the best shot it can give is to cause me physical pain and distress, and finally to kill me if I am too much of a pain for the world to bear.

So I would get home earlier than I expected, big deal!

For many years my 'pious' thinking led to me developing a 'spirit of poverty', and believe me the enemy loves a believer who thinks being poor equates to Godliness, for they are focussed upon the honour of being poor for God.

That stops them doing things for God.

God has no objection to us being rich, indeed he wishes to bless us abundantly, pressed down and overflowing.

God does have a problem when we claim those riches as our own.

We are custodians of Gods assets, over His children, on loan to us, over His bounty, provided to us to do His will, over His planet, given into our care and abused daily.

Over His power, so often used wrongly and against His creation, in His name.

Those who do that will have a fate that does not bear talking about.

So come out of her my people refers to how we engage with the world we are placed into.

Some talk about 'taking the mark' and imagine that at some point there will be a dictator who will require some implant or chip to be accepted as a sign of allegiance.

Facts are that we all decide daily whose 'mark' we wear, Gods mark that sets us apart, from the world, or the enemies which also sets us apart, from God.

This coming year, predicted by some to be the FINAL year (but only God knows if that is true) will be one of major change, and if there was ever a time to examine ourselves, to judge ourselves, to watch and pray to be accounted worthy, this may be it.

I expect to see major financial disruption, possibly some heavy duty sunspots which may even wipe out our communications, substantial political upheaval as folk wake up to who actually runs this world, and civil unrest all over.

Our lives will be affected and changed by the events that are to come.

Fools will rush to be in the world system, especially when the collapse affects their comfort and false security.

Those who possess the wisdom and discernment that comes from God, will watch and pray, and be accounted worthy....

Decision time looms, will you come out of her?