I dreamed all night about the difference between being “in the world for Christ” and “In Christ for the world”….. I can’t remember specifics ……I just know that paradigm shift was setting up in me like freshly poured concrete. It reminded me, too, of our call to be in the world but not of the world:
John describes the “world” as “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 Jn. 2:16.)
“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.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
And Jesus prayed:
“And now I am no more in the world, but these ARE IN THE WORLD, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because THEY ARE NOT OF THE WORLD, even as I am not of the world.
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” (John 17:11, 14–15.)
This matter of concreting in concepts has happened a few times in my life where a concept or phase seemed to just set a new, more well defined course. Like another one did years ago: “We give as much of ourselves as we can understand to as much of God as we can understand.”
They become lampposts of light along one’s path, personal mottos for sustaining forward momentum, one’s experienced and lived wisdom.
When I find myself at odds with the things of the world I want this to come to mind, “While I am yet in the world, I am not of the world. I am IN CHRIST FOR THE WORLD!”. (11:9:21)