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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Our Mutual Friend (not about the book) (09/15/11)
In the mafia when they introduce you they either say “he’s a friend of mine” or they say “he’s a friend of ours” this lets the person know his relationship to the “family.” A friend of mine means he is not a “made” man or member of the Mafia. If he’s a friend of ours it means he is a member. In the Christian “family”, the household of faith we have many people who are not members of the family but they like to hang around family members. They like being associated with Christians hoping somehow salvation will rub off on them without them having to make a commitment to changing their lifestyles.

The Church has hangers on just like the Mafia, just like rock and movie stars. They want to live off your anointing draining you of your virtue just as the lady with the issue of blood drained virtue from Christ but they have no intention of glorifying God with their lives they only give him lip service. They are seen in Christian circles so it is assumed that they are Christian and when they are seen by outsiders living their sinful lives they provoke people to give Christians a bad name. It is to be expected that the world be fooled by these “wanabes” but the word of God says that “16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God :”( KJV Romans 8:16) it also talks about knowing Christians by their fruit. It is one thing to be overtaken by a fault; none of us are perfect we struggle at times with sin. The key word there is struggle, if you are comfortable living in sin then you have a problem. It grieves me to have to write the things I write sometimes but it grieves God more that he has to assign me to write it.

Christianity, living for Christ is not a game, it’s not a private club it is a commitment to a lifestyle of denying oneself and giving up your personal rights to let Christ live in you. Apostle Paul wrote “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”(NIV) Those of us who are truly committed know who are “friends of mine” or “friends of ours” and we cannot allow ourselves to be drained by them so that we can’t fight the good fight of faith and the spiritual warfare that goes along with it. At the same time we can’t abandon the “faux Christians” that we come in contact with. In the rooms of alcoholics anonymous they have a saying “keep coming back because it works if you work it” So let them hang around maybe one day they will be converted. But if you’re going to the hospital to lay hands on the sick don’t wind up like the seven sons of Sceva talked about in Acts 19:13-16 make sure you take someone truly committed with you, Take “a friend of ours.”
Acts 19:13-16
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
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This article has been read 758 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Terry Lee
09/22/11
This was startlingly convicting. At first I feared, "Am I a friend of mine?" But then I realize, I do care and I'm trying all the time. Whew! I am a friend of ours.

Convicting, nevertheless.
Linda Goergen
09/24/11
Lots of truth to ponder and digest in this powerful piece! I like how you show Christianity is not an organization or just a religion to belong to, as many view it, but a total commitment and personal relationship to the Lord Jesus! Well done! Keep writing boldly what God leads you to write! God Bless!
Noel Mitaxa 
09/25/11
Great challenge, with clear teaching right through.
Perhaps extra spacing might allow the clarity even more room, and perhaps to italicise the scripture would enhance its impact at the close - to emphasise the authority behind your points.