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Sunday 8 May 2011

Are You Engaged Or Entangled?



Are You Engaged Or Entangled?

"No one engaged in warfare ENTANGLES HIMSELF with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier." (2 Timothy 2:4)

You and I have a challenge before us: "How to be ENGAGED in fulfilling our earthly responsibilities and yet remain UN-ENTANGLED in the affairs of life in order to fight Christ's battles."

What is the difference between being ENGAGED and ENTANGLED?:
  • The trolley cars in San Francisco are ENGAGED in the cable beneath the surface of the street.
  • The bird is ENTANGLED when it cannot get its foot out of the trap.
How do we know when we are ENTANGLED?
  • When we are irritated or consumed over our situation.
  • When we fail to see God in control of our circumstances.
Strategically, we become ENTANGLED when we make the pursuit of the secular our primary focus, and then try to fit the spiritual around it. Remember the aspiring disciples of Christ in Luke 9:57-61 who expressed interest in following Him? "But first" they had to attend to their private affairs and interests.

When the "but firsts" dominate our lives, we are entangled. Jesus allows us no such privilege:

"No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62)

Let me ask you:
  • When you open your Bible to spend time with God, is your mind easily distracted?
  • Would you be free (within a reasonable period of time) to uproot and move to another part of the world to minister, if God were to call you?
  • When spending time with your spouse or children, are you there 100% or are you just putting in an appearance?
Whether we are ENGAGED or ENTANGLED is a question of focus, values and priorities. It is a question of whether we WANT to invest in the eternal, or simply expend our lives on the temporal.

—Facts of the Matter

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