All three areas, worldliness, the lusts of the flesh, and self-will must be dealt with rigorously until they are totally removed from our personality. These all are forms of idolatry.

The first area, worldliness, has to do with our entanglement with the things of the world. Because the American culture is so rich and varied the believer is sorely tempted to become involved with money, lust, violence, entertainment, and witchcraft to name a few of the problems.

The Apostle Paul warned us that no soldier of Christ is to become entangled in the world but is to endure hardness. Yet this is not always taught in the churches. Perhaps because of the extreme emphasis on church growth the pastors are careful not to make strong demands on the believers. To tell an American believer that he is to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus, may drive him or her from the assembling. Is this true?

American believers to a great extent are more heavily involved in the world than they should be. God says to love not the world neither the things that are in the world. Whoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God, the Bible says. Yet we go right on with our involvement supposing that God has changed His mind.

We are in the world but not of the world. The problem in America is that of preventing the interesting things of the world from robbing us of a close walk with the Master. It is very easy to do! Money, lust, and entertainment are carrying the day with most churchgoers, I'm afraid.

How do we remove worldliness from our personality? We get baptized in water, if we haven't already done so, assigning our personality to the cross with Christ and rising again in the new life of the Kingdom of God. Then we read our Bible and pray every day, assembling on a regular basis with fervent believers.

It should be obvious to those around us that we are not "one of them." We are different. We belong to the Lord Jesus. We are not hypocrites, we genuinely are walking in the Lord and inviting whoever will to join us.

Would you believe there are many New Agers and many witches out there who are waiting to see someone who is more than a casual churchgoer, who really knows the Lord? People are hungry for God in America. They are not rejecting the Lord Jesus, they are rejecting what they see in the churches!

We of the churches criticize the New Agers, the witches, the homosexuals, the liberals, and many other people. But the fault lies with us. We are not showing the world the depth of spiritual reality there is in the Lord Jesus.

The world of witchcraft, drugs, familiar spirits, psychedelic lights, mantras, attempt to give the illusion of spiritual depths and wonders. But behind this pseudo-paradise are dens of goblin creatures waiting to scratch and bite once they are uncovered. The beautiful exterior masks the burning fires of endless torment. Be not deceived! It is as I have told you!

In the Lord Jesus there are true depths, true wonders, true beauty, and one glory leads to another, world without end.

To be continued.