God’s instructions have ALWAYS included NOT buying into the world system.  Being born into Babylon means that we know nothing else–even though the generation that watched it happen has tried to warn everyone, the younger generations always think we know everything.  Now it seems some of my most rewarding and productive conversations are with people my grandmothers’ ages!

But it’s all over the Proverbs and Psalms–don’t envy the wicked for all they have.  Why did I think those verses were just talking about envy? Why did I think they were telling me not to be jealous, not to covet?  There is so much more to them than that–defining them in that way seems insulting to me now   They are actually telling us, “Do not WANT what they have!”

God has been working so hard on helping me redefine my life according to HIS priorities.  I no longer believe I had a “great” life–not that I’m bemoaning it or anything But as I’ve thought about my children having “a great life like I had” or not being able to “have that great life” God has begun asking me, “Who told you it was great?” and “Great by who’s standards?”  He wants something different for us–he has a plan to prosper us and give us hope.  We’re not to want what the wicked have because he has something they will never understand in store for us.

This has been an interesting transformation of thought that I’ve undergone the last few months.  For years I thought, “What will it take for God to be fed up and be done with everything? What is going to be that last straw?”  Now I’m looking around, watching the news, evaluting things and thinking, “I cannot possibly understand the Lord’s infinite mercy and grace.  How can he hold out so long? H ow many chances will he give to man?”

The things of this world are truly temporary. They are eaten by moths, burned in the fire, and never what the salesperson made them out to be. The things of the Lord are eternal and worthy.  It gets much easier to declutter when I realize what (and who) my true treasures are

More easily said than done as any believer in Messiah has found.  Even where you are not of the world in one area I’m sure there is an area where you’re entrenched, whether you realize it or not.  I believe the extent to which someone is entrenched speaks to why Jesus told more people they were not cut out for the Kingdom than he told to come and follow him.

This last year, especially, has been the culmination of years of God extracting me from the world’s system and I’m realizing why I had to go through so many things that I didn’t understand at the time.

This last week I wrestled with a verse I’ve gone to several times and the lightbulb that went off was practically blinded.  Matthew 22:21 “They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”

I’ve always been told this means, “Pay your taxes and pay your tithe.” But when I studied this out I don’t believe that is the point.  In context the Pharisees who came to test him ask if Torah permits paying taxes.  How often does Jesus actually answer the question he’s being asked? Not often at all, I’m finding.  In fact he “perceived their wickedness” and asked why they were tempting Him! He made clear what I’m finding in my own life which is that too often we are asking the WRONG questions!

So looking closer at this  answer I finally asked, “What belongs to the Lord that we’re supposed to give to him?”  Going to the context for this also has some great answers. The telling of the next question asked him by the Sadduccees is all about the Kingdom.  In answer to the question about which of the 7 brothers the woman would be married to in the Kingdom, Jesus answered that God makes it clear, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Then *lightbulb* I realizes . . . WE are that which belongs to God!  WE are what we are to render unto him! Our lives! Lives of living and not dead people.  Lives that are not concerned with issues like money and taxes and what this world says is important.

I’m not at all saying not to tithe since that is instructed in Torah. And I’m not saying not to pay taxes because if you don’t I can’t be there to defend you when you’re prosecuted What I’m saying is this:

There are two kingdoms–that of the world and that of God. The world is for the dead, the Kingdom of God is for the living.  Leave to the world that which is the worlds, give yourself to God!

Which brings me back to the idea of living in the world but not being of it.

I have realized that the pain and anxiety I’ve felt over the years is often rooted in trying to be a righteous and godly person in a system that is not righteous or godly and does not play by God’s rules. It is lawless (there are rules, but they aren’t God’s). And the pain and anxiety I’ve experienced as God has worked to extract me from this world’s system are evidence of where I’m more “of it” than I realized!

If you are reading newspapers and feeling fear, it’s evidence you are more of the world than you may have realized.  If you are thinking about losing your job or not having the retirement you’ve invested in then you are more of the world than you may have thought.  If you are looking at the headlines and trying to figure out how to fix the world’s problems then you’re trying to fix the world’s system and we are told in Scripture that it is doomed.

Focus on God and His Kingdom, learn what it means to live in His Kingdom, learn what to do in His Kingdom, and practice what it will be like in His Kingdom–the Kingdom of the living and not the dead–and then you be in the world without getting caught up in being of it.

If we could ever be so busy being in His Kingdom that we didn’t worry about the details of the world’s kingdom . . . WOW! Can you imagine that?