God reveals himself to me more and more it seems. Truly, we should offer him a service with all awe and reverence, for truly, he is a consuming fire.

I was listening to some Paul Washer sermons today. God spoke many things, as usual. But I really liked one of the things he said. If you want more of God, then you must have less of the world. Its simple. Its obvious. But its overlooked.

Do you want the power of God working in your life? Do you want to live a holy and blameless life in all peace and godliness? Do you want God to speak great things to you? Of course. What Christian wouldn't? But there's a very big fact that we seem to overlook. The more you want of God, the less you're going to be able to have of other things. All of the aforementioned things are the result of direct communion with God. With time spent in prayer and reading and meditating on his word. On supplication and worship (and I don't mean singing songs worship, I mean true worship).

I will make a speculation. I'm guessing that you don't devote every waking minute to the aforementioned things. So we must divide our time between God and everything else in life. We have two ways we can fill our time; with God, or with the world and the things of the world.

This makes for a very simple equation. If you want more of God, you simply devote more time to God. We wonder why God isn't changing us in amazing ways, why he isn't working miracles in us lives, why he isn't using us in powerful testimony of his power. Its because we don't give him enough of our time. Its quite simple: if you want God, you give him your time. If you don't, you don't.

Well that sounds a bit harsh doesn't it? God time or world time? Growing or not? Black and white? I suppose it does sound a bit harsh, so let's just skim the surface a little more.

God time is when you're praying, reading your Bible, meditating on God, talking with him, supplicating him, pleading with him, worshiping him. The more time you devote to God, the more time you desire to spend with him. He truly is a consuming fire. He will lead you, guide you, break you, and bring you to the image of his son Christ. These are the things of God. Mourning, rejoicing, worshiping, running, sprinting, dwelling on all God's attributes and relinquishing all control over your own life; offering it up to God for his use. Giving God your very headspace, your thoughts, everything.

So we can do these good things for God. Let us glance at some of the worldly things we can spend our time and headspace on. We can eat and drink. Granted, these things are necessary, but we needn't think about them. God will provide if we trust. How about clothing? Shoes, shirts, dresses, jeans, suits, ties, blouses, socks. What eternal value is in these things? None. God will provide, we need not fill any headspace with these things. What about games? These entities are created for pleasure and pastime. Their end is pleasure, there is no other end. Computer games, video games, arcade games. We see no eternal value here. Movies? Purely for pleasure and pastime. No purpose except for human pleasure. What else would you do with that time, after all?

Music becomes a bit sticky, but I will touch on the topic. Even music is for the pleasure of man. Now, some might say it is for the purpose of worship. That is possibly true of hymns and some contemporary worship music. Not so with any other type of music. First off, we can discard all secular music. The point of that is purely for pleasure. Even classical music. What about Christian rock? Well, to tell the truth, most of the lyrics have absolutely no value. And the songs that have great lyrical worth are blotted out by blaring guitars and banging drums and yelling singers. Any meaning that the words have is engulfed by the pure passion behind the music. The passion goes into the music, not the words. Just try listening to any rock song you really like, and you'll find yourself pumping your head and getting all into the music. You won't feel God in that emotion though, if you dig down deep. The same thing is of classical and orchestral music. Its music merely for music and pleasure's sake.

I have only touched on the topic of modern entertainment and worldly things to do, so don't hold this list as exhaustive, it is only an example.

I am guessing that you will have formulated this thought by now… "Pleasure isn't bad! God wants me to enjoy myself! That's why he gave us all these gifts!"

I never said pleasure was bad. I am not condemning it. I am only trying to shed some light on all the worldly things we partake of, and all the godly things we do not. God will tell you how much of the world is alright and how much isn't. Personally, I would say that we, as Christians, should have no desire for personal pleasure on this earth. I believe that our sole purpose is to glorify God, to present our bodies (our physical selves) as living and holy sacrifices, to present our souls and bodies as tools for God. I would submit to you that God is a consuming fire, and that friendship with the world is adultery to God's Holy Spirit. We cannot love the things of this world. Yes, it is necessary to come in contact with them, yes we should not try to remove ourselves from this world. But we cannot, as Christians, love anything in the world.

How do you know if you love something of the world, or if it has no hold on you? If God told us to stop doing anything or start doing anything, we would have no regrets whatsover, but would leave that thing praising God, or we would start that thing praising God. We keep pure hearts. We keep poor spirits. This is the Christian life. Relenquishing everything for the sake of Christ, not looking back in the process.