Undiluted

Most days, you’ll find a quart-size bottle of tea syrup in my refrigerator.  True, not even close to as much sweet tea is consumed as when four guys lived here, but having that tea syrup handy is a good quick-fix gallon. 

 

What things in your life weaken you spiritually?  I can look at the color of my tea to know if it’s weak.  In her book Holiness – The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss writes, “The more we learn about purity and godliness, the more we see the dilution of the Christian life around us.”  That sentence made me gasp!  Within the Church today is an accepted idea and commonplace practice we can piddle in what is unholy yet boast utter loyalty to Christ.  What folly!  Consider this: how do choices in entertainment or immodest dress or embracing cultural values influence godliness in my life?  Do they encourage me in my Christian walk or does Christ-in-me become diluted?  Isaiah’s response when he came face-to-face with Holy God is noteworthy: “And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” (Isaiah 6:5).  I fear a lack of deep intimacy with The Father is what causes me to miss the reality and depth of my sinfulness!  A few times tea syrup was mistaken for tea -- POW!  Oh, that our witness be effective, pure and holy, undiluted before God and the world.  Live undiluted!