In the World but Not of It

                     "I have given and delivered to them Your Word (message); and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world - do not belong to the world - [just] as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil [one].  They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them- purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy - by the Truth.  Your Word is Truth."  John 17:14-17 Amplified

        We are to be IN the world but not OF it.  We need Godly walls/boundaries to know the difference between being in the world and impacting it, and crossing that boundary and being of the world and it impacting us- our thought life, actions, attitudes, ideas, and standards.  

       If we are in the world and its influence, and ‘eating of its delicacies’, more than in the Word and its washing, we are bound to be pulled into its practices and thought patterns without even being aware of it.  

“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

       Keep watch over the door of my lips.

Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice deeds of wickedness
with men who do iniquity
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.” 

Psalm 141:3,4

        As a result of not setting up boundaries, are we, as the body of Christ, tainted by the world?  Have you made a covenant with your eyes, to guard you as to what you watch, (Job 31:1) and asked God to put a guard over your mouth, to keep watch over the door of your lips?  

Be cleansed by the Word of Truth.