snakes and doves
Romans 16.19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
Matthew 10.16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the middle of wolves: therefore be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves.
Romans 12.21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Ephesians 5.11-12 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
Revelation 2.20-26 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.
If you grew up in a really bad neighborhood, “street smarts” would mean being able to get home from school in one piece. Is there such a thing as Kingdom of God street smarts? How much do you have to know about evil to overcome it?
the ten commandments would help to give us a clue. if you’ve already grown up in the world doing whatever the world says to do, you probaly know waaaay more than you need to. i for one have explored all kinds of sin and there really isn’t much to it. Take the word of the Lord. The only thing i have gained from any of those experiances is that the blood of Christ is good.
So true. Light knows nothing about darkness; but when the light shines it overwhelms the darkness, and exposes darkness to be totally empty and powerless.
Matthew 6.22-23 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Luke 11.34-36 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.
Then K.O.G street smarts would be all about being light, and only light. I’m guessing some people might think, “Well what if I’ve already experienced too much darkness?” The truth is that when the light of Christ shines into your life and you give your life to him, you become light - you are now in the light as he is in the light.
One of satan’s primary tricks to take away from this reality is to try to pull on old memories of sin - and pulling on them in a way that convinces us to own them and repeat them. We need to become sooo shrewd and skilled at side-stepping this. The truth is that if you mention the same memories to God (old experiences of sin that you confessed and have been forgiven for), God doesn’t know what you’re talking about! He’s eradicated those sins, separated them as far as the east is from the west, cast them into the depths of the sea; drowned them in the blood of Jesus.
If we are willing to learn from God how to cast down those imaginations (because that is really all they are at this point) - we will find the memory of sin has absolutely no power over us. No matter what you’ve been through, sincerely confessing sin makes you 100% full of light, with no part left darkness >>