For those who confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Philippians 4⁸ –  

Though I had read the verse of Scripture many times before, while visiting a church in the fall of 1991 an older man whom I was talking with began to share Philippians 4⁸ with me. But this time the words would have a lasting impact. He turned the pages of his well-worn Bible to the passage and started to read, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Closing his Bible he said, “So then we could say that whatsoever things are not true, whatsoever things are not pure, whatsoever things are not lovely… put such things out of your life.”

When I arrived to my house that night I opened up my Bible to look back over the passage. After reading it a few times I found myself beginning to scan the room that I was sitting in, asking if the items that my eyes fell upon were true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report… Could I use some of the things I was seeing to praise the Lord with? Right off I knew that some of my possessions had to go. As I tossed many things into the trashcan, an instant release flooded over me. I took those items to a dumpster that very night so I wouldn’t catch myself trying to dig anything out later the next day.

         As the days passed I found myself walking in more freedom and fullness of the Spirit than I had ever experienced before. I put more things out of my life and I had a new standard set for the things I purchased. The empty spots left were filled with more time for Scripture reading and new songs which I lifted up to the Lord. My praise and worship times became richer, and the Lord’s voice became much clearer to me.

I have never been one to try to push my personal experiences with God onto others, so I kept these events to myself. For God may speak to one man through a burning bush and another through the stillness of the air. However, over time the Lord would lead me to share Philippians 4⁸ with many of the people I discipled. Although I saw many people set free by its message, the response of the “church” was sometimes startling.

While serving in Nigeria (West Africa), I shared Philippians 4⁸ one afternoon with a group of young people. In doing so I didn’t name specific items for them to remove from their lives. Instead I simply gave a general description saying, “Look through your book collection, the pictures and posters on your walls, clothing, music—search your heart to see if you have any misplaced loves there… and if these things don’t stand up to Philippians 4⁸, then they must go.” 

One of the boys in the group that day had been going through a rough time spiritually. His parents lived in the bush serving as missionaries and he lived in a boarding hostel in the city so he could attend school there. He had been making headway spiritually over the previous few months, so it was not that surprising when I found that he had cleaned out a great deal of junk from his room after returning from the Bible study. With all of the things which he felt no longer belonged in his life now stuffed into a box, he asked if he could set them in the hostel parents’ apartment. 

A week or so later his parents came to the city to visit their children. The boy was still in school when they reached, so they stopped in to talk with the mother of the hostel who was also a fellow missionary. One of her first questions to the boy’s parents was what she was to do with the box of stuff that he had placed in her family’s apartment, adding that she understood that he was getting rid of them.

Mom and Dad looked through the box…  “Is this not the shirt that he had me buy for him the last time we were in the States?” the mother asked.

As the boy’s father came to some of the music that had been placed in the box he thought, “Well if my son does not want this then I will take it to listen to for myself.”

When the boy returned to the hostel from school, there stood his parents with lots of questions.

“Can I have this music that you are throwing out?” the father asked. 

“Is it ok if we give these t-shirts to your brother?” asked the mother.

The young man sat in my house telling me the story, adding that he had taken those things back into his room since his parents didn’t see anything wrong with them (after all, they too were missionaries). All I could really do was sit and listen. How sad it was to see so little regard in the parents’ hearts as to the reason for why their son had removed those things from his life. Not long after that event the boy’s life started going downhill. Instead of just returning to where he had been before, he drifted into new sins and a much deeper pit.

About six months later I was in the United States sitting outside a restaurant with another group of young people. One of the boys there told me how he had been feeling spiritually oppressed in his bedroom and about how he was having a great deal of trouble with nightmares. In my spirit the Lord started to show me things in the boy’s room which were opening doorways for demons to disturb him through. After speaking with another youth leader, I shared Philippians 4⁸ with him and encouraged him to put his possessions to the test. Meanwhile a friend of his had also heard the challenge and decided do the same in his life.

That same weekend the boys came to me with their cars full of things which they felt the Lord telling them to get rid of. Each of them had acted independently, only coming together in deciding that they wanted to burn the things and that they wanted me to go with them. I chose a safe place for the burning and we were off. One of the boys insisted that another friend come along. I really didn’t have a good feeling about this and expressed such, but the boy was called to join us just the same.

As the two boys pulled items from their cars to toss into the pile to burn, the third boy stood by commenting on some of the things that caught his eye. “But that’s a new CD! That’s “Christian” music! Didn’t you just buy that t-shirt?” The other two seemed to be quite content with their decision, though I could not help but to wonder what the third boy was thinking.

By the time I made it to church that weekend it had already gone around that I had made the two boys burn all of their things, “even some ‘Christian’ music.” No one ever asked me about the specifics of what had happened. It seemed that they had all made up their minds. The pastor even told one person, “I have seen this kind of thing before,” adding that he was going to put an end to it. And with that the pitchforks and torches came out. My days at that church were numbered.

My heart sank. I had not told the boys what to get rid of, nor did I tell them how to dispose of it all. This had been a good thing, and yet the “church” was against it and me! Their ears were closed, so there was nothing for me to do but to pray. In the end only one of the boys stood by his decision, and to this day he is walking a godly path.

In the 19^th chapter of Acts, the new Believers in Ephesus came together to burn their books of magic. When Girolamo Savonarola preached to the people of Florence, Italy in the late 1400’s, we are told that the people stopped singing their crude songs and began singing hymns. They forsook the carnivals and vanities in which they had indulged, and they made huge fires out of their masks, wigs, worldly books, obscene pictures, and other things of the kind. This is what a real revival looks like! Savonarola, however, was later burned to death on a stake by the Roman Catholic Church. So we see how often times the organized church reacts to such events.

All through Scripture we are given the picture of putting away the things of this world to follow the Lord. Joshua urged the children of Israel, “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD” Joshua 24¹⁴. And in the book of Judges (chapter 6), Gideon pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the grove that was next to it. Both men took bold stands for God and both were used greatly by Him.

         Have you examined the articles that you hold on to? How do they stand up to the Word of God? How do you use the money which the Lord has placed in your care? When He comes to collect what is rightfully His, will He find those talents to have been used wisely?

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God,” John 3^19-21.

Return to Articles page.