Kept by God

John 17:11

The Lord does not ask riches for them, or honors, or worldly influence, or great preferments, but he does most earnestly pray that they may be kept from evil, separated from the world, qualified for duty, and brought home safely to heaven.

marcus rainsford

Numbers 6:24-26

1. You are Kept in Unity

John 17:11
Romans 8:37-39

“God is in control, but don’t lean on a shovel and pray for a hole."
 -  Tommy Nelson

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.”
 - A.W. Tozer

2. You are Kept in the Faith

John 17:12
John 10:28-29
Romans 11:29
1 John 2:19

“The example of Judas show us how near a man may come to Christ and yet be lost.”
 - A.W. Pink

John 17:13

3. You are Kept From the World

John 17:14-15a
Philippians 1:21-24
 
 “We must not become, as John Stott puts it, “a rabbit-hole Christian”—the kind who pops his head out of a hole, leaves his Christian roommate in the morning and scurries to class, only to frantically search for a Christian to sit by (an odd way to approach a mission field). Thus he proceeds from class to class. When dinner comes, he sits with  the Christians in his dorm at one huge table and thinks, “What a witness!” From there he goes to his all-Christian Bible study, and he might even catch a prayer meeting where the Christians pray for the non-believers on his floor. (But what luck that he was able to live on the only floor with seventeen Christians!) Then at night he scurries back to his Christian roommate. Safe! He made it through the day and his only con- tacts with the world were those mad, brave dashes to and from Christian activities. What an insidious reversal of the biblical command to be salt and light to the world.” 
 - Rebecca Manley Pippert

 * Relativism
 * Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
 * Consumerism
 * Nationalism
 * Political-ism
 
 “when the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first.... It should not be our ambition to be as much like everybody else as we can, though we happen to be Christian.... Our ambition should be to be like Christ, the more like Him the better, and the more like Him we become, the more we shall be unlike everybody who is not a Christian.” 
 - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

4. You are Kept From the Evil One

John 17:15
Matthew 6:13
1 Peter 5:8
John 8:44
Revelation 12:9-10
1 John 1:9
1 John 3:1
1 John 4:7

God guide me. May the eye of God look before me, the ear of God hear me, the word of God speak for me. May the hand of God protect me, the way of God lie before me, the shield of God defend me, the host of God save me. May Christ shield me today. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit, Christ when I stand, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. Amen.

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