Alright, correct me if I'm wrong, but the world is broken. I was just reading the paper (which somehow is seldom encouraging these days) and found an article on the front page concerning binge drinking, and on the same cover an article about crime increases, but more hurtful still, a central story that read "Honduran military ousts president in coup," and that was just before I could turn the page. I really do have a heart for the people of Honduras after being part of a mission trip there and meeting some amazing people. Unfortunately there has been turmoil within even that ministry we worked with and now it consumes the entire country.
Look around, you see sex idolized, drinking as a solution, being homosexual as an "alternative lifestyle". Its o.k. But it isn't supposed to be. This is not the way this world was supposed to work. When it was set in motion God desired a relationship with him, being blameless before the God of the Universe. In a world where we can't disagree with another person's religion at the risk of being called intollerant. In a world where entire people groups can be made to look like something they are not by the media. In a world where the sex trade is the most expansive it has ever been. In this world, we don't belong. But sometimes we do. If death is the "great equalizer" as Martin Luther calls it, then what seperates us from the world. Hebrews says we are all appointed one time to die and then face judgement. We're going to end up just like the world, dead.
For some that should scare the crap out of you. For others, its merely fact. Romans 12:2 states that we should no longer "conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our minds], so that [we] will be able to test and approve what God's will is..." We are supposed to be different. Do you understand that??? Because frankly sometimes its hard to tell. The old mantra, practice what your preach comes to mind. I'll be the first one to tell you that I stumble and fall constantly. Just last week when I thought I had been doing a good job battling lust I fell yet again. So I'm far from perfect, and I'm not trying to claim that I am anywhere close. But sometimes people take it a step to far. It's going to biblestudy and saying the right thing only to go to parties on the weekend and drink illegally. It's going to church and when the pastor preaches he's always not directing his questions at you. You're ok. It's walking around with the label Christian when you're sleeping with your girlfriend/boyfriend and you don't care what God has to say about it. Some of us are HYPOCRITS! In the words of Casting Crowns we put on our "painted grin" and we hide from the truth, behind a stained glass masquerade.
In a broken world, in a broken time, with broken men, do we dare stand apart? Do we dare do the right thing at the risk of our reputation, at the risk of our friends, at the risk of our lives? So that's my challenge today. Stay apart. Be different than the world. Christ came to usher in a new covenant, a new relationship with God. Now he can sympathize with us like it says in Hebrews 4:14-16. We have a God who understands that the world is corrupt and broken. So why don't we ask him what to do? I mean its only logical right? If you know someone who has the answer why not ask? Or better yet, start with what that all-knowing source has already told us. Let us be a light to the world, like John Winthrop once said - a city on a hill.
This doesn't start with instantly being good, with doing everything right. This starts with simply admiting what we already know. The world is broken, but as my friend Nathan Sifers told me the other day; "Do not fear, God is near, God is here." And it really is that simple, once we start to see the world through God's eyes we too have a desire to see it healed. The only way to bring that healing is to show God's love to the world, to be the hands and feet of Christ enabled by God through the Holy Spirit. That starts small, in everyday life. So be in the world but not of it. Do not conform to the broken state surrounding of you. Be transformed. Renew your mind, get to know the God who created every single man, woman, and child; every plant, every sea; everything on this earth. To Him be the Glory! Amen!
-matt
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