Articles
Being Different Is A Good Thing
Discussing the hot topic of the day is like touching the 3rd rail in a subway system (it can kill you!), and yet, we are in a world surrounded by people caught up in these, and all of these situations affect us.
You pick one, any of those that dominate the news cycle. Sometimes it is something that we as Christians know full well is wrong, scripture clearly and consistently teaches against it. Maybe the thing in and of itself isn't wrong, but by doing it, it causes anger, resentment, retaliation, opposition. Maybe it is one of those things that just goes against everything we stand for, and we just can't understand how people can believe it or defend it. Maybe it is actual opposition to God, and what we support based on our belief.
I used to have a bit of difficulty understanding what it meant to be different from the world, because those around me in this small town, in a conservative part of the state, were not that much different than me. But now that the world is in the palm of our hands, it's easy to see just how different we truly are.
Being different is viewed as bad, by those in the world. They want us to conform to their way of thinking, in the hopes that we will then all be united, and live in one big happy world. Their view is distorted on so many levels. What we need to know is that we are called to be different. That's part of our calling, and if we fail to be different, we eventually fall into the trappings that we see our nation in today. Scripture gives us several warnings about this, and they are clear and easy to understand. Here is just one today, to remind us that we are different.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." 1 John 2:15-17
