Christians are non-conformists, It's in our DNA!

Verse of the Week: Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This is a pretty heavy verse and needs to be looked at from several different directions. Key words are conform and transformed, which are put together as opposites or as thou shalt not and thou shalt.

We "shalt not" conform. See, this verse alone tells us that we Christians are non-conformists, and this is certainly not a bad thing! To what we are not supposed to conform is "the pattern of this world." 1 John 2:15 says "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Wow! This seems tough.

John goes on to define the things in the world as "...the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does." That helps. This reminds me that we are supposed to be in the world and not of it, which I constantly have to remember--in not of, in not of. 

So how do we accomplish this non-conformism. I hope we do this daily when we first wake, by asking God to reveal to us his plan for the day. Then, throughout the day,  we can be mindful of his plan when certain opportunities arise to be IN the world and flee from them. I'm thinking of things like exchanging jokes in poor taste, passing along inappropriate emails, flirting with someone other than your spouse, etc., etc. You fill in the blanks, but the idea is not to engage in things that are OF the world. I ask myself, "Would this glorify God?" If the answer is no, then I don't do it.

Tomorrow, I'll go over the key to not conforming, and that's found in the second half of the verse, where we are called to a supernatural transformation.

On a personal note, some have wanted to view the blog I created while Pam and I were in NYC. You can go to jaypamnewyork.blogspot.com and find out more about what we did. Enjoy.