Informed, Formed & Transformed#
There are two measuring instruments that have similar names but different functions. One is a thermometer: it reflects its environment, telling you how hot or cold it is. The other is a thermostat: it affects its environment, it can alter how hot or cold it is.
Followers of Jesus are to be thermostats and not thermometers. We are to affect our environment not just reflect it.
This doesn’t mean we become weird or eccentric. Beware of becoming so suspicious of surrounding culture that we quarantine ourselves from it, thus have little or no impact upon it. We are not to erect walls around us to keep us safe, but build bridges that enable us to connect with the world in which we live.
Be in the world, but not of the world.
However, there is the opposite danger of becoming so immersed in our culture that our distinctiveness is compromised.
As we offer our whole selves to God each day, we will be shown by Him how to live and speak in such a way that makes a positive difference to wherever it is He places us. And so we pose this question to ourselves: “is my family, my neighborhood, my community group or workplace a better place because I am in it and because Jesus is in me?”#
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
Today's Soul Snippet:
There is always a path of righteousness to walk on any plain of pain.
#Today's SoulSnack is written by Rev. David Reay. It contains light SoulSupply edits