TRANSFORM – DON’T CONFORM
2 Chronicles 15:3-7 (NIV)
3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. 4 But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. 5 In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. 6 One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. 7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”
When Jesus Christ comes again, we won’t have to worry about transforming culture, because He will set up His Kingdom rule. But meanwhile, we’ve got a world to reach for Him and for our children and grandchildren who are coming along behind us. We’ve got to hand them some kind of world.
So what is the role of the Christian in society? The Bible has a lot to say about that. One passage is found in Jeremiah 29:4-11 which illustrates this foundational principle: Society is transformed when God’s people execute HIS STRATEGY in history. The only way to make the world a better place is for Christians to get busy BEING people of the world. Say what?!?? I don’t mean worldly, but people involved in history in a Bible-centered, Christ-centered way.
The Prophet Jeremiah was writing to the Jews in exile in Babylon. The question was . how they were supposed to in that kind of environment. Well, the first thing they needed to do was to regain their spiritual clarity.
Babylon was a pagan city. It had no fear of God – a lot like American culture today. But just as the pagans around us are not the real problem, so the Babylonians were not Israel’s real problem. In verse 4, God says, “The reason you are in this mess is because I sent you there. And the reason I sent you there is because you forgot ME.”
See, God delivered Israel to the Babylonians in 597 B.C. because His people had become pagan. So God said, “since you want to be pagan, I’ll send you to live with the pagans.” It was the failure of God’s people to be His distinct, unique people to judge them. This was an old problem, as 2 Chronicles 15 reveals. See above scripture)
Wisdom would teach us, (an each one of us needs to learn it for ourself) “If God is your problem, then GOD is your only solution. It doesn’t matter whom you elect or what programs you start, if we as God’s people lose our spiritual perspective. We have to see that GOD has placed us here for a reason. Earth is not just a place to wait for a ride to heaven.
With our upcoming national elections just a little over two months away, It is not too early to seek God’s face, be sure our spiritual houses are in order, digest how God is moving and vote biblical values and our God-directed conscience. This is an important time in America’s history.
Think About it………..
When the church fails to be the unique people of God, it leaves a hole in the spiritual “ozone layer,” and the culture gets burned by the effects of sin.