Do You Conform to God or to The World?

 Do You Conform to God or to The World? - Nathele Graham - twotug@embarqmail.com There is no doubt at all that this world holds a lot of evil. Too many people blame God for that evil, but that just shows a lack of understanding of Scripture. God has givenus Truth, but most people pick and choose what they want to believe at any given moment. Instead of studying Scripture and knowing God’s heart, God gets blamed for the bad happenings in life. Scripture leaves no room for doubt that it is Satan who deservesthe blame for evil. God created the beautiful Garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve there. He told Adam that if he ate the forbidden fruit, death would become a reality. When Eve chose to speak with Satan, who was in the form of a serpent, she believed hislies over God’s truth. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” Genesis 3:4. That was a lie, but people still seem to believe Satan over God. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shallbe as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5. That was more of Satan’s lies. Eve was deceived, but she had made the mistake of allowing Satan’s words to confuse her. Instead of standing firm on what Adam had said about the fruit (God had told him), shequestioned God’s truth. That always brings trouble. Then, Adam went along with the lie. He was directly told by God not to eat the forbidden fruit, but chose sin. “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceivedwas in the transgression.” 1 Timothy 2:13-14. Whether you are male or female, don’t allow your minds to be corrupted by allowing Satan to twist God’s Truth. Scripture is God’s truth. There is much beauty in this world, and we can thank God for His creation. Sadly, Satan has deceived the weak minded to believe lies. Acclaim for creation is now given tonothing. First there was nothing, and then it exploded. That is a huge lie from Satan, and like the lie about the forbidden fruit, people listen to him and are deceived. “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful;but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts,and creeping things.” Romans 1:21-23. Nature is worshipped. Animals are worshipped. “Mother Nature” is worshipped. What about God? Only God is worthy of our worship and praise. He is patient, but when the creation is continually worshipped instead of the Creator,trouble happens. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,who is blessed for ever. Amen.” Romans 1:24-25. This passage of Scripture goes on to say that homosexual behavior is the result. Not only is that activity an abomination, but it brings disease, and leads to more sin. “Being filled with all unrighteousness,fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers,without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” Romans 1:29-32. Brothers and sisters, if we claim tobe Christians, why do we turn a blind eye to the evil? Evolution is taught in schools, drag queens have story time with children, teachers are teaching children how to hide homosexual urges from parents, furries are allowed to have litter boxes, and so forthand so on. If we claim to be Christians, then we need to study and believe Scripture. None of the ungodly things of the world should be acceptable to Christians. Yet, we keep silence. We don’t want to be known as “haters” and we don’t want to offend anyone.We aren’t to judge, but we are to use Scripture as our guide. Our silence allows people of the world to die in ignorance of God. Shame on us. If someone was about to be hit by a train, we would take action, yet we keep silent as many people die in their sin. When Adam sinned, the evil darkness that Satan promoted seemed more tempting than light of the truth of God. The darkness of sin is great. Look around and you can see theresult of Satan’s evil. Just as we read in the first chapter of Romans, humanity is on a downward spiral. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19.Men loved darkness? That means mankind loves Satan. Christians should be different. We should not conform to the darkness of Satan, but walk in the light of Jesus and His love. “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he thatfolloweth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12. Each one of us must decide who to follow and who we conform our lives to. God wants us to follow and love Him, but loves us enough to give us free will to choose. He toldus what the result of our sin and disobedience would be, but we make our choice, and can’t blame God for the result of our sin. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, andacceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2. If you have confessed that you love Jesus, then you need to turn away from sin and evil, and allow Jesus to transform you into a child of God. Sin will always tempt us, but in those times when the flesh is weak, that’s when we need to pray and ask for God’s strength to resist. Satan was arrogant enough to even tryto tempt Jesus, but do you remember what Jesus did? He answered each temptation by quoting Scripture. Not the twisted Scripture that Satan uses to tempt us, but Jesus used the pure word of God. Jesus was God. “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shallnot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4. Are you tempted to judge others? Are you tempted to let pride inflate your ego so you feel justified in putting others down? Does anger rule your emotions? Noneof these things can be seen in Jesus. When we conform to God rather than to the world, our sin nature will diminish while the light of God will shine through your life. The world and the ways of the world can offer no hope. You may find it easier to conformto the world and the sin found there, but only conforming to God’s ways will give you peace in your soul. There are so many things we see in the world that are opposed to God. We are in a spiritual battle, and Satan doesn’t want you to find joy in your Christianwalk. If you’ve truly accepted Christ, then your salvation is safe, but you need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1. That might take effort on your part, but trust the Holy Spirit to strengthen you. “For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty throughGod to the pulling down of strong holds:) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobediencewhen your obedience is fulfilled.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6. If you keep your mind fixed upon Jesus, and have Scripture memorized, Satan and his minions will have no power over you. Another truth found in Scripture is that wickedness and deception will abound as we draw closer to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble…also known as the Tribulation. Because Christiansseem to be conforming to the darkness of Satan rather than standing firm upon God’s truth, wickedness is able to flourish. Look around and you’ll see that evil is being called good. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20. The world, run by Satan, promotes “gay pride”, abortion, and sexual freedom. This is calling evil, good. Jesus likened the end times to the days of Noah (Luke 17:26) andalso to the days of Lot (Luke 17:28). I would encourage everyone to study, really study, Genesis to understand what truly was happening in Noah’s time and in Lot’s time. Most mainline pastors will teach a man-made story that Seth’s sons married Cain’s daughters,so God destroyed the entire Creation. This is another lie from the father of lies. In Noah’s time, fallen angels were mating with human women and monstrous creatures known as Nephilim were the result. Genetic manipulation is going on today, and Christiansturn a blind eye. In Lot’s time, homosexual activity and desire for “strange flesh” were so evil that God sent fire and brimstone upon Sodom and the surrounding cities. God’s judgment is coming, and Christian’s sleep. Pastors are more interested in ticklingears than in preaching God’s truth. That’s another sign that the end is drawing near. Paul directed the young pastor, Timothy, to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the timewill come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:2-4. Does your pastorspeak God’s truth and encourage the congregation to conform to God? Many pastors don’t want to step on toes so they tell jokes, promote their favorite sport’s team, and give an ear-tickling sermon so as not to upset anyone. Christians accept this and sleep.As bad as the preachers who don’t preach the word of God are, there are ones who embrace the sin of the world and promote it. If you’re sitting in a congregation where the preacher has compromised God’s word in order to conform to the world, then you needto speak up and/or find a congregation that teaches the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. Don’t conform to the world. Do you conform to God or do you conform to the world? It does matter. God bless you all, Nathele Graham