Week Two, 2024

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 12:2).

We see it all around us. People conform their behavior to fit the culture of today. Conformity can be both good and bad. It can be good because it helps society to cooperate and function in an orderly way. But it can also be bad when conforming leads to bad outcomes and people stop thinking for themselves.

How does conformity occur today? The tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or in society as a whole and may result from subtle unconscious influences or from direct and overt social pressure.

Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. People often choose to conform to society rather than to pursue personal desires – because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than forging a new one.

It comes in many ways:

▪ Peer Pressure: Teenagers engaging in risky behaviors because it’s deemed ‘cool’.

▪ Fashion Trends: People wearing a specific style of clothing because it’s currently popular in society.

▪ Corporate Culture: Employees adopting certain behaviors or attitudes to fit into the prevailing culture of their workplace or social groups.

The bottom line is that people in today’s world choose to adapt to the ways of the world when the Bible tells us to conform to the ways of the Word. Their identity becomes the identity of the world.

According to the Bible, Jesus is our identity, and He lives His life through us, so our chief purpose in this life is to be like Him. In our daily walk with Jesus, we learn from Him and His spirit is helping us do His will over our own will. Thus, we are becoming more like Jesus. This is what it means to be conformed to His image. How do we do that?

Romans 12:2 answers the question, ”How should we respond to God’s great mercy to us?” The answer is to become living, breathing sacrifices, using our lives up in service to God as an ongoing act of worship. That’s what makes sense. This is not a means to earn salvation, but the natural response we should have to being saved. To do this, we will need to break free from the me-first pattern of the world and have our minds changed in order to be able understand what God wants. Then we will know how to live. How will you conform your life?

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM EDGAR APONTE:

▪ You need to make a decision. Sometimes this decision will be difficult, and some people will even try to deceive you, but trust Jesus and obey His Word.

▪ There is only one door and one road that leads to eternal life, and that is Jesus. Trust and keep trusting Him!

▪ Beware of false teachers and do not be deceived by them. Exercise discernment!

▪ Our obedience to God’s Word shows that we are God’s children. Obey your good Heavenly Father!

▪ The wide gate is whatever pleases you.

▪ We do not follow the world, but rather do what the Bible says. That is the narrow gate. There is only one gate and one road to follow and that is Jesus. He is absolute and his way is narrow.

▪ There are not many ways. There is only one way and that is Jesus. No one comes to God, but through Jesus.

▪ Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 25 have warnings against false teachers.

▪ The greatest threat to the Christian church is not persecution, but rather false teaching.

▪ Obedience is evidence of salvation, but not a requirement.

▪ Only what Jesus did will save us.

▪ Trusting Jesus is not an intellectual opinion. It is the only option.

▪ Conviction without commitment is incomplete.

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The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. – Psalm 19:1-2 NLT

In our busy lives, all too often we miss them. In the normal day to day, we tend not to see them. But when we stop… take a breath… and really look, we see them everywhere. All around us are the fingerprints of God.

We see them when He paints the sky of the setting sun.

We see them in the explosiveness of the rising sun from darkest night.

We can see them in the mountain peaks and in the details of the smallest leaf.

We can see them on the ocean shore and in the details of the smallest shell.

We can see them when we can see forever on a starry starry night.

We can see them in the beauty of thunderclouds building in the distance or in lightning striking over the water during a late evening storm.

We can see those same fingerprints in the birth of a baby…

in the flight of a butterfly…

in eyes of a child…

in the life of a saint.

Truth is, God’s fingerprints are all around us and all over us. The Master Creator molded and made us and everything around us.

Let’s stop for a moment and breathe… and take off our worldly goggles and see the world around us. See the Lord’s creation. See the fingerprints of God.

Let’s stop for a moment and praise Him for His imagination and creativity.

Praise Him for being the Great Creator. And thank Him for the reminders that are the Fingerprints of God. Marty Stubblefield

— o —

In my life time, we have seen marriage redefined. Over 63 million babies murdered by abortionist since 1973. Deviant sexual behavior not only tolerated, but legalized and celebrated. Drag queens performing shows for elementary school students. Gender confusion with men thinking they are women and women deciding to be men. And too many religious leaders either remaining silent on the moral and spiritual issues of the day or even denying the percepts and principles of Biblical morality.

Our age is characterized by the summary statement of the period of the Judges when the writer said, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). The Preacher Man

QUOTES YOU CAN USE

A negative mind will never give you a positive life. Snoopy

Remember just because you went to college doesn’t make you any smarter than anyone else. Common sense doesn’t come with a degree.

Being hardened by sin, you find yourself doing things that you once swore you would never do. Dan Shock

The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.

In these changing times, we need to be anchored to the unchanging Christ. Norman Vincent Peale

When confronted with the truth, cowards and sinners will change the subject and pretend to not hear the truth. Don’t change the subject on me. Dwight Short

In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. John F. Kennedy

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share. W. Clement Stone

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. William Arthur Ward

We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count. Neal A. Maxwell

Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now. A.W. Tozer

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. Henry Ward Beecher

Careful for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for anything. Dwight L. Moody

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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