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Not of This World

    Why do we hold ourselves to the measuring stick of the world when we were never meant to be like the world? We get turned off by churches that seem to be doing things too "supernaturally" or different because it's not what we are used to-- it's not like the world. Can't we just look like the world, but still go to Heaven? Friends, that is not the lifestyle we were called into.

    We cannot continue to live like the world when we have Jesus. His Kingdom is far greater than the one you were living in before. This world belongs to Satan and if you haven't accepted Christ then you are living under his control. Jesus gives us citizenship to Heaven and we live in that reality even while we are here on earth. With Heaven comes love, healing, restoration, peace, joy, and self-control among many other beautiful things.

    However, we cannot continue on as the world would and still reap all the benefits of Jesus' Kingdom. That is what Albert Einstein defined as insanity-- "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Live radically for Jesus because that is what draws people to want to know Him. Sooner or later, we all get tired of this world and that's when we find that Jesus offers much, much more. Don't be afraid to stand out and show the world the beauty of a life dedicated to Jesus.


John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (ESV)

 John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (ESV)

 John 17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (ESV)

 Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (ESV)

 Romans 12:2 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. (ESV)

 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (ESV)

 Philippians 3:21-22 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (ESV)

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