Be different

Yesterday I mentioned that the ground underneath my spiritual feet is rumbling with change.  Today I will give you an example.  Three days is a row, three different places, three different people: I got the same message, even with the scripture included.  Here it is:

Romans 12:1-2

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 

So God wants us to be different.  Ask yourself the question, as I am asking myself the question today:
Am I really different? 

The scripture above refers to everyday life, life in the office included.  Let's ponder on a few questions and trust Holy Spirit to speak into our hearts as we do.

• Do we sound different or is our language the same as that of the unsaved?  
• Do we react differently when times get tough?  Can people see we have a 'handle' to hold on to that they possible do not have?
• Do we react differently when people do stupid things?
• What do they see in our eyes when they look at us?  Do they see unconditional love and acceptance, only made possible by God in us?  Or do they see the human judgement and rejection we all so easily dish out?

All of the above can be summed up in one question:
Do we bear the fruit of the Spirit according to Galatians 5:22? 

If the answer is no, we should ask ourselves whether we really have the Spirit inside us.

To be continued....