Be Not Conformed To This Church.....

Romans 12:2 BE conformed to this CHURCH, BE transformed by the renewal of your ACTIONS, that by testing you may discern what is the will of MAN, what is good and acceptable and CHURCHY.
Of course that is not how that verse reads in scripture, but if it was, most churches would be following that text perfectly.

I've been serving in teen ministries now for almost thirteen years and I've seen the above "verse" played out on several different occasions. This is usually the way it goes down. A teen comes into the youth ministry, either on their own or by way of their parents dragging them there. We tell them that they are sinners that they need to get saved or else they are going to burn in an eternal hell separated from God. Then we lead them through some silly prayer that may mean absolutely nothing to them at any sort of level. Then we congratulate and welcome them to the family of God, all without any sort of repentance on their part. Then the weirdness begins.

Once their "saved", we tell them all the things that they need to do to be in right standing with God. As if Jesus' grace, mercy and blood shed on the cross wasn't enough. We tell them, "OK, here is how you need to act", "This is what you need to do", "Here is how you should dress" and "here is a big, thick, heavy, black, 1611 King James Bible, the only Bible you should ever read". We tell them these things and they assume that God must want them to do all this because those who told them have been in church all their lives, and they should know.

Here is the problem with all this, they have been conformed to a pattern of behavior but have not been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. There has been no true repentance or transformation of their hearts. We would rather get them to the point of being "good church folk" then just preach the gospel into their lives and let God renew their hearts, souls and minds.

If this continues out to adulthood, eventually we'll have churches full of really good and moral people on their way to hell.

If you're a Pastor or teacher, please let me beg you not to add to the gospel. This does not mean that we can't or shouldn't have some sort of standards. Or have some sort of idea of what is acceptable or moral behavior. We just need to be sure that we keep the gospel primary and let the power it holds be the power that transforms lives.

Jonah Chapter 2

This past week in our Bible study, we continued on into chapter 2 of the book of Jonah. When we last left our "hero" he had just been tossed into a raging sea. Now we find Jonah praying to God as he in the hell that is the digestive system of a great fish.

Observations from Jonah chapter 2:
-It's not until Jonah is in circumstances beyond his control that he finally calls out to God
-Jonah knew that Gods sovereignty was displayed through the mariners by being tossed into the sea
-Jonah compares his situation to being near death
-He seems to know that he will not die and will on day look upon or pray towards the temple once more
-Jonah knows he has done nothing to deserve being rescued but knows that God has extended much grace to him through this time
-Jonah prays against those that do not recognize God as the one true God
-Jonah finally decides to sacrifice himself to Gods purpose and recommits his life to him
-He declares that salvation does indeed belong to God and has been granted to him by God
-Jonah is vomited out by the fish

Conclusion:
Jonahs pride gets in the way of acknowledging that the saving grace that was extended to him was the same grace that was extended to the mariners. His prayer seems to be sincere for only as long as the situation that he is in lasts. Jonahs prayer my have been sincere but it seems to lack much, if any, repentance. That fact that Jonah committed to keep his vow to God but lacked repentance my be the very reason God chose the method he did to release Jonah from the fish. Confession without true repentance is vomit in the sight of God.