Same Ol', Same Ol' - Ez. 20:32

From 9/3/2007 reading:

"You say, 'We want to be like the nations all around us...'" Ez. 20:32

God created for himself a special people, a people intended to be special and different, a people set-apart. But this people didn't want to be different, they wanted to be the same. They wanted to conform to the world around them--party and prosper, and come to God on THEIR terms. So God punished them. The message is the same today for us Christians. We serve a jealous God--He wants us for himself; so much so that he sent his son to die a brutal death so we could have a relationship with him. Yet, all too often we treat him with the same contempt the Jews did--wanting to come to him on our terms instead of his. We must think he won't mind... Ha! What would be making us think this?? And why would we want conformity to a fallen world when God created something SO special? I think it is the "frog in a kettle" syndrome. Conformity takes awhile, just like it takes water to boil. And we are experts at rationalizing and compromising. Over time, if we are not careful, we will have adopted much of the world around us without even realizing it (maybe, or maybe we realize it and do it anyway), and all of a sudden look much different than God ever intended us to look. We got "cooked" and didn't even realize it-- even though Satan may not have won our souls, he has effectively taken us out of the game. Brilliant strategy!--see Screwtape Letters.

God, why is it SO much easier to conform than to live for you? Please give me strength. Thank you for your love and mercy.

Today's reading: Ez. 20-21; Ps. 111; Rev. 8