Set Apart?

I watched some of the Super Bowl yesterday. The first couple of series anyway. Then something began to grate at me. What was I watching? And why was I watching it?

My wife and I used to watch the game just for the commercials and maybe that's what's bothering me this year - the commercials. Ads are designed to sell things. Companies want to make their products / services look appealing so we will want to buy them. But what are they selling? And why?

I think if it was just another football game, this game would have been a good one to watch. Two great teams, two good coaches, playing their hearts out. But then, in creeps "The World." Politics, luxury cars, fantasy movies . . . Mr. Peanut.

And the half-time show. Oh my. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira? I don't have to tell you what THEY were selling. I heard it was just shy of a strip tease show. I was glad I bugged out in the first quarter. I wonder how many impressionable kids watched the show?

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." - Romans 12:2

If we are  to be transformed, how are we to do that? I think it's through reading the Bible and through prayer. Listening for that "still, small voice" and receiving God's Holy Spirit within us. Not by wallowing in worldly things.

The more we read and learn, the more our eyes are opened. We move closer to God and farther away from "the world" when we follow God's Holy Spirit and His leading.

We are Christians. We are called to be Holy, which means to be "set apart." And perhaps that's a good question for us this post Super Bowl Monday morning. Are we set apart? Are we holy?

Are we Christians?

I'm not picking on any Christians for watching the game (Yes, I am). I watched some of it. But I AM asking this question. WHY were we watching the game? For the football? For the commercials? For the halftime show? Did any of those things make us holy? Set apart from the rest of the world? The world we are not supposed to be like? Probably not.

Lord, help us not to conform to this slowly sinking world. We do the things we say we shouldn't do. We are no better than the rest of the unbelieving world. We should not be part of this world. We are YOURS! Help us act like it. Please!

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God." - 2 Corinthians 6:14,16

Forgive Me - Tenth Avenue North