Lesley begins this series on ministry marriage by looking at the Bible.
I am going to begin by looking at Romans 12:1-2;
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer 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.
Paul acknowledges in these few verses that there is a pressure from outside the Christian, from culture, from the media, from the world. In Paul’s terminology – this present evil age - pressures us to conform to itself in ways that are contrary to what God desires of us.
J B Phillips puts it this way, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” Satan is exerting pressure on us all the time, saying ‘think this way, adopt these attitudes, behave like this; because you live in this world, you live in this culture. Its too lonely out there on a limb, thinking Christianly. Conform! Go on! Be one of us!’ And he is oh so subtle.
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