Devotional - 98-11-23 - Minor Mutations are No Public Threat

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed

The Hanford Neculear Complex in Richland, Washington made the comforting announcement that there is, "No Public Threat" from the radioactive flies that are found around the site's garbage. Thankfully the flies only carry a "small" amount of radiation and, after all, they can't travel very far anyway. The atomic mutations are supposed to be "very minor".

It is not often that one can take flies as a metaphor for the Christian life, but in this case maybe it is possible. Just as the flies are changed and being changed in the above news account, so also Christians are changed or being changed in Christ and through Christ. But sadly, just as the flies are seen as, "no public threat" because the changes are so minimal, so also it is with many Christians. Christ makes so little difference in their lives that any changes Christ has brought are only minor, and the results of this transformation are almost altogether un-noticed.

This should not be so with us. It certainly was not so with the examples we have been given in New Testament. Every disciple exemplifies for us a transformed life. Paul shows us the depth and costs that such a transformation can entail. Even in the early converts to the Christian faith, in the book of Acts, there is seen a clear example of transformed lives. These were lives that were a public threat and these heros often paid with their lives.

Like the atomic flies, I wonder if many Christians have become so conformed to this world, so apathetic to the demands of the great calling of being a child of God, and so jilted by the world and its mocking of anything holy or right, that the cause we represent and the impact we have hoped to have is lost in a black hole, and rightly summarized as, "no public threat".

Christian, you are a public threat! You are a threat to everything that is offensive, vile, and displeasing to God. You stand in the gap as a soldier who has undergone a life transformation that is not minor, but rather all encompassing. Your faith effects every area of your life, personal, public, private, and professional. You stand as an ambassador of truth. You are a public threat! Let us all resolve to live as such.

"Holiness is not something to be received in a meeting; it is a life to be lived and to be lived in detail." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

comments@papercutpress.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org/