I'm thinking today of Deuteronomy 18, 9.
The Lord is talking to the Israelites through Moses, and he basically says, when you enter
the land that the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable
things of those nations.
A detestable thing is a thing that God finds it easy to have a distaste for or to despise
or to look down on.
There are things that people in the world, other nations, other cultures, people that
live near us do that are simply not liked by God.
You can call them sin.
I suppose it's sin.
If it creates distaste in the God of the universe, then it's sin.
But the bottom line is these are things that people fall into and they do and they do because
it seems right to them or whatever, but they're actually detestable by God.
And God is saying to the Israelites when they go into their promised land, their kingdom
of God, their nation delivered by grace, that they are not to behave, not to fall into the
trap of imitating what the others are doing, what the other nations are doing.
And so what I'm saying to you is this, as kingdom of God members, as followers of Jesus,
we mustn't fall into the trap of imitating the activities of those around us that God
can easily despise.
Rather let us be good, let us be holy, let us be kind, let us be gracious, let us be
generous, let us be faithful worshipers and givers and servants.
God help us stand for him today.
We are not done yet.
There is every opportunity to make a huge difference in this world and you can do it
and I can do it.
Let's do it.