"Floating" Fish

I've been working on setting up a new aquarium. The interesting thing about adding fish to an aquarium is the means by which you normally add them so that they don't die. You usually get your fish in plastic bags from the fish store, and you first dump off about a quarter of the pet store water, and add that much of your tank water back to the bag. Then you reseal the bag, and drop it in the water. Every 10 minutes you add another cup of your water to the bag for 30 minutes. Then you take the fish out of the bags and put them in the aquarium.

This process is call acclimation; the fish become acclimated to your water. It's how fish get accustomed to the different chemicals in your water that wasn't in the pet store water. In this process, I recognize a pattern that the devil often uses in our lives. Often, we're stuck with having to "just deal" with a little bit of ungodliness. Then a little bit later, after we've gotten used to that, we go for some more. Next thing you know, we're swimming free in the water that would have killed us just a short time ago.

Romans 12:2 says that we shouldn't conform to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We don't have to just let someone watch dirty movies while we're around, or gossip to us, or tell us dirty jokes. Those are the patterns of the world, "Oh, that guy just always tells dirty jokes and I just shrug it off and go on."

Our minds are supposed to be being renewed, we shouldn't be thinking like that any more, and we don't have to listen, watch, or participate in those things just because we're not in our own home. We shouldn't participate in anything that we wouldn't participate in at church. Let's not allow ourselves to be made into the pattern of the world, let's seek God in everything we do, so that we will be found as faithful servants.

The Yes Man

In my profession, sometimes people ask for some thing that isn't necessarily what they need, or something that might not be beneficial. And sometimes I say "yes" to those things, even though I really should guide those people toward something more useful to them. 2 Corinthians 1:19-22 tells us a little about saying "yes" and what that means.

We see in that short passage that all of the promises we have in God, Jesus our Savior says "Yes" to. Walking in the footsteps of Christ, we know that we also can say "yes" to the promises of God. We also can see through the study of the Bible that Jesus was the ultimate "YES" to the promise of God (Isaiah 53:2-7). And this is a promise of God's that we can't afford not say "yes" to.

1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us that we shouldn't say "yes" to every idea or opinion that the world presents to us. However, we should be ready to shout with a with a resounding "YES!" when God calls us to do His work. We should be "Yes Men" for Jesus.