Not of this world...

The events of this week have shown me that as a Christian, I do not belong to this world. We are like foreigners in a strange land where everything is upside down and topsy turvey. Wrong is right and right is wrong. The first epistle of John talks about this quite vividly:

See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for He allows us to be called His children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don't know God, so they don't understand that we are His children...We do know that when He comes we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. (1 John 3:1, 2b-3)

What does it mean to stay pure in this mixed up, morally confused world?  John has some answers for that, too. We need to continue to live in Him (3:6). "Those who have been born into God's family do not sin, because God's life is in them." (9) That doesn't mean we will never mess up, because our old sin nature is at war with our new life and will be until Christ returns. 
We stay pure by loving each other as Christ loved us. Now, there are some Christians out there who think they are loving gays and lesbians by giving them the right to "marry", but they are blind. They are not doing them a kindness by saying that it's okay to keep living the way they are--God's Word clearly says that homosexuality is a sin. We need to pray for those who are trapped by that sin and brainwashed by the world. We need to pray that God would cleanse them of the world's thinking. We're supposed to be salt and light to the world. Of course it's not just homosexuality that Christians are confused about.
The number of Christians that I'm seeing ranting about the current leadership of Barack Obama is scaring me---we're supposed to pray for the government, for "God is the one who put it there."(Romans 13:1) There have been many unkind things said about him that didn't really need to be said, and I've heard that at Ole' Miss, there were students protesting his reelection strictly on the basis of his skin color. When are we going to  stop hating people based on skin color? I certainly don't agree with President Obama's policies, especially regarding abortion, but I will keep praying that God will change his heart and mind.
I think Christians forget, too, that the world is not going to get better until Christ returns to redeem us. So we shouldn't be surprised that things that are evil are regarded as good, and vice versa. What we need is to persevere, and remember that we don't belong to the world.