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Beware Of Normal
According to a humorous television commercial, one of the first signs of termite infection in your home is that "everything looks perfectly normal." It is their way of convincing us that a lot of damage can be done before you even notice it. The ad might serve to remind us of problems that can occur in our spiritual house if we do not take protective measures. The very foundation can be destroyed while everything on the outside seems to be normal by the standards of our day. When our lives are comfortably blended into the society we live in, when there is nothing unusual about our moral or religious principles, when our priorities are the same as the great majority of our neighbors, then things are dangerously "normal." The problem is that "normal" is a term that is determined by man's standards, and though measuring up to it may provide a degree of comfort here, it falls far short when it comes to laying up treasures in heaven.Paul warned the Corinthians of some who "measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding" (II Cor. 10:12). God's yardstick matters, not that of the "mainstream of society." God has always required His people to be separate (Isa. 52:11; II Cor. 6:17-7:1) not physically withdrawn, but distinct in conversation and conduct, not fashioned according to the world (Rom. 12:1, 2). It is a sobering Biblical truth that few will be saved; the majority will enter the broad way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13, 14). It is strange, then, that we should be satisfied with attaining a status accepted by society. What value is it, if we lose our souls?
Friend, if your life seems "normal" enough by man's standards it may be that your spiritual house is caving in. It will not be shored up by man's money or man's tools, but by the Word that framed the worlds (Heb. 11:3). The answer is some honest, objective study of it, for it is the standard which will judge us (John 12:48).
