A L M A C I A S

CAN THE WORLD SEE A DIFFERENCE?

We read in the book of Ephesians how the Lord, after He ascended to Heaven, did not leave us alone but left for us those who would continue to teach us the things we needed to know for our spiritual well being. We read in Ephesians 4:11, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Knowledge of the Word of God is so important because without it people just cannot live according to the will of God. But sometimes just having knowledge of God's Word is not sufficient. The writer James exhorted the brethren to be not only hearers of the Word but doers of it also, for if one is only a hearer of the Word and not a doer such a one is only deceiving himself. (Jas. 1:22)

Today we are living in a world that is in great need of the Gospel. There are so many people out there who are lonely, depressed, and feeling just plain hopeless. Many of these people have tried to find peace in their lives by doing all sorts of things that bring no lasting peace to anyone. There are a lot of people looking for something better in their lives, but they just do not know where to look. This gives Christians a great opportunity to show them where they can truly find the peace and joy for which they have been in searching for so long. When we as Christians live the kind of lives we know God has commanded us to live, perhaps all of these people will see that there is a life better than the one they have been living all these years.

How can we as Christians help all these people to find what we found when we obeyed the Gospel of Christ? Paul wrote the Ephesians and said, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." We can live the Gospel before all these people. We can show the world that is so lost and so hopeless that Christ can make a difference and can help us have the peace that is so badly needed by all of us. The problem that we as Christians sometimes have is that the world can no longer see a difference between us and them. We live like they live, we talk like they talk, we think like they think, we act like they act. Our lives need to be different, not just for the sake of being different, but different because we are striving to live as God would have us to live. Are we making a difference?