“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

We can think we know the customs of other countries, but it is not until we go there that we really find out.  And we can make mistakes and not even know we are making one.  One of the people on my Cuba trip wanted to buy a coffee to go.  There aren’t people walking the streets drinking coffee.  And if you did, you’d be way out of place.  We also don’t know the customs of companies until we go to work there.  The unspoken customs are the hardest ones to figure out and the stakes are high.  Just sit in the bosses seat and see what happens.  Paying attention and knowing the customs is important, no matter where you are.

Even in this world we live in we must know the customs, but not only to know, but also to be sure that we aren’t copying them as the importance of how we are to live.  This weekend, the Pastor of my church Cornerstone in San Francisco and myself will kick off our second installment of a three-part series called, “Life Apps”.  Among a number of lessons, we will be speaking about how important it is to not allow ourselves to fall into the copying mode of the world. Paul’s words are a good reminder to all of us.

Reference: Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)

If you’d like to check out the LifeApps message this weekend you can see it Live Streamed here beginning Sunday AM at 10:30AM PST