Last Friday I was teaching the men in our live Bible study Peter’s message that we are “aliens and strangers.” 

My message was “be a thermostat, not a thermometer.”

I told them if you live like a thermostat, not a thermometer, you will be criticized, rejected, reviled, and persecuted – and that’s just by the Christians!

To illustrate I shared how my pastor has given his life to building relationships throughout our community, and is often criticized for doing so – sometimes severely.

But think about how backwards that is! Here you have a pastor called to be an evangelist being criticized by his own party for spending too much time with the people he’s called to reach. How mixed up is that?

Part of what it means to be a “thermostat” is to help adjust not only the climate of general culture, but of our Christian culture too.