What is worldliness anyways?

Is it just me or have the christians in America just completely abandoned the idea of being separated from the world?  I mean, what do you have to do these days to be considered worldly?  Is there any doubt that popular christianity has been defining worldliness down now for so long that it doesn't seem to exist anymore.  

I get all kinds of mail from youth ministry magazines and I am always appalled at what the "worship leaders" look like.  I have seen tattoos, punk jewelry, all forms of outrageous hair styles, every hair color (except for those normal people are born with),  long hair on men, no hair on women, and the list goes on and on.  How do these people reconcile there looks, music styles, and ministry methods with the Bible's command to be in the world but not of the world.

Here is how they do it: 

1)They change the definition of the word "world" every time it comes close to forcing them to alter their actions.  It seems that christianity has taken a page from the playbook of Bill Clinton (define "is") and are using it every chance that they can get.  By changing the definition of the word "world" they can make "worldliness" a moving target impossible to prosecute.  

To me it's just not that hard to understand.  The world is defined as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" in I John 2:15, these verses refer to anything that we want to do, have or be that God doesn't want us to do, have or be.  We can see the world pretty easily when we look through the lens of this verse: we can see it in movies where fornication is almost always seen in a positive light, in TV shows glorifying adultery, in billboards advertising everything from hooters (lust) to high dollar luxury cars (greed) to a glorification of the human body through work out centers (pride).  We can see it through fashion which consistently seeks to either draw attention to the sexual zones of the body, or display rebellion for all to see.  We can see it at the mall as we watch poor ignorant teenagers living for the approval of their peers.  Modern christians need to stand apart from these things, but instead, we are emulating them and wearing our worldliness as a badge of pride.    

2) They ignore clear teaching of the scripture when it comes to how they act in our sin-sick culture. Here are a few ways:

• Does the Bible not say in Phillipians 4:5 "Let your moderation be known to all men"?  Then why are today's christian teenagers being encouraged to go to extremes in every area of fashion.  From christians with choker necklaces to christians in bikinis, where did "moderation" go?  
  
• The Bible clearly forbids the wearing of tattoos in Leviticus 19:28.  While it is true that that is in the law and christians are under grace does it not show where God stands on the issue?  A Christians body is the temple of the holy ghost, not the canvas to display its particular brand of the counter culture.  
• The Bible tells us we are to "not conform to the world" in Romans 12:2.  So why are so many christians trying so hard to look cool?  It would seem the the churches in america are going through an identity crisis similar to the one a kid goes through in sixth grade, they want so badly to be accepted by the world.  But God has said that the world will hate and persecute all christians who follow him (I John 3:13).  Is this not clearly worldliness.

3) They attack well meaning christians for trying to help them with their worldliness.  

If I had a dollar for every time a teenager has told me I was judging a saint in the last year I would have a lot of dollars.  What does the Bible say about judging other christians?  If you used the logic that the critics of this post would use, you could never have a problem with a single idea ever put forward by anyone who claimed to be a christian.   

Far from the minds of these people, though, is the fact that the Bible commands christians to "try the spirits to see if they are of God" (I John 4:1)  and that God commended different churches for not just accepting what the apostles had to say, but weighing it by the scriptures (the Berean church for one).  It is hard to come to any other conclusion that it is my christian duty to "judge" any new idea that comes down the pike.

So what is the "world" refer to in passages like 1 John?  I challenge any of you CCMers out there to come up with a logical definition that doesn't condemn your methods and behaviors.

Two Awesome Mac Programs

Every now and then, I find a program that makes me really happy that I am a mac user. I remember the day I first discovered CSSedit or the first time I used Quicksilver. These are programs that I use all of the time. Last week I found not one, but two of these programs.
The first is a free utility called Teleport. This program allows you to use one mouse and keyboard to control all of the macs on a given network. At first I thought, well this is cool. But when I started using it (I have a Macbook and an iMac that I use side by side all of the time) I thought this is awesome. It is like having a second screen only better. I can drag and drop files between computers and it really aides my multitasking. You can also use it to get around the whole "can't move files using leopard's screen sharing" thing. It is awesome.
The second program I found unfortunately isn't free. But it is no less awesome. It is a program for writers called Scrivener. This program has full screen distraction free text editing like writeroom. But the real awesome thing about this program is that it allows you to store and view all of your research files in the same file as what you are writing. I am a preacher and I often listen to other peoples sermons on a text before I attempt to preach from it so I have found myself getting several sermonaudio.com files, attaching them to my sermon file and I am able to listen and write at the same time.
Both of these programs are, unfortunately, Mac only. Mark them up as another reason to get a Mac.