The Fourth Wall - Day 2
The Culture We See.
We live in an interesting culture. I am in London as I write this series guide. I am doing an evangelistic series at a church in Central London. London is a megacity that has meant so much to Western culture. But the reality is that the church in England and London is going through a very difficult time. Modern London culture, by and large, no longer has the imagination to believe in God.
We probably have a friend, spouse, family member, child, or close friend who has “left the faith” to move on to more reasonable things. Some people have unconsciously decided to live as if there is no God and have long ago stopped expecting God's presence to appear in their lives. However, they may still call themselves Christians and live with the trappings of Christianity and faith.
Is that not true of each of us to a certain extent? We live lives of quiet agnosticism, knowing that our faith often feels like doubt. Our everyday experience has little awareness of God. As modern society has moved into a much more agnostic way of living, the integration of faith is less likely. We may go to church, but we often leave God there, like a lost handbag that we don’t need anyway.
This is true of Europe and Australia, but you may feel like our lives in the United States are not so dire regarding faith. However, I would posit that we live in a culture that has co-opted the idea of God for an idea of religion that exists to serve our civic needs, desires, and politics. This is worse than the loss of faith entirely. We have so much damaged the idea of God that we have distorted His image in the world to the place where people are walking away from the fun-house mirror version of God that we are offering them.
So how do we remain curious and imaginative about God amid these cultures that ignore, distort, or deny God? These cultures that leave us without hope of something more in this world than what we see, or show us an alternate reality that is so compelling that we have to join in?
As people of God, we need to take on the Romans 12:1-2 text that states: 12: 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Message Bible)
We live in an interesting culture. I am in London as I write this series guide. I am doing an evangelistic series at a church in Central London. London is a megacity that has meant so much to Western culture. But the reality is that the church in England and London is going through a very difficult time. Modern London culture, by and large, no longer has the imagination to believe in God.
We probably have a friend, spouse, family member, child, or close friend who has “left the faith” to move on to more reasonable things. Some people have unconsciously decided to live as if there is no God and have long ago stopped expecting God's presence to appear in their lives. However, they may still call themselves Christians and live with the trappings of Christianity and faith.
Is that not true of each of us to a certain extent? We live lives of quiet agnosticism, knowing that our faith often feels like doubt. Our everyday experience has little awareness of God. As modern society has moved into a much more agnostic way of living, the integration of faith is less likely. We may go to church, but we often leave God there, like a lost handbag that we don’t need anyway.
This is true of Europe and Australia, but you may feel like our lives in the United States are not so dire regarding faith. However, I would posit that we live in a culture that has co-opted the idea of God for an idea of religion that exists to serve our civic needs, desires, and politics. This is worse than the loss of faith entirely. We have so much damaged the idea of God that we have distorted His image in the world to the place where people are walking away from the fun-house mirror version of God that we are offering them.
So how do we remain curious and imaginative about God amid these cultures that ignore, distort, or deny God? These cultures that leave us without hope of something more in this world than what we see, or show us an alternate reality that is so compelling that we have to join in?
As people of God, we need to take on the Romans 12:1-2 text that states: 12: 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Message Bible)
- How do you not conform to this world? What do you need to incorporate into your life, and what do you need to leave behind?
- How can you make your life into a life of worship to God?
- What does offering mean in this text?
Pastor Timothy Gillespie
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