DO NOT CONFORM ANY LONGER TO THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD, BUT BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND. THEN YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TEST AND APPROVE WHAT GOD’S WILL IS—HIS GOOD, PLEASING, AND PERFECT WILL (ROMANS 12:2).
TODAY’S DEVOTION
Culture is stronger than politics. It really doesn’t matter who is in power. Politicians come and go, and governments rise and fall, but culture still remains. Culture is also more powerful than religion. One of the biggest challenges that Church leaders faced during the first few centuries of the Church’s existence was how to keep those who were coming into the Church out of pagan backgrounds from bringing elements of their pagan culture with them and blending these with their new faith in Christ. Even today we continue to see the enormous power of culture in the fact that many believers and Kingdom citizens display lifestyles that differ little from those of people who make no claim to be in the Kingdom.
The United States of America has a rich historical heritage of faith and even today has the highest percentage of citizens who claim to be believers (Christians) of any of the industrialized nations. Yet every year in America, 500,000 unborn babies are aborted—legally.
(God’s Big Idea, Chapter Three)
CONSIDERATIONS
1. The enormous power of culture affects the fact that many believers and Kingdom citizens display lifestyles that differ little from those of people who make no claim to be in the Kingdom. Why?
2. The power of culture trumps religion in its ability to shape the thoughts, values, and beliefs of people, and to influence their behavior and what they are willing to accept. How can impotent religion be replaced with empowering Kingdom authority?
3. How and why has homosexuality become a cultural norm in a country that professes to have more believers than any other industrialized nation?
4. Why did God think it was necessary to change the minds of the Israelites through presenting them with a set of Commandments?
5. How can reading—or not reading—the Bible change the culture of a nation?
MEDITATION
Culture is the manifestation of the collective thinking of a people. This means that whoever controls the minds of the people creates and controls the culture. Culture is also a product of law. The most effective way to change a culture is to control its laws, because whatever is instated into law eventually will become accepted as “normal” by most citizens, regardless of how they might have felt at the beginning. This is all part of the process of mind control.
(God’s Big Idea, Chapter Three)
Are there laws you don’t agree with? Is there a way to change them? Have you ever thought of getting involved in the political process as a way to control culture?