How much does culture define us? How much should it define us? How does it define me?
One of the sermons I listened to was pointing out how culture defines us in ways we might not even realize, and how it influences what we do and how we live. Instead of us living biblically.
He also talked about how we tend to have a religious or philosophical portfolio, call it a world view portfolio. Our tendency is to just add Christianity to all the other things we believe instead of letting it BE our portfolio. We need to buy into Jesus completely. But culture has a way of seeping through and in small ways defining how we view and do things.
The thing that Joshua Walker said somethings that stuck out to me, a few of them being; "Most of the world sees us as primarily a consumer, materialistic driven nation, and we see ourselves that way."
"Now here's the deal you guys get consumerist pornography in to your home every single week. And what it looks like is a Pottery Barn catalog. Or a...I don't know what catalog. You guys get all sorts of catalogs that come into your home each week, and I would suggest to you that those catalogs are the pornography of a consumerist mentality."
His reason being that when you look through a catalog you fantasize about having whatever it is they are advertising. You're imagining a reality that isn't true to find fulfillment in it.
"The consumerist mentality invades our homes through catalogs every day and it makes us discontent with what we have and encourages us to want something other than what we do." "Forget just catalogs, it's advertising across the board. It's constantly pushing us out of what God wants us to do."
I had never thought about it this way...Because of our culture it's so normal. You get the Sunday paper, at some point you run into the ads, and then at one of them you start to pour over. If your a girl it might be the clothes, guy it might be electronics, music, movies, ect. And I don't know about you but at some point I'm probably going to begin to covet...and that's sin.
Hmmm you know what though...I'm going to stop I'm not going to pick up a catalog for a while, and I'm going to get my sister to keep me to that.
If you want to listen to the sermon just let me know and I can email it to you...it was awesome...
1 comment:
hmmm. Yeah, That is a new way to think about it. I don't read the newspaper but it's the same sort of thing with other stuff. Thanks for the post Ming. It's something to think about. =)
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