Topic: Culture

The world will try to domesticate the gospel and get it to reinforce the world’s status quo and moral codes, but as people identified with Christ on the cross, we live the radical (and offensive) life of the new creation.

God invites us to be immersed in another possible reality, to look at the world with the dark and contrary light that comes from the cross of Jesus.

The demonic forces of our culture and time colonise our lives but if we turn to Christ, he will drive away the demons and fill us with his Spirit. His truth will set us free.

The hope that empowers us to maintain our counter-cultural obedience to Christ, is that the One who will eventually rule over all is the One who offers himself as a suffering servant of all.

Will we live out allegiance to the state, the economy, the mass media, consumerism, status-driven values and wealth, or to God, to the new community, to upside-down kingdom values and to a radical alternative which is the source of hope and transformation?

Real life is found in a trusting relationship with God, but the greatest obstacle to that is a culture of trusting money and we will only be able to avoid that if we fight it together.

The search for meaning and fullness of life without cost, risk or struggle is futile, but the Kingdom is still a free gift, given by God, to all who will accept it.

Our perception of things can be distorted by the context in which we see them. Jesus constantly challenges our misperceptions by challenging us to look at things through a different frame. It is only by constant reference to Jesus and to the ways that he looked at things that we learn to see ourselves and our surrounds more realistically.