TODAY’S POST IS AN EXCERPT OF WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THE TRADECRAFT WORKBOOK, WHICH IS DESIGNED TO PRACTICALLY GUIDE YOU & YOUR COMMUNITY TO BE EQUIPPED TO UNDERSTAND AND PURSUE THE ESSENTIAL MISSIONARY SKILLS NEEDED FOR EVERY FOLLOWER OF JESUS.
Exegeting Culture Part One
It is God who created diversity (Genesis 11) because of the pride of the people who built a tower to their own glory. In essence, God fought human rebellion with diversity. In this He demonstrated that He is glori ed through the creation and existence of various cultures. Yet in the picture of worship around the throne (Revelation 7), God reveals that He desires to be worshiped by different types of people. He is powerful enough to divide us and then to unite us for His glory.
Human diversity also has great value to the church. Experience across cultures allows us to see how God is worshiped by people who are different from us. The book of Revelation shows us that God is pleased with this creative diversity, and promises His presence among His people as they worship. And while God’s people are those who lift up His name, it isn’t only the believers among the nations of the earth that remember Him.
Observe any culture in depth, and it becomes clear that the suppressed memory of the Creator is not completely forgotten. Man is continuously confronted with revelation of God’s attributes through nature. Furthermore, tribes around the world all have been left with the faintest notion that God exists and that things have gone terribly wrong among us.
When you’re really looking for it, you can find it woven into every aspect of culture. Music, stories, social justice, advertisements, humanistic religion—everywhere you look, threads lead back to God. The Artist has left His fingerprints on His work.
Putting it into Practice
Where are the hints of the suppressed memory of the Creator in your own local culture? Where can you see people hinting at the attributes of God in your city? What about another culture to which God is sending you/your church with the gospel? How can you use those instances as springboards for gospel interaction?
Pray for insight into culture, particularly to see the places where people are wrestling with those suppressed memories. Ask the Lord for wisdom to engage and connect around those points of shared memory of the Creator.
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