“Our Daily Bread”     http://odb.org/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  

http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht   

“Homily Grits Devotional”  http://www.homilygrits.com/ 

Written by the wise 84 yr old Robert VanHoose, who writes the “Homily Grits Devotional” above:

July 23
Read Romans 1:14-32,
Ecclesiastes 12:9-14    

“Culturally Relevant”

“In all history there has never been such a time of terror. It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel. Yet in the end, they will be saved! Jeremiah 30:7  NLT

    Martin Luther was a culturally relevant Christian.  He related the Good News to the culture of his day by using the gospel as lyrics for hymns set to the bar tunes of the day, as a means of spreading the gospel before books had ever been printed.

    Jesus lived and ministered in the culture of His day.  He used parables to which everyone could relate to teach and preach eternal truths.

     The Church of Jesus Christ has persevered through all of the cultural and political changes throughout history. Martyrdom of the saints, Constantine’s zeal to make everyone Christians whether they believed or not, the Crusades, Spanish inquisition, political intrigue, doctrinal disputes, and great revivals are all part of the history of Christ’s church

     Today’s culture seeks to define truth as relevant truth, faith as faith in man instead of faith in God, and equate the pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of pleasure, instead of the pursuit of the peace that cannot be found apart from God.

     Church attendance and membership is declining by thousands where organized religion has become culturally irrelevant for today’s world. 

     The Gospel all too often gets watered down to please man instead of to convict and transform him, or gets relegated to being secondary to worshiping doctrines and traditions.

     The Good News is timeless and has never changed.  We should strive to make it culturally relevant by relating it to the reality of life in today’s world.  People still and always will need the Lord.

   Father help me to share the Good News in a relevant way.  In Jesus’ name, Amen