This week I happened to be looking through some of my old syllabi from college and I came across some very interesting things that are relevent when compared with Bruce's message last Sunday.

I studied missions in college and ended up taking alot of classes related to understanding culture and how to live and communicate not only to your own culture but also to other cultures around the world. One of the first steps to understanding other cultures is to learn how your own culture affects you. Milton Bennett, a researcher in the area of Anthropology, has written "Americans must become more conscious and knowledgable about how their own culture has conditioned their ways of thinking and planted within them the values and assumptions that govern their behavior."

American culture has deeply embedded the the values of time, youth, individualism, materialism and beauty in the hearts of those of us that are living in this culture. Lets take a moment and think about how this affects Christianity, specifically related to Bruce's message from Galatians 6 last Sunday. There were very clear implications from the text about the need for Battle Buddies and the idea of living in community with one another. Having a battle buddy means giving up the value of individualism. Christ has made it very clear that we as Christians need one another for support, encouragement and accountability. These battle buddies can be peers, individuals, members of a spiritual family or even mentors. Think about how your relationships in your spiritual family, friendships and discipling relationships can be promoting a Biblical culture which is counter cultural compared to American ideals. I encourage you to think about the ways in which Galatians 6 can be put into action in your own life in such a way that the light of Jesus shines as you live out your theology!!!!