44: Culture and the Gospel

Guest: Jayson Georges

• Take the cultural survey here: https://honorshame.com/theculturetest/ 
• Honorshame.com
• The 3D Gospel by Jayson Georges
• “The Gospel has multiple dimensions. There’s only one Gospel, but that one Gospel applies to various situations.”
• “Jesus forgives us of our sins, Jesus honors us and brings us into His family, and Jesus empowers us over Satan and evil and the powers of death. In the west, we emphasize that first dimension of the Gospel [...] but for most people in other cultures of the world, these other dimensions are what they’re longing for.”
• Three worldviews: Guilt and innocence, shame and honor, fear and power
• “God provides the very thing that people in each cultural system are striving towards - the guilty are looking for innocence, the shame are looking for honor, those who are afraid are looking for power. [...] The Good News is that we don’t have to strive and do those things because they have been gifted to us in Christ.”
• “The Gospel gives us the true eternal, divine answer to all three of those problems.”
• “As a rule of thumb, unless you’re fairly fluent in the language, you’re probably not going to understand the culture.”
• “I often see the main problem is people confuse certain cultural values with Biblical mandates.”
• “What are the things I do that dishonor God, that shame Him, that belittle Him, that make it seem like He can’t provide for me or He’s not good or He’s not true?”
• “A big challenge is to realize that the BIble was written for different people in a different time in a different culture, and we need to enter into that world.”
• “We are made right with God, we have a relationship with God, and we have a new sense of honor with God by virtue of Christ, not all of these other matters. Therefore, because God has honored us, we can honor others. Because God has welcomed us in Christ, we can welcome others.”
• “Jesus doesn’t get rid of the honor system, but He’s try to invert it and show them what it’s like to be someone who gives.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Physical books
• Heather: Friends visiting
• Jayson: Living near the sea and going snorkeling

Weekly Spotlight: International Education Services

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