the three cultures revisited
My life has been broken down into three segments... the first 32 years were my years of total commitment to the first culture... the World's Culture... I tried to do everything that the world told me was important to do... and I worked very hard at it...
The second segment was my involvement in the Religious Culture... which took me through the next 32 years of my life.... I now tried to do everything that the Church told me do... I gave my total commitment to it... I worked very hard at it....
That took me to the picket fence in 1999 ... where this broken down religious wreck named Philip.... received his revelation and began the journey into the third culture... the Kingdom Culture... where he is no longer committed to a system of any kind... he is simply committed to a person... there is nothing I have to do any more.... no rules to obey... nothing to work very hard at.... simply to walk in relationship to that person who does only what the Father tells him to do... what an amazing difference... my Father does all the work that needs to get done... I just enjoy Him where He has placed me... the total realization of it in the simple words He spoke to me a few weeks back... "just be who you are.... where you are..."
Ah... much too simple for the other systems... the World's Culture and the Religious Culture... they are very complicated structures with all kinds of rules and principles and ways to function... things you should do... things you must do... things you should not do... because they are both cut from the same bolt of cloth... they are both under the same ruler... the ruler of this world...
Looking back now at the first 32 years of my life I see both of those cultures were at work in my life at the same time... I just was not able to see them separately or understand there even was such a thing... that didn't come until just a few years ago... one of the things we learn along the way... is that whatever Religious Culture we are a part of...eventually we discover that it simply "doesn't work for me".
I talked about that several postings ago ... when I discovered I could never be a priest in the Catholic Church... the Catholic Religious Culture didn't do anything to help me understand what life was about... why I was here... why I did all the things I did... what was this thing at work in me that was just out of control... is there some way out... Paul the Apostle wrote about that in Romans 7... I want to do this... but I do that instead.... who will deliver me from this body of death...
So I started looking around... at other religions...
On the 'morrow...
:)
The second segment was my involvement in the Religious Culture... which took me through the next 32 years of my life.... I now tried to do everything that the Church told me do... I gave my total commitment to it... I worked very hard at it....
That took me to the picket fence in 1999 ... where this broken down religious wreck named Philip.... received his revelation and began the journey into the third culture... the Kingdom Culture... where he is no longer committed to a system of any kind... he is simply committed to a person... there is nothing I have to do any more.... no rules to obey... nothing to work very hard at.... simply to walk in relationship to that person who does only what the Father tells him to do... what an amazing difference... my Father does all the work that needs to get done... I just enjoy Him where He has placed me... the total realization of it in the simple words He spoke to me a few weeks back... "just be who you are.... where you are..."
Ah... much too simple for the other systems... the World's Culture and the Religious Culture... they are very complicated structures with all kinds of rules and principles and ways to function... things you should do... things you must do... things you should not do... because they are both cut from the same bolt of cloth... they are both under the same ruler... the ruler of this world...
Looking back now at the first 32 years of my life I see both of those cultures were at work in my life at the same time... I just was not able to see them separately or understand there even was such a thing... that didn't come until just a few years ago... one of the things we learn along the way... is that whatever Religious Culture we are a part of...eventually we discover that it simply "doesn't work for me".
I talked about that several postings ago ... when I discovered I could never be a priest in the Catholic Church... the Catholic Religious Culture didn't do anything to help me understand what life was about... why I was here... why I did all the things I did... what was this thing at work in me that was just out of control... is there some way out... Paul the Apostle wrote about that in Romans 7... I want to do this... but I do that instead.... who will deliver me from this body of death...
So I started looking around... at other religions...
On the 'morrow...
:)
