Renivation 9

 I wonder how much of my character has been formed more by my background than what God really wants to be true in my life. I’m confident that God uses background, family and a long list of factors to create in us a unique way of handling life. But He also wants us to be transformed into someone different than cultural expectations and norms. Instead of being driven to be a ‘good Christian’, I’m learning that it’s important to be called into Christ likeness. 

“Today we as a culture are schizophrenic on such matters. We want to say it doesn’t make any difference what we look at or hear. This, no doubt, is because we want to be “free” to show anything and to see anything—no matter how evil and revolting. But businesses still pay millions of dollars to show us something for thirty seconds on television. They do that because they know that what we repeatedly see and hear affects what we do. Otherwise they would go out of business.” - Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ