Cultural emphasis

being in another culture really opens your eyes to alot of things ... and many times you have to go deep and look at some of your pre-programmed areas of your life and see whether or not they need re-programming.

This is just one area that I was challenged when I caught myself in a wrong mode of thinking yesterday.
Someone in a Thai youth service was teaching on the importance of dressing a certain way, not wearing sleeveless shirts, not wearing too much jewelry ... and I started to think how maby what they were sharing was not so important ... I mean in the west its not a big deal you can pretty much wear whatever you want these days when you goto church. In the west dress has somewhat become a non-issue. The the standards in some of the scriptures of the Bible are outdated and no longer good for use as a guideline today.

Then it hit me!! that this issue is really important here in Thailand... respect for authority, and respectful dress is something held in high regard. The teaching had seemed to me a little bit old fashion-ed because of our 'prgressed' thinking in the West... have really progressed though? its really a degression! we no longer place such an emphasis on this matter, and I had allowed that to shape my thinking, that there are more important things when going to church than how you dress.

But I realise now that it was I was wrong, not the Thais, instead of judgding I should be holding onto this gem captured in this wonderful culture.
The respect for God they show by coming to church in neat and respectful clothing, comes out of their respect for authority, something we in the West have basically thrown out the window.

Now though things seem to be changing with the younger generation here as well, the 'west' have alot to answer for in our influences of other nations.
The progression and advancements that they are learning from us the west are even taking away some of the beauty that God has placed in this culture.

This is not a 'bashing' the west session, but I did realise how I myself make wrong judgements.
None of us have it all togethor, and when we become Christians because of our cultural backgrounds we place more emphasis on different teachings in the Bible... they are all important as each other. We need to be careful not to think we already have an area covered and it doesn't need to be dealt with anymore.
We should keep checking ourselves up against the Word, and be open to those of other cultures who have so much to teach us, and because of the culture God has blessed them with, they have understanding of aspects of God and his truths that we don't.

If we really want to see God for all that he is, we also need to look at his reflections throughout his whole body, every nation, every tongue, every tribe ... and even then we will only have scratched the surface of seeing God in his wholeness.