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I was speaking to a man one afternoon. Hearing him, I could figure that he was getting the filter for all his experiences from media – particularly movies and current TV series. He patterned his values from certain characters from specific movies and tv shows.

It’s interesting how we can get ‘discipled’ by our culture.

Bill Hull defines culture as “the belief systems of a society and its outworking of those beliefs through music, painting, writing, films and television.”

He says that the typical person today spends 8 hours on the job, 7 hours sleeping and nearly 5 hours absorbing media messages.

Media is discipling many today, both old and young. The media today is able to erode the moral base of our land, desensitizing you and me to what is sinful and blurring the line between right and wrong.

Hull further continues his thoughts,

​”The people sitting in the pew are products of television more than the Word of God. Their worldviews are not scripturally based; rather they are disciples of their culture. When the media mentions responsibility, they are not talking about moral responsibility, but about using contraceptives. Termination of pregnancy (murder) is the woman’s right; being sexually active (fornication) is all right as long as you practice safe sex; having an affair (adultery) is expected sooner or later in normal, uninhibited people…

​The Christian community is slipping away from moral absolutes. What the pastor declares rubs against the cultural grain. The Word of God is abrasive when clearly presented in the present atmosphere…”

Please don’t get me wrong. Media is not necessarily wrong. I’m actually using one right now. But the role of the church is to influence culture and not the other way around. If we let that happen, then we’re in trouble.

Jesus declares in Revelation 2, “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

Everyone knows how to cut, paste and crop these days – my kids included. I was cropping our family picture one morning for a Power Point presentation in time for a seminar I was going to teach in.

Coming back to the office, I thought about how people try to ‘crop God’. Cropping God?

People try to reduce God into ‘managable sizes’ so they can pull Him out of their pockets whenever they need Him.

But He is above and beyond that. In fact, we wouldn’t want a God we can manage. When circumstances overtake us, we want Someone who is much bigger than our situation.

Remember, our God is ALL-MIGHTY…

Question: How big is your God?

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

Every so often, I would hear people talk about their small group (Bible study/prayer group).  I love it that many are so involved with making disciples.  At Victory, we are really just about 2 things: Honoring God and making disciples.

However, there are times when I cringe.  I’m sure people don’t mean it the way I’m hearing it but it really just doesn’t sound right.

I’m talking about the phrase “my disciples.”

They’d talk about having a meeting with “my disciples” or fellowship time with “my disciples.”
Worse, they refer to the people in their group as “under me”.

Whose disciples are they really?

When we look at the Scriptures, when “my disciples” show up, it is Jesus speaking.  Whose disciples are they?  Not mine, not yours, but HIS.

John 8:31. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
John 13:35. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 15:8. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Minor adjustment in terms but a HUGE change in mindset.

“You are Christ’s…” (1 Cor. 3:23)