The ones whom, belong not anymore to any church system, whom have compassion and real good hopes toward all humanity, and their main wish and desire is to live a more piety life, i have seen that it is hard to generalize them with an specific identity or naming. And that's okay with me.
But, Whit what should we be related or which should be our referential?
The word 'Christian' have gone way to big in significances, I guess we are just people making a hard effort and having much intentions to follow and try to imitate Jesus life.
How does most of the people surrounding us see at us? Answers could be many..., like with rejection, respect, admiration, etc.. But a better question should be: How does they (the people surrounding Jesus) used to see him? And from there try to compare our selves.
And how do we see at our own selves? Humble followers trying hard? (I hope so), hypocrites?, failures? Very mature and spiritual giants?
Does telling people (people that surround us and that doesn't know much about us) about our unconventional theological founds and understanding will really help them to understand us? Hardly, because lets remember that same sentences can be able to mean very different things for certain groups of individuals. But maybe the ones that have some respect toward the bible will have more possibilities to understand us a little better.
If we see Culture as every expression of life on a certain group of persons
Then we kind of are having our own culture, our own way to interpret language,
there is great discourses taken from the Scriptures that hold us together
we have very different Values and also very different cultural statements regarding the bible
I know many of us here have had struggles regarding 'carnal family' relations. Personally, the paper of Ray called ''love'' has help me much.
Since a few years ago I have had the opportunity to live in certain places very far from each other and also to talk and to read two languages. One main thing that I have learn from these, is to try harder to don't generalize (people and places) much (without enough evidence), and if possible try to don't at all.
For example: IF somebody (that we don't know much about) say to be from another country, then the only fact that we know for sure about these saying is that he was born in that certain region of the world and that's it.
AND THAT'S IT? ...
Oh no, because most of our busy minds don't work just like that. Because when we hear the name of that certain country we also have a tendency to relate much about what we already know about that certain country (which is usually very limited) with that person. And these is what I mean when making generalizations, judging simplistically, easily and fast.
Don't get wrong on my example, I know that they are concepts of things and places that must remain quickly in us as individuals as our knowledge is limited, all I am saying is that I think that we all most try to be more careful when choosing, using and interpreting words and phrases and sayings. And the same goes when we try to show information regarding the bible truths that we know about. Because:
We want to say what we mean! We would like to show who we are, and give what we have to give!
And these is very Fine, but lets keep in mind that we will always have good chances to be misunderstood if we don't pay enough attention.
It's easy to generalize, isn't it?
The place
The name
The skin color, the race
The social status, the work, the experience, the hobbies and the income
Oh,
and The place!
But where we live doesn't have to say strictly, something about our characters
The number of habitants and the general main ideologies from the country where we live I don't think that it describe us at all
How can somebody embrace a certain culture without diminish another ones?
What does defile us the most is our main believes, our aptitudes and wishes toward others and what do we think and hope the most of the time.
We are trying here to be grateful and content with what God have already give to us
And if we suffer, we should be encourage, because God is going to console us.