Month: July 2026

Posted on

Cultural Emulation

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.” Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭17‬-‭19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In Paul’s letter to the churches in Ephesus, he writes this very strong exhortation to not imitate the Gentiles, the heathens. It’s not that they were godless, Ephesus had plenty of gods. It’s that their gods were all after the same thing – deceiving and leading them away from the one true God. Their gods were their appetites, their lusts, and their self-determined will. Paul says, “Don’t walk (peripateó) where they walk, in the futility (mataiotés), the empty, vain, depravity of their mind.”

Then Paul tells us why! Why we shouldn’t be behaving like the “ethnos” of the culture. Because it is a darkening (skotoó), a blinding of the mind. It is an alienation (apallotrioó), an estrangement from God. Meaning it’s an alignment with the gods in rebellion against God. This is caused by an ignorance (agnoia), a moral unawareness of who God is and what He wants for us. This ignorance, this lack of truth is not because God is hiding from us, or avoiding us. It is because God gives us the freedom to choose what we want, when we want it. He allows us to follow our own heart, even when it leads away from Him and His will!

In Ephesus, the religious fervor surrounding Artemis was deeply serious to the average citizen. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Ephesus functioned as a pilgrimage economy; her cult drove tourism, temple offerings, souvenir sales (those silver shrines), banking, and civic prestige. Being “Artemis’s city” was Ephesus’s brand, their entire reputation. Open A.I. says, “idolatry that’s economically load-bearing, means the “god” and the GDP are the same system.” There was something much deeper and darker going on in Ephesus – Paul understood this. Do we see how relevant that is today, in our culture?

We have a powerful, highly influential media machine, driving a “futility of depravity.” Not just because it is destructive to social and civil structures throughout history, but it is clearly an advocate of giving oneself over to “aselgeia”: Licentiousness, debauchery, sensuality, and lewdness. “Follow wherever your heart leads,” and chant the mantra of your own personal truth. Paul says that the “Gentiles” became “apalgeó,” They became apathetic and callous in their conscience – even to the point of “kautériazó” searing or cauterizing their moral compass (Paul tells Timothy).

This is our current culture. And instead of being ashamed of it, or fearing what we’ve become, it is celebrated as the epitome of human experience. Believing that one is highly educated, advanced and informed in believing these lies is literally living in the upside down world and calling it beautiful!

Get this: Bishop Timothy at 80 years old was martyred by a mob of pagan worshipers after he protested against the worship of the goddess Diana during a festival parade. He was reportedly beaten to death for his efforts to stop the procession honoring the goddess. The crowd beat and killed an 80 year old man justifying their actions to obey a false god.

Isaiah predicted this for the end of days in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” The Bible identifies Satan as the personification of evil, a deceiver and adversary who opposes God’s purposes. Jesus describes him as “a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him” (John 8:44).

Prayer

​Dad,
I look around at our culture today and I see examples of what Isaiah and Paul wrote about thousands of years ago. Yet, even as I see the moral reversal of all things good becoming all things willfully wicked, I also see a need for your grace and mercy when people’s eyes are open and they see that they’ve been deceived and lied to. And in that moment, I believe they will see you and see their need for you. The one true God that is always just, true, right and equally merciful, kind and forgiving.

Posted on

It could have been miraculous!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.””Exodus‬ ‭16‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

A month out from leaving Egypt and things really started getting dicey.

I remember driving on the old Route 66 from Long Beach, California to Bullhead City, Arizona. Once we left Barstow, California there were signs that read, “No services for the next 100 miles.” No water, no food, no gas – NOTHING. Even as a kid I thought it was a creepy to cross the desert.

A month out from leaving Egypt and things really started getting dicey. I remember driving on the old Route 66 from Long Beach, California to Bullhead City, Arizona. Once we left Barstow, California there were signs that read, “No services for the next 100 miles.” No water, no food, no gas – NOTHING. Even as a kid I thought it was a creepy to cross the desert in a car with no air conditioning and it would give you 2nd degree burns by sitting in the seats or touching the metal handles on the door.

The Israelites averaged 20 miles a day, so it took them 5 days just to get out in the middle of NOWHERE. Just think about it, a month into their journey they had traveled 600 miles! That’s like walking from Los Angeles to Las Vegas!

The Hebrews were worried about the same thing anyone crossing a desert would worry about – WATER and FOOD. God miraculously provided water by turning the bitter water sweet at Marah. They also found water oasis of Elim, where “they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the water.” Exodus‬ ‭15‬:‭27‬ ‭NLT‬‬ But after a month of wandering they were wondering where they would find food.

There is no mention of them asking Moses about a plan and there is no mention of Moses having a plan! The plan was complete and total dependency on God. Oh, but the people did have a plan – “the whole community of Israel” had a plan – COMPLAINT ABOUT IT. They לוּן – luwned: To lodge, to remain, to dwell, to abide, to grumble. Interesting word here. Its root word is to “abide all night.” Wow – they sure were constantly abiding right? In the negative moral sense, they were obsessively grumbling in unbelief! What does excessive whining, complaining and grumbling do to the human soul? IT SOURS IT!

Psychologists call it “looping complaints.” And it does the following:
▪️Keeps our brain stuck in threat mode
▪️Reinforces negative emotions
▪️Reduces problem-solving energy
▪️Drains relationships
▪️Becomes habitual

Like petulant children they said, “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt.” It became so bad that they fantasized about the past saying, “we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted.” Really? That was what they experienced as slaves who were worked to death and harshly mistreated?

Overall it is estimated that Israel experienced thousands of supernatural occurrences If you count every miraculous act of provision. But they could not see them, they only saw their needs, their fears and the lack of control.

That said, I have learned a lot from the generation that was delivered from Egypt, but never set free from the trauma of their enslavement. Being a bit of a negative person myself, I have to constantly check my perspective and ask if I’m only seeing the things going wrong around me, or can I see the hand of God working miracles on our behalf.

Do I only see pots of meat & bread of the past and feeling like grasshoppers looking forward? Or, in faith that pleases God can I have peace. Can I feel peace. It’s a pretty dark world if we lose perspective in thinking that the enemy is winning rather than seeing God’s perfect will being carried out and being able to celebrate the wins!

If I look at the Exodus from God’s perspective, it was a miraculous journey of adventure and faith. A sea splitting open. A pillar of fire, and a massive cloud forming ahead. Water from a desert rock, food floating down from heaven each morning and birds bringing takeout each evening. What an adventure to experience as a child or teen that had little-to-no memories of Egypt.

Prayer

​Dad,
Seeing Your hand in history helps give me a proper perspective to understand what life could be like if I saw you in all things. I can’t control any of it anyways! What I can do is believe and have faith in your wisdom, your justice, grace, peace and love. In that I can find true wonder to see the miraculous.