So very true....

I read this the other day in a book that a good friend gave me for Christmas.. and the first two paragraphs really hit me as a truth that I am currently experiencing and discovering!!

“In our search to walk more closely with Jesus, it is an important exercise to distinguish between what we believe as part of our Christianity and what we believe as part of our culture. Few of us know how greatly we are affected by what those around us believe until we have taken some time to live in a different culture or share our faith with someone from a different part of the world. A church in an Arabic country will not look like a church in a Western nation or in an Oriental one. The interpretation of some scriptures may even be somewhat different. In exploring these differences, we can come to an understanding of what is more universally true.
In some countries, Christianity is so meshed with the culture that just by being born in that nation one is considered a Christian, and church attendance is thought to make up for a life of willful sin. Even different churches or denominations have cultures that constrain us to some extent or the other. It is important to ask ourselves if we believe things because they have been revealed to us through God’s Word, or is it just a tradition of our church? Do we live a life of devotion to God through a personal walk, or do we just fulfill all the requirements of a ‘good’ person according to the accepted behavior of our church friends and culture? Are we the same in front of them as we are in private? If we began to run with a totally different crowd, would their different morals change us more than our morals and beliefs would change them?
Sundar Singh wanted to discover a Christianity that was not Western, but Indian. Clothing styles, language, etc., were all being transferred over with belief in Jesus so that becoming a Christian seemed to also mean becoming British. What Sundar did to cut away the culture and preach only essential Christianity was a countercultural revolution that enabled Christianity’s first firm foothold in India. People such as Watchman Nee did the same in China. When the church becomes indigenous and is preached by nationals rather than foreigners, it takes on an entirely new dimension.
Christianity is a counterculture that will change those things that are most essential without conforming all people to be the same. Yet this can only happen when the individuals in any culture prize meeting God through His Word above just being called a Christian so that they can fit in with their crowd.
Jesus Freaks have this value and are open to correction. They are willing to strip away what is cultural to live what is Christlike. Jesus Freaks are not those who flow with the crowd, but those who flow with the Holy Spirit. As Paul did, they can drop or accept cultural differences for the sake of sharing the essentials of Christ with whomever they come into contact. This is the life lived in the world but not of the world—the life lived in the Spirit as Jesus walked.”
Jesus Freaks II: Revolutionaries pg198-200