Spiritual Survival 17.1.79 Logos Bombay — George Verwer

Spiritual Survival and Perseverance

I want to share with you this morning on this whole principle of survivalship. It used to be that I only spoke about discipleship. Of course, there are many related subjects. But after about 10 or 15 or more years in missionary work, evangelism, discipleship training, the Lord caused me to see the need to speak a lot about spiritual balance and then caused me to see the need to speak about survivalship.

That may be a new term for some of you, but really it's an aspect of discipleship. It's linked with perseverance. We see so many people who start out. In fact, there's no greater agony that has come to my own heart than to see so many start out with a great flair in their Christian life, often even criticizing others who they don't feel are as dedicated, and then to see them just go downhill themselves.

So I want to speak to you about survivalship. Also, during these days together you may have heard some pretty heavy messages and you're wilting under the Word of God because, of course, the commands and the demands of Christ are very strong.

Drawing on God's Resources in Spiritual Warfare

The Sermon on the Mount and the challenges that we've been looking at or receiving from God's Word are very, very strong. And in ourselves, we cannot live this way. We must learn how to draw upon the resources of God.

Sometimes we give the idea that the victorious life, you know, we're always up here, sort of as it says in the Old Testament, on the wings of eagles. But I think also the plotting aspect is included in the victorious life.

Times when we are struggling, we're battling. We may be wounded, but we're still going on. With this ship, we hope that most of the time we're going to be on the main ship moving through the water. But there may come a time when we will have to take to the lifeboats and each man will have to do his part.

It will be survival. And I'm convinced that in our Christian life, there are times when we are in the lifeboats. We're not always in the mainstream of blessing with, you know, people being converted and the joy of the Lord flowing out of us.

There are times when we are in the lifeboats. It's survival. We're about to be destroyed. It's an emergency situation. A .W. Tozer said the whole world is an emergency situation. And when we study verses about the spiritual warfare, we see verses like in Corinthians where it says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty unto God to the pulling down of strongholds.

It's not always in the warfare, on the advance, up the enemy beaches, taking enemy territory. There is legitimate retreat in warfare, regrouping to reattack. This is why in our Christian life, we need to know something about rest, something about relaxation, something about these principles of survival.

Allow me to share some of these with you at this time. And I know as you just write down perhaps just the main headings and then you restudy your New Testament, you will find these principles going through the whole of the New Testament.

I think one of the most encouraging things that I've experienced in the work of OM over these past 20 or more years is that very few of our leaders who have come to understand these principles are not going on today.

Even people who have graduated from OM are working with many different Christian groups all over the world are going on. And I believe that is proof that this is not just talk. These are basic biblical principles that when we put into practice are going to enable us to persevere and not just for a year or two.

Acceptance and Forgiveness in Christ

The first principle of survival that I have listed is that as a believer and especially as a young person and the younger we learn this the better, we need to really know that we are accepted and forgiven.

Ephesians 1 .6 is a very important verse that has helped me to understand this principle of acceptance. To the praise of the glory of His grace through which He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted in the Beloved.

We are accepted of God. Now it's easy to say that. But in so many people that we are involved in counseling we find that they have emotional difficulties. This is a very real thing. And people that come into OM, into our training programs in various parts of the world it's not because they are emotional giants.

It's not because they are God's elite. But many who come into OM are wounded people emotionally. Some come from broken homes. Others come from many years of rejection and lack of love. And so we try to bring out this principle of acceptance, of accepting oneself and of knowing that we are really accepted of God.

Many years ago a young man came to speak at an OM conference. We were very generous. This was back in the States. And we gave this man an hour. You know, at our conferences you've got to count each hour.

And he spoke about acceptance of self. He spoke about meditation on the Word of God. How this could change our inner being. That man was Bill Gothard. Today probably the Bible teacher that receives has the greatest crowds.

Many times, six-day seminars, 25 ,000 people. And he has over 40 seminars a year. A man, by the way, who has a real heart linking with Operation Mobilization. He puts a strong emphasis on this. Many people have been helped through it.

So many people we counsel have a low image of themselves. Maybe it's because their parents were always using the carrot approach. I don't know if in your country they have the carrot approach. But we have this illustration of always holding the carrot in front of someone.

Like you hold it in front of a rabbit. Because the rabbits love carrots. And so it'll keep following the carrot. Then you never really give it to him. Just lead him around. And some of us have always, perhaps we've been reared in an atmosphere where no matter how well we did in an exam, our parents always felt we should have done better.

No matter how much we did around the house, it wasn't good enough. We were never up to the standard that our parents were inflicting upon us. And so this has helped to contribute to a very low image. So many young people were involved in counseling.

I personally spend more time in counseling than I do in preaching. And I preach about 600 times a year. So you can imagine there's a little time given to counseling. But so many have a negative view of themselves.

Even Christian leaders, been in the work 20 years, some of their emotional hang-ups, their attacking of other people, their inability to relate to other people can be traced right back to their home, right back to the fact that never really came to terms with themselves.

And accepted not only their strong points but their weak points. And developed a proper image of themselves. You say, what's the biblical basis for this? I'll give you the strongest biblical basis you can get.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Repeated eight times in the New Testament. Because if this verse indicates that if you don't have a healthy respect for yourself, you're not going to be able to love your neighbor.

The greatest love relationships you begin with people will probably eventually collapse. Because you have a wrong view and an unhealthy view of yourself and acceptance of yourself. It's something that we have to grow in.

You're not going to get this by revelation overnight. And no matter how mature we are in Christ, there are times when we will feel inadequate and when we will feel some of these emotional difficulties.

It's one thing to suffer from emotional difficulties from time to time. It's another thing to be just captured by our emotions and to live as a slave to our emotions and to our inability to rise up and be the men and women that God wants us to be by His Holy Spirit.

Casting Every Care Upon God

The second principle of survival is the principle of learning to cast every care upon Him. 1 Peter 5 .7 Casting all your care upon Him because He cares for you. This is a message I need almost every day 24 years after coming to Jesus Christ.

Sometimes the evangelists give us the idea that when we come to Christ all of our burdens suddenly flip off our back and Jesus carries them away to the hills. Some of you know very well the very morning after your conversion you started putting some of the burdens back on your own shoulders.

You may have a great experience. Recommit your life. Cast every care upon the Lord and the very next morning you start taking them back again. We may say with all of our heart I am crucified with Christ but a few hours later we start to take the nails out because we're beginning to feel the pain of what it is to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ and a lot of God's people are spending much time trying to take the nails out.

They want the victory. They want to be crucified with Christ but they don't want often the mental and emotional suffering that sometimes comes when we walk the Calvary Road. We've got to learn what it is to really cast our burden upon the Lord.

At the same time if you're involved in counseling people and please understand that one of the reasons we're sharing this message this morning and this is especially true of all of you crew members who are here listening to me and leaders from different parts of the work is not just that you can listen to another message.

Every OM leader should be teaching this to every one of the persons that he is involved in training and discipling. We should be communicating this message to the churches. The message of OM is not just evangelize.

It's not just deny yourself. It's not just world vision or prayer. This also, what we're sharing this morning is as much a part of the OM message as anything else and without this aspect the rest goes to nothing because we can't do it.

We've not learned the principles of drawing on God's grace. Some people give the idea that drawing upon God's grace is just praying a morning prayer and sometimes our whole concept of a quiet time becomes somewhat superstitious.

If I don't have my quiet time the devil is going to get in and also it's amazing in prayer meetings how we call on the Lord to come down. The presence of the Lord. The Lord is in us if we are believers.

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. If anything we need to see this released in reality rather than expecting the Lord to come down. In some parts of the world I guess depending on how the planet is turning we need to pray that the Lord will come up.

We get interesting concepts and sometimes it disturbs us when people challenge them. There are many verses that are very important in this whole area of worry and there are some excellent books. Books by Tim LaHaye, books by John Haggai on how to deal with worry.

Just look with me at Philippians 4, 6. Philippians 4, 6. And many of these verses need to be memorized because the word has a cleansing power. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

The biggest test for many people who have been trained in the work of OM is when they leave. This is the biggest test because OM in many countries can be a very, very secure lovely family to be a part of.

Now some people don't think that. But I tell you when you get thrown out on your own and it's just you and God you will discover your real theology. You may find that in the head you're a theist but practically speaking you're an atheist.

Your God is just as dead as the man who's never trusted because he can't answer prayer, he can't supply your needs and you'll find that your time in OM because you've refused to take God at his word has turned you in to an emotional and spiritual cripple.

I've seen this. This is why at times I have to be hard on people in my teaching and preaching to make sure they're not leaning on OM. Many of you listening and watching this video are with other groups and other organizations and I would warn you not to put your confidence in men.

Not to put your confidence in organizations. But to put your confidence in the living God. There are many, many great men who have learned these principles that we emphasize in OM that have never been on Operation Mobilization I can assure you.

They found the Bible and they studied it. Was it the great revival leader Finney who once said someday someone will come along, pick up the Bible, read it and believe it and the world will shake. That's what we need.

And the devil of course is very, very effective at using worry. Worry is a powerful force. Fear is even more powerful. And we've got to learn to cast these things upon God. I have tremendous bouts in my life with fear.

And I don't think you should be afraid of fear, doubt and worry. I don't believe that great faith is made in the absence of these things. Great faith is made as we get these things, get a hold of them by faith and so to speak wrestle them to the floor.

And we do wrestle against principalities and powers. How important it is to know what it is to be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.

And think of the teaching of Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Why are you worrying about your life? Look at the lilies. What a sense of humor he had. Look at the birds. Aren't you better than a bird?

And it's so wonderful to be cast upon God. And it's exciting. To read the life story of men like Sages Sundar Singh and others, so many others, so many others. Many that never made any fame. Who knew what it was to walk by faith.

And of course it means we got to deal with worry. We got to deal with fear. We got to cast every care upon Him. And it's a regular event. I find that I get tortured by vain imaginations. I have a very, very vivid imagination.

I almost never sleep without dreaming. It's almost unheard of. Every night I dream. All kinds of dreams. I wouldn't even begin to tell you any of them. But also in the daytime. Imaginations. Some of it isn't too pleasant.

And I've learned to cut off the flow early in its stage. Once you know your own mind. You know what way your mind is beginning to go. Why let it go that way? What good is it going to do to let your mind run down that road?

Run down this road? Run into the future? What's going to happen to me this day? What's going to... Cut it off. Early. And worship the Lord. Because you see, if you keep engaging in this kind of worry and vain imagination, the harder it gets to stop.

Making God the Goal of Daily Life

It's like a dripping faucet. It just gets more and more and more. Well, we need to move on. Thirdly, the third principle of survival is making God your goal. Isn't it interesting how we sing with such great excitement?

Seek ye first the kingdom of God. I want to tell you, it's easier to sing that than it is to live it. To put that one verse into practice is quite a challenge. To seek first the kingdom of God. So easy to put other things first.

This is why oftentimes our quiet times get neglected. One of the toughest things on ship life is to get a quiet time. I find the ship scheduled very hard. Normally in Bromley, I work late into the night, so I sleep in till 6 .30 every morning.

That's sleeping in. But you see, we don't start our day full blast until 9 o 'clock or quarter to 9, quarter to 9. Now, we can't do that on a ship, which means if you're going to survive on this ship, you cannot get up at 6 .30.

You've got to get up at 6 or 5 .30. That's hard. It means you've got to get to bed early. Because I tell you, if you just don't get that time in the morning... Now, some people are very fast in the morning.

All of my duties in the morning, including my morning exercise, I have to about eight and a half minutes. But you see, I haven't shaved yet. Somehow I've got to get that in with the next... You know, I'll get somebody that I'm counseling, and we'll go into the room where I shave, and I'll talk to him while I'm shaving and redeem that time.

Of course, you're girls. I realize, girls, it's going to take more than eight and a half minutes to get ready in the morning. I mean, they'll need at least nine. But whatever your system, whatever your system, if it takes you more time, fine, just get up earlier.

Just get up earlier. But we need that time with God. God is our goal. And I think that's so important. In fact, there's nothing more important than our relationship with the Lord. Many times we get caught up in the work.

Caught up in the work, rather than caught up in the Lord. It's hard to find a balance in that. Because I can tell you, you find some people who... You get the idea their main goal is God. They want to read the Bible most of the day, or do this or that.

And sometimes you discover after living with them that the real problem is that they're lazy. And their spiritual life is a cover-up for laziness. And a great man of God once said this. He finds that laziness creeps into the ministry quicker than many other professions because ministers are not responsible often to anyone else in a direct day-by-day way.

And if any of you hearing my message and hearing my voice at this time are not responsible to somebody on a day-by-day basis, you will be tempted to be lazy. It's dangerous when you're not accountable.

Learning to Be Hurt and Persecuted

It's a wonderful thing to be accountable to people. To live with people. And that's important. Fourthly, the fourth principle is we have to learn how to be hurt. We see that in the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, verse 38 and 39.

Verses like, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. It is basic to survival to learn to be hurt. I cannot emphasize this enough. You will never live on this ship without being hurt.

People will hurt you. There will be miscommunications. People's mouths will flap. Whatever their nationality. When I first went to Spain, the first country I worked in after Mexico, people said, be careful of Spanish pride.

Then when I went to England, they warned me about English pride. When I went to France, they told me, boy, this is not like Spain and England. Watch out for French pride. Then I was told about Italian pride.

I was warned when I went to India, watch out for Indian pride. There's no such thing as national pride. It's all the devil's pride. Each nationality thinks they have a special problem with pride. It's universal.

It's universal. And of course, because of pride, we're easily hurt. Because of pride, we hurt others. I don't know if all of you have the same struggle I have, but perhaps the greatest struggle in my life has been with my tongue.

My tongue and my temper. Self-control is certainly one of the highest of all virtues. You see, my tongue goes faster than my brain. It's not that I'm not sincere. It's not that I want to go around jabbing people with my tongue.

Billy Graham says we smite with our tongue. We can destroy our aunt's reputation with our tongue. And in some cases, you might as well kill them. Because some people, when their reputation has been destroyed, they've actually gone and committed suicide.

And so control of the tongue is very, very important. There's an excellent book on this ship. Everyone should read it. Beauty Care for the Tongue. One thing I've never understood about women is how much time they need to spend in the mirror.

Not in the mirror, but in front. It's amazing. Beauty care. And this new series of books, Beauty Care on the Tongue, Beauty Care on Other Parts of the Body, is definitely required reading. But my tongue goes faster than my brain.

So I say something unkind to my wife, then just seconds later, my brain comes along and says, you shouldn't have said that. It's not kind. But I already said it. And if any of you have this difficulty, I tell you, you've got a real problem.

You can go around hurting people. At the same time, we have to learn how to be hurt if we're going to be in the warfare, if we're going to be Christian leaders. We must learn not to be so sensitive by allowing the balm of Gilead to quickly cover the wounds that other people inflict.

And if we're drawing upon the grace that is in Jesus Christ, we will not be so hurt by what other people say. Because first of all, if we just use our minds, often people say things they don't mean. Don't write down things people say against you.

Sixteen things people are holding against me. Because so often these people didn't even mean it. They were uptight. They were in a bad mood. Maybe their wife just fed them some strange porridge or something.

The porridge this morning on the ship was very good. Don't misunderstand it. I don't want to hurt the cook. When I first lived in India, the lady I lived with served the same cement every morning. Every morning.

She thought she was going to fatten me up. And of course, she lost hope. Learn how to be hurt. Learn to see God's providence behind the ugly things that come into your life. God is not just behind the good things, the blessings.

We are blessing maniacs in some countries. We'll travel 6 ,000 miles to a special meeting to get a blessing. We won't travel 6 feet to suffer. If you have a famous preacher in, especially if he can sing or yodel or do gospel handstands or play an electronic saw or something else, you know, the crowds will gather.

You call a prayer meeting just to meet with the Holy Ghost and the Living God, you can have the meeting in the church vestry. It's true. It's true. And yet we're told that we're called not only to believe in Him, but to suffer for His sake.

And some of the suffering will come even at the hands of God's people. Even at the hands of people who actually love us, but maybe can't express it or are under attack themselves and during that time of attack, Satan uses them to wound you.

Praise, Thanksgiving, and the Will of God

Learn to see the providence of God even behind the wounds. And then the fifth principle is learning the reality of praise and thanksgiving. Learning the reality of praise and thanksgiving. This is emphasized by A. W. Tozer in an article he wrote against cynicism.

He explains how we evangelical Christians are often battling against wickedness and evil and because this tremendous struggle we're in, there's a danger as we're overexposed to become cynical. Are you cynical about the church in your state, in your country, in your town, wherever it may be?

And he warns as a cure for cynicism, thanksgiving and praise. We're told in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to give thanks in all things. One of the main things that young people and adults are very uptight about is finding the will of God.

What's the will of God for me? I think one third of the people who come often for counseling, their big concern is the will of God. You know, I think if we obeyed God in some of the revealed areas, some of the revealed areas, we'd have less trouble in terms of the will of God in some of the more difficult areas.

The will of God is to give thanks in all things. In other words, if you want to know the will of God, then build a foundation of praise, thanksgiving, rather than worry, what's going to happen to me? Where am I going next?

And I think this is very important. I would love to speak to you about the will of God. I believe many people are confused on this issue. They think the will of God is a little black and white little thing.

It's like putting a punch card into a computer and then the typewriter comes up, you know, like our Telex machine in Bromlin. Brrrr, brrrr, brrrr. There it is. That's what you're to do the rest of your life.

No, I think it's more like running a race across the ocean on water skis. It's difficult. Very difficult. And sometimes you'll fall and you have to get up. And I'm convinced that God allows us, because we are humans, please understand this, because we are human, God allows us to go down dead-end streets.

Here's a brother, he's absolutely convinced God has supplied him the girl who's to be his wife. He prays, he gets good feelings, reads the Word, he gets some verse out of Esther. And, you know, he's convinced he's got God's choice.

He counsels with one or two brothers. They say, well, you know, I mean, who wants to say anything negative about this? He said, perhaps, brother, it's the Lord's will. So down he goes, maybe for months, and then boom, the whole thing ends.

I know people that at that point have actually turned into atheists. Turned against God. Because they said, if God wasn't guiding me then, how can I know? Whenever God is guiding, and maybe He doesn't even exist.

If He existed, how would He ever let this horrible experience happen to me? Because that is a hard experience. It is a hard experience. I remember when I was very young, this one girl that I was really interested in, and she told me to get lost, I tell you.

I went back to my room in my little house, and I wept. I wept. So, I'm convinced God works with us in our humanity, and He allows us to do all kinds of things. He allows us to make mistakes. And yet, through it, He's working, He's bending, He's breaking.

And it's so important to be able to praise the Lord even when things go wrong. It doesn't mean you always praise the Lord right in front of someone, among the first, but there is a rest of faith. There's a place where we're resting in the Lord.

On the other hand, it's an amazing paradox because it says in the same chapter, labor to enter into that rest. That's me. I've got the labor entering to rest because it doesn't come naturally. And that's a wonderful principle we need to know.

God Is Easy to Live With

And it needs to be kept in balance. And then the seventh principle is realizing that God is easy to live with. Let me read something else from A. W. Tozer. God is easy to live with. Just saying that, I know, disturbs some people because they have a false conception of God.

Their God is a God with a big stick that's about to hit them on the head if they do one little thing wrong or whatever. And a legalistic view of God may go back to a poor childhood or a father who got upset and beat them often.

But God is easy to live with. He goes on to say the fellowship of God is delightful and beyond all telling. He communes with His redeemed ones in an easy and uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul.

He is not sensitive nor selfish nor temperamental. What He is today, we shall find Him tomorrow and the next day and the next year. He is not hard to please though He may be hard to satisfy. He is quick to mark every simple effort to please Him.

And just as quick to overlook imperfections when He knows we meant to do His will. He loves us for ourselves and His love or our love means more to Him than a galaxy of new created worlds. We've got to get to know the love of God if we're going to survive.

Many people think George Verwer is a great success story. You've heard some people tell it. They don't know the other side of the coin. That for every success there's been many failures in my life. Oh, there may have been the small failures that don't bring scandal, thank God, because as a Christian leader there are sins that wipe out your testimony and bring scandal.

God in His mercy has kept me from those things. But there are many, many little things that are just as displeasing to God. The Christian walk, no matter how many successes there may be, it's filled with difficulty and often with failure.

Failure at the same time can often be God's back door. Very seldom whenever I failed or even sinned against God did I sense that He had left me. Perhaps this was due to my first orientation, I don't know, but I feel that when I fail God loves me just as much.

I have tremendous struggle with lust. The magazines, the lustful magazines that pour out of every newsstand in Britain are like a torture chamber for me. And I don't always win the victory in the first five seconds.

It's a struggle. And there's something that sometimes just looms up within me and causes me to sin against the Lord with my mind. And then of course comes the guilt, the depression, the feeling that you're no good, the feeling that how can you be used?

Or Satan comes along and says, you have not changed. I remember once when I was a young Christian the worst time of backsliding I can remember. It lasted for at least 30 or 40 minutes. That may sound funny, but you know, I don't believe we should give even minutes to the devil.

We often have people give their backsliders testimonies. I was away from God for three years. I was boasting. But He brought me back. We hear so many of these backsliders testimonies we get brainwashed into thinking in the church that backsliding is part of the normal Christian life.

That's a lie of the devil. If you're a son of God, if you're following Christ, you don't ever have to backslide. And in 24 years of living for Christ I have never backslidden. Not one day for more than a few hours, usually a few minutes.

I know where the cross is. I know what grace is. And I know I can come with my pollution and my sins, my sins of my tongue in patience and I can repent. I can apologize to a brother and every night for 24 years by the grace of God I've known.

And when I go to sleep I'm in communion with the King of Kings. I sleep better that way. In fact, the bigger problem is waking up. That takes a new type of spiritual help. Oh, how the devil has got us deceived.

We fall into sin. We don't know how to appropriate God's grace. We think God has suddenly died as far as we're concerned and so we wallow in it. And we get discouraged and we get depressed and then we bring on self-pity, the most subtle form of self-love.

And so we find Christians everywhere defeated and discouraged. And they don't seemingly know how to just quickly repent and claim the grace of God. In fact, the closer you come to the Lord Jesus Christ often the more you will see sinful areas.

It's not just sins of commission. There are sins of omission. Things you should have done. Not just things you did that perhaps were wrong. And then it's not just outward sins but dispositional sins. Some of our church's people can have the gospel smile on the outside but the snakes and the cockroaches are ready to jump inside because their disposition is wrong.

And God wants to deal with the disposition. God is easy to live with. He's ready to cleanse us and forgive us. He loves us even when we fall flat on our face. A Christian who doesn't learn how to rebound is a Christian who soon gets either in a tangent, false doctrine, deceiving himself, or discouraged and depressed.

Accepting God's Pattern of Growth

And then the eighth principle of spiritual survival is accepting God's growth pattern. Try to read Layne Adams' book Why Is It Taking So Long? Layne Adams' Why Is It Taking So Long? One of the truly great books of our day.

He shows that it takes time for Christians to grow. A Christian from a difficult background, it's going to take him longer to grow. Any Christian who comes from a broken home, maybe from delinquency, maybe from some other form of social evil, it's going to take him longer to grow.

Layne Adams, I heard him share this with a group of pastors, showed how an emotionally unstable person, when he is converted, the Holy Spirit moves in, but does not immediately invade every area of instability.

That takes time. Growth in grace. The more stable a person is, the more quickly, generally speaking, the Spirit of God is able to move into every area. I was so spoken to when David Watson, one of the great leading Anglican evangelists and vicars in Britain today, shared with us at a recent evangelist conference.

After being used of God so mildly, tremendous depressions he has just recently been in, and how God had to show him things from his background that were causing that depression and areas of his life that had to be brought into a deeper work of grace.

Do not think that because you've been 40 years in the work or 20 years in the work, that there are not deep emotional problems yet existing in your life. That is deception. And that's how some Christian leaders, after being used, later become paranoid or even mental and you no longer can even hardly fellowship with them.

God wants us to remain learners. God wants us to understand we always have areas of growth. And this is very important. I think we have to also understand this within a culture that God doesn't destroy a man's culture.

I believe as some people become mature in the Lord and as they catch more of God's vision for the whole world and the principles of the New Testament, they will come free, more and more free from their culture.

That is a long work of grace. Meanwhile, God doesn't say, I won't use you because you are very Dutch. I won't use you because you're very Indian or you're very American. He works within a person's culture.

And those of us who have had experience in a rather unique type of international situation and have seen some of our own cultural weaknesses in our own nations must be very careful as we go back home to not become critical of people who have never lived outside of their own culture and therefore their culture will be a major influence upon their Christian faith and God will love them and work with them in their culture even though his ultimate desire would be to bring them into greater freedom, especially from materialism and other ugly aspects of most cultures.