Review: Last week, we continued in our discussion of the effects of secularism on Christianity in our culture. We spent some time talking about the lost feeling of shame that we experience as individuals and as a nation. Ravi Zacharias speaks of shame as an early warning system that God placed within us to assist us in our moral choices. But as all things decent and moral are steadily bled out of our culture and replaced with things indecent and immoral, our system of detection begins to break down. This happens in individuals and in society as a whole.
Preview: I want to begin this week by closing our discussion on shame. Look at Psalm 51, and anywhere else that the Holy Spirit directs you. Let's talk about the purpose of shame in our walk with Christ. When we feel shame, what should it cause us to do? How should we respond to this feeling? How did David respond to it in Psalm 51 and II Samuel 12? Can you think of any other biblical examples of persons who experienced shame and handled it in the right or wrong way?
I also want to begin dicussing the next section in Deliver Us From Evil, that being the effects of living in a pluralistic society and how we ought to live as Christians in such a society. Pluralism, within a culture, is when there are a competing number of world-views (i.e., ways in which we look at the questions of life), with no one particular way that is dominant. We will discuss the positive and the negative influences and results of living in a multi-cultural society, the need for distinguishing our opinions from our convictions, the need for expressing our convictions with love, and the privilege and opportunity that we have to live out the gospel of Christ in such a society.