It’s different here …

My first experience with “culture shock” didn’t require me to leave the United States. It only took an airplane flight half way across the country.

Not long before, I was living my “cowboy days” and even had spent some time living on a 896,000-acre ranch in northern Arizona.

From cowboy times in the West, I soon found myself on a 40-acre hog farm in Arkansas.

Talk about culture shock!

They sounded differently there.

They dressed differently, they ate different things, they enjoyed different activities. Well, it seemed they even thought differently from where I was coming from.

That’s because they did.

You might say there was a different “economy” to living in Arkansas than that of Arizona. People lived a little slower life and measured what comprised that life in some different ways than people out West did.

However, it didn’t take long to learn that, in spite of the differences, people are people and we have a great deal in common in spite of our differences.

A whole new economy to living is just a flight away for any of us, but when you want to talk about a new economy to living that is entirely different than what is natural for any of us, just take a look at the kingdom of God.

In God’s economy, how we see Him, ourselves, and others is entirely different.

How we value things or measure anything in the kingdom of God is completely different from where we’re coming from.

In fact, we even think, feel, and act different in God’s kingdom. It’s different here!

Living as a child of God in the kingdom of God means adopting an entirely different “economy” or measure of living. To make that happen, to think with a true “kingdom-mindedness,” we need to have our thinking transformed so that we can function authentically as kingdom citizens.

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy,” Ephesians 4:21-24.

When I moved from Arizona to Arkansas, how much I adapted to the different culture there — or even whether or not I adapted to that new culture — were all choices I would make myself. But that isn’t true when it comes to living as citizens of the kingdom of God. To belong to the King and His kingdom, we must be transformed so that we are like Him!

“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

Some people try to live in God’s kingdom with old measures and ways of thinking, being, and behaving. but you cannot bring old standards into a new kingdom life with an entirely different economy.

It’s different here!

And God wants to make your life different by renewing your mind and transforming your life so that you’re a natural fit in His Kingdom.

Are you cooperating with God’s transforming work in your life as a citizen of His kingdom? Or are you trying to force an old economy of living into a new kingdom experience?

Scotty