"paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,concerning his Son, who was descended from david according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations..." Romans 1:1-5
-oswald chambers
since moving to this city, i have realized a lot about myself and people. it is sad to say, but i have never been in close relationship with so many self proclaimed non-believers. when i say self proclaimed, i mean they make sure to let everyone know they hate religion and especially think Christianity is stupid. people here know why they don't believe- something i never had to deal with back home. it has been interesting, nonetheless to go to school and work with people that live their lives not even close to the way i live mine. i find it so odd that essentially i have been trained for this- to live among and love the sinner, but i would argue that the way i was trained has no relevance for the reality of proclaiming the Gospel. i feel like there has been this whole movement, for many years now about love. love is all you need when you are a christian. if you love the sinner, that is showing them to Gospel. i think love is important, don't get me wrong, but i believe there is more in sharing the Gospel than just loving someone and hoping they will ask you about why you love. i have found that people want truth. they want you to be honest, real and knowledgeable about you believe- even if that means you believe in things that are not pleasing to share (ie. hell). most people i speak with would say that happiness is the reason for life- happiness in the sense of value. they are very humanistic. to talk about a life that is lived for something greater does not make sense to them. what i have found is that even if it does not make sense, they see i am not only trying to love them but can talk about it- that i actually believe in things like the bible, prayer and Jesus. it is sad that the only thing many Christians can believe in is love. i encourage you friends, to live out your faith in a real way, to actually believe in what you say you are. Jesus did what he did on the cross "to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations."
No comments:
Post a Comment