Being Prepared

Every culture since the creation of the world has possessed values and philosophical beliefs that have grated against the message of redemption found in Scripture.  Our culture is not unique to this either.  In fact, Ravi Zacharias has made a profound statement about our culture in his book, Jesus Among Other Gods.  “Philosophically you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true.  Morally you can practice anything, so long as you do not claim it is a ‘better’ way.  Religiously, you can hold to anything, so long as you do not bring Jesus Christ into it…Such is the mood a the end of the twentieth century.”

 

How do we connect the message of Jesus Christ with a culture that holds these values?  At first it can be easy to feel frustrated, like our hands are tied.  But are they?  No doubt the values of our culture make it difficult to share God’s story of redemption.  However, Ravi, in his book, reminds us that there are many ways to engage our culture, and one way is using simple logic and reason.  For instance, a statement like, “there is no absolute truth” is logically a self-defeating statement.  You cannot state that there is no absolute truth through an absolute statement!  Using simple logic and reason can help reveal the inconsistencies of some positions.

 

At the end of the day, however, people are generally not going to surrender to Christ because they lost a debate regarding spirituality (this is not stated to devalue the importance of sharpening our minds in order to skillfully share the Gospel).  People are going to be drawn to Christ when they see Him in us – through our attitudes, authenticity, convictions, and genuine love for God and others.  May we remember the charge given in 1 Peter 3:15-16 to always be prepared to vocally share and physically show our love for God and others. ^“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

Winter Reflection

This time of year the days are short, nights are long, and bitter cold temps prevail.  Even as I right this temperatures outside have plummeted and the winds have escalated, causing me to pause and carefully weigh the necessity of venturing outside.  Enjoying a nice long, relaxing walk is for me just a distant memory or fleeting thought.  In fact, spring can almost seem like an eternity away.  Will it ever come?  Though the signs outside give little indication that spring is on the horizon, we know that it will arrive (though not soon enough for most of us!).  And so we hang on and endure the cold, and we patiently wait (or not so patiently) for warmer, more pleasant weather to settle in.

The Christian journey, while amazing and rewarding, can be filled with spiritual winters – where we long for better, more enjoyable days.  Perhaps your current spiritual condition mirrors that of the season of winter, the days are short and the nights are forever long.  First of all, please know you are not alone.  All Christians go through dark, difficult days.  Even Paul expressed difficult times in his writings.  In 2 Corinthians 1:8b-10 he wrote about the struggle to endure.  However, notice where he placed his hope.  Also take notice of his reasoning for his hardship. “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us”

You see, his hope was in Christ, and the reason for the difficult season was to create within him a deepening dependency on God.  May the Lord use the winters in our lives (both literal and figurative!) to develop within us an ever-increasing dependency on Him.

Clean Slate

There is always something inviting about venturing into a new year.  Perhaps it is the idea of a fresh start that compels many of us to whole-heartedly welcome in another year.  Based on the number of people who make New Year’s resolutions, I assume that many will enter the start of a new year with good intentions, determination, and high hopes.  We eagerly embrace the idea of a clean slate.  In fact, I would venture to say that this is an innate longing and an inherent part of being human.

We desire restoration and newness since we are fallen beings living in a fallen world.  Unfortunately the start of a New Year or other new beginnings, like a move or new job, can sometimes give us a false sense of a new beginning.  There is only one way to experience true restoration, and that is through the forgiveness offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  All other ways of trying to experience restoration in our lives are a masquerade of true renewal.  May our attention this year focus on Jesus Christ, the one who can offer true restoration and a clean slate!  May we meditate and reflect on the familiar passage of 2 Corinthians 5:17-19.   “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”