For thought and meditation

[rl69]

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.—Romans 1:16 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=807ca56f44&e=3dd732485b)My life was dramatically impacted by the power of the gospel in a single day. I came to the Lord on my high school campus after hearing the gospel presented in a way that I had never heard it before. I responded and gave my life to Jesus Christ, and immediate changes started to take place.

The Lord used the Christians on my campus, fellow high school students who were unashamed to live out their faith. If someone had tried to reach me by being cool or relating to me, I don’t know how well they would have done. I’d had enough cool to choke on in the world. I had pretty much been there, done that, and I was fed up with it. I was searching.

I had already, through the process of elimination, determined where the answer in life was not. It was not in the hedonistic, materialistic, party lifestyle of my parents’ generation. Nor was it in the choices that I made as a kid. Being cool would not have reached me.

In fact, the people who reached me probably were what I would have considered the lamest people on the face of the earth. I thought you couldn’t be any lamer than a Christian. They walked around carrying Bibles and talking about God. I thought that was the most absurd choice a person could possibly make. I had basically narrowed it down to this: either these people were out of their minds—actually disturbed mentally, or they really did have an encounter with Christ. Of course, in the end I concluded it was option two. I heard the gospel and made a commitment to the Lord.

I was looking for something real, something authentic, and I found it in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

[w5pv]

God bless you,Amen

[EMC45]

AWESOME! Fits me almost to a "T"!

[smoked turkey]

Awesome rl69. It takes a real man or woman to carry a bible openly when you are in High School. Peer pressure even for adults is something to be reckoned with. May we all pray that we have the courage to come out of the closet for our Lord and share the Good News.

[Blackwater]

I think it was Wyatt Earp (?) who said, "It's awfully hard to stop a good man who just keeps a'comin'," and in our world, folks seem to typically take serious things lightly, if at all, and light things very seriously. And just look around and you can clearly see what that yields in a people. For far too long, we Christians have too typically acted ashamed or cowed when asked about our Faith, or when challenged. That old verse about "shake the dust" has been the crutch we've too often relied on.

But our Faith is FAR stronger than what many seem to realize, and FAR more rational than disbelief is. In order to disbelieve, one has to believe that all that we know in our realm came from almost literally nothing. Faith provides an apt explanation for almost everything, as the various sciences are constantly and consistently proving nowadays. And yet, non-believers continue to flaunt their wild claims that non-belief is superior or more rational than belief. And we don't seem to ever point out the glaring fallacies in that view!

We need to realize more about just why we DO believe. Nobody can believe without a REASON to do so. For almost all of us (if not indeed each one), we came to belief because we sensed something well beyond ourselves and our realm that we just KNEW innately was real, even though we didn't understand HOW we knew it. That has been sufficient for almost all of us. But now, and increasingly as time goes on, we have many, many reasons based in science to support our belief VERY strongly.

And yet, most of us, once we come to belief, don't think much about all the reasons WHY we believe. That's a shame. G. K. Chesterton said he had "10,000 reasons" for his belief, and could rattle off great and small reasons as long as you cared to sit and listen to him. More of us need to be like that, I believe. I think the world is in the shape it's in today because we Christians have been very deficient in learning how to defend and explain our faith effectively. If we knew how to do that, there'd be more Christians, and I'm talking about the "real" kind, and not the "Sunday" type, who act very unChristian during the rest of the week. And if we had more real, practicing Christians, we'd have a very different world to live in. It can't NOT help any society where belief is much more prominent and supported and effective than what we have and are doing now.

And I think it all starts with being able to explain to non-believers just why we devoutly and honestly believe. Many claim they're "too busy" to think about these matters, but I wonder what Christ's response will be at the Throne of Judgment if we try to use that excuse? Knowing WHY we believe is necessary for us, as well. When a person knows WHY he believes, and can relate it to a non-believer, he has confidence, and no longer has need to question his faith, or its validity or effectiveness in this world. We need to "study to show theyself approved" a lot more than we do. Yeah, it's easy to just "enjoy" the faith we have, but we were given a commission to bring others into the fold. Good vines bring forth fruit.

I am convinced that if we Christians will simply do a better job of representing ourselves in our world today, we'd have a LOT fewer and less serious problems than we do now. It seems that neglect always has a price tag attached to it. We've been urged to confess, and that seems to cover acts of omission as well as commission. And it's good to have a place like this where we can discuss such matters.

We serve an awesome and wonderful Lord. We just need to do it more diligently and more capably, and that takes some real effort. An added benefit of studying and discussing with others, is .... well, it keeps us out of trouble and away from temptations that abound so prolifically all around us. The Lord truly gave us the best advice and instruction we will ever receive in this world!

[Boaz]

The ones that carried the bibles gave support and confirmation . Carry your bible
Thank you rl69 , a good lesson and confirmation for us .

[EMC45]

I have to admit I wasn't the bible carrier. I was the reprobate that though Christians were lame. My eyes were opened.