Dear friend,
One of the criticisms of Christianity I hear in our culture today is that Christians are intolerant people and Christianity is an intolerant religion. It seems that when this is said, the speaker is referring to one of two very different ideas:
Dear Friend:
Many people in today’s world that don’t know Jesus well, but have heard some of His more famous teachings or have a sense of what He is known for will say that they believe that Jesus was a “great teacher” or “lived a good life as an example to follow.” By doing this, they put him on a level with great figures in human history such as Confucius, Gandhi, or even more recently, someone like Martin Luther King, Jr. This allows them to avoid having to be “opposed to Jesus” while at the same time also avoid acknowledging Him as God and Lord of their life. They try to do this, but the Bible points out that if you don’t know Him as Lord, you are an enemy of God. James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (People from work who read my legal updates will no doubt snicker when they see me using a footnote here. I can’t help it.)] But I need to let you know that
Dear Friend,
Have you ever paused to think about why you believe what you believe? What is the authority that you base your personal beliefs, your choices, and your values upon? What voices have caused you to hold the beliefs that you hold today?
Dear Friend,
I’m sorry about this, but I need to tell you something that you don’t want to hear, or consider, or talk about. Can I get very real with you for the next few minutes?
Dear Friend,
Are you a good person?
I would imagine your answer to this question would be something along the lines of, “Well, I’m not perfect, but I guess I am basically a good person. I’m certainly not that bad of a person – there are lots of people worse than me. I do what I can.” I think most people have a tendency to want to believe that they are basically good, even those that most of us would judge to be “bad” people.
