I was flying home from a business trip last night and the guy behind me was talking with his seat mate about a number of things, eventually coming around to the topic of religious beliefs. Guy A was an American and the main conversationalist while Guy B was from India.
Guy A: “I think we are all like sea scum, one day our bubble pops and we are just done. Don’t you think this idea of an afterlife is simply a way to get people to behave better.”
Guy B: “Who’s to say. I can’t say I know”.
Guy A: “I mean, this whole ‘be good now so you will be rewarded in an the afterlife’ or ‘miss-behave now and you will be punished in the afterlife’ – what a bunch of bunk. I think the whole Christian religion is just to keep people from living their own life.
I’m listening to this and wanting to jump in with some wise words that would open this guys eyes to what he’s missing but the words just don’t come. Of course this frustrates me to no end.
Later, after sleeping on it and thinking a little more I find I’m glad I didn’t say anything. In this case I find that God was restraining me because He wanted me to think a little more about what I believe and why. Some thoughts….
1) Guy A isn’t acknowledging a supreme God – how am I revealing God to those around me?
2) Guy A doesn’t seem to know who Jesus is – how do I go about revealing Jesus to others?
3) Guy A has a perspective of Christianity based on what he has observed – what can I be doing to start changing that view the world is building?
It seems that evangelism is missing the mark in today’s society. Sure we are carrying the Gospel to people but are we interpreting it appropriately? Our message centers around the concept that we are all sinners, our sin separates us from God, the penalty of sin is death, God paid that penalty through Jesus Christ so that we could have relationship with Him. All this is true but we too often leave out the last part – Jesus rose from the dead so that we could have new life through Him.
I’m becoming more and more convicted that our emphasis in today’s society needs to center on the Gospel of John. Our culture is growing increasingly “relevatistic” – there is no absolute truth so the idea that we all sin isn’t convicting people. However, we do see more and more people finding that they are “unfulfilled” – they aren’t finding any meaning in their lives. This is the missing part of the Gospel message. When we choose Jesus as Lord and Savior, Almighty God enters us as the Holy Spirit, giving us new life in Him. As we submit our will to His we begin to live the life that He created us for which is immensely satisfying.
Maybe it’s time we started telling people about Jesus by showing them a fulfilled life!
