Jim's well-prepared, well-delivered, thought-provoking sermon yesterday was basically a challenge to each of US Christians to not only "talk the talk" but to "WALK THE WALK". There are many skeptics today of Jesus and Christianity and the reason for this is you guessed it, Christians. Today, the skeptic's vantage point of Jesus and the cross is how his followers, Christians, live their lives. Unfortunately, too many Christians are living unChristian lives.
The pre-Christian (not yet a Christian) is trying to decide if Jesus is the real deal by watching our lives and seeing if we are the real deal. Christianity has an image problem. The pre-Christian's perception of Christians is not very Christian. We have too many Christians living unChristian.
Personalization/Application (Ask yourself...)
How am I personally going to change the pre-Christian's perceptions of Christians?
What am I personally going to do about ABORTION?
What am I personally going to do about the "widows and orphans" verse?
About Me
- Jonathan Howes
- I serve as Lead Pastor of Graystone Church in Loganville, GA.
Graystone Church
3 comments:
Jim made some good points related to how non-Christian's view Christian's. Some of it is warranted and some of it isn't. I understand that it was a hard message to deliver.
The Bible is clear we will be criticized by the world no matter how much good we do in the world.
On a more positive note - Christian's do a lot of good things in the world as well. In fact Christian's do more good in the world than all the other religous/non-religous groups combined.
I wouldn't want non-Christians and/or young Christians attending our church to get the wrong impression of Christian's. We aren't perfect, we make mistakes, we've made mistakes but with Christ as our center and the Holy Spirit as our guide we certainly do more good things than bad things.
Thanks for the opportunity to provide a different perspective.
Jim - I love you my brother!
Benj,
Thanks for the good word and positive perspective. I agree that someone else's "perception" is not "truth". It is only their perception. Someone may perceive me to be a smart person. It does not mean that I am a smart person. It only means that I have them fooled into believing that I am smart. I appreciate you shedding some positive light. There are always two ways of looking at things. We could say that there are over 4 billion people in the world who are dying and going to Hell. Or we could say that there are 2 billion people in the world who are Christ-followers.
The thing that stuck out to me personally was what am I doing with the "widows and orphans" verse? I haven't mentioned this to Jennifer, but maybe we need to adopt a half dozen kids?
Love the comment...let's keep the conversation going.
1/2 dozen kids...now that would have to be a burning bush experience and I think Jennifer would need to see the bush first hand :)
I do understand that the point was for each of us to think/pray about what story we individually are telling to others through our words and actions and what adjustments we may need to make.
Wouldn't it be great to have real examples of how "Christian's" made a difference in the life of an unbeliever who "used" to have a negative view of Christians.
Now that would be a cool vantage point for influencing someone to think/act/behave differently towards someone else.
God Bless - Heading home!
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