Monday, July 6, 2009

Be Prepared

During our God & Country service, I challenged our church to be able to fulfill this biblical command found in I Peter 3:15 -- 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.

Specifically, we talked about five issues or areas that Christians ought to be able to speak on with both intelligence & compassion:

  • Why the Bible is a reliable source of truth, authority, and perspective.

  • Creationsim (the belief that created the earth & life) is not just "religion" but it is also science

  • Abortion: why life is sacred and special

  • Marriage is between one man and one woman

  • Jesus Christ is the author of salvation


The problem we want to address is that Christians seem to be unable to give answers to these pressing questions being asked by our culture, our friends, and our neighbors ... and when Christians do answer we often seem narrow-minded, mean, judgemental, insensitive, or un-intelligent.  I think Peter knew that as Christians we would stand out in the world and that would give us an opportunity to speak on issues facing the world.  He wanted us to be able to leverage those opportunities to point people to the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  But he cautioned us to speak with "gentleness" and "respect".

The Christian worldview has helped in the fight against slavery and child labor and it has fought for women's equality and civil rights.  There are consequences when this worldview is not shared, not known, and not heard.  Now is the time for us to be prepared because people need the hope!!

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