The gospel is true because it is true, whether secular science can prove its claims or not. Such proof may be compelling for secular people; for example, Paul quoted Greek philosophers when reasoning with Greek philosophers (Acts 17:28). But if God’s word is truth (John 17:17), no secular experiments can make it less true.
Ours is a day of declining commitment to evangelism, fueled in part by a growing belief that sharing the gospel is wrong in a culture that elevates tolerance above all other values. But the “passive congeniality” that is unwilling to speak of Jesus in everyday conversation is not enough.
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,” wrote Karl Marx, “…the opium of the people.” Decades of often painful historical experience has proven his observation both right and wrong. Believing in God does ease pain and suffering of faithful followers, but he was wrong in thinking that religion, especially Christianity, leaves them with nowhere else to go from there.
Yesterday we discussed the temptation of “private” sins that seem to have no public consequences but keep us from being used and rewarded fully by God. Today, let’s accent the positive: private godliness positions us to be used by God in ways we cannot imagine beforehand.
Fox News’ chief religion correspondent Lauren Green said "one of the big mistakes mainstream media makes is that they don’t understand the nature of most religions and they’re trying to project a secular humanist understanding of religions, which is that all religions are basically the same.”
All people are created by God with a “Christ-shaped emptiness” (paraphrasing Pascal), whether they know it or not. When lost people meet Christians in whose lives Christ is active, empowering, gracious, and compelling, what they are missing draws them to the only One who can satisfy the deep hunger of their souls.
Instead of looking at the world around us and lamenting at how lost they seem to be, what if we shifted our focus instead to asking God how we can best bless the lives of those around us?
According to a new survey, white evangelicals are far more likely than most other religious groups to blame left-wing activists for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
We've previously explored Jesus’ invitation to “take my yoke upon you” (Matthew 11:29a). We have discovered that we should submit our lives and challenges to Jesus’ “yoke” and direction because he is “gentle and lowly in heart,” meaning that he always does the right thing with and through our lives (v. 29b). Today let’s add another reason to wear Jesus’ yoke: he can always be trusted to lead us into our best future.
