This morning, my class was canceled because our professor is currently in Europe presenting the Costa Rican side of a border dispute with Nicaragua in front of an international court at The Hague. I would have used the extra time to sleep in, but apparently my body has decided to wake itself at 6:00 AM every day. In any event, the free morning did afford me the chance to grab some coffee at a wonderful little cafe near my house with one of my compañeros from the program who also had no class.
Yesterday, he, who is also a Christian, wrote a beautiful post about his decision to bring his Bible to Costa Rica and how reading it each nice has brought him great comfort and consolation while being in a foreign environment. Eventually, the conversation shifted to religion and my friend said something that struck me. He said that while he doesn't broadcast his religion or try to beat people over the head with it, his faith is nonetheless a vital part of his very being.
The comment reminded me of one of my favorite scripture passages. Saint Peter writes Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (1 Pt 3:15) As Christians, baptized in the faith, we have a responsibility to defend the faith and provide an explanation for why we believe in Jesus as Christ and Redeemer of the world.
To a society that is so enamored with worldly things, the life of Jesus is not appealing. As Saint Paul wrote, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18) Thus, the question that every Christian must answer how can we win souls for Christ; how can we turn a person's mind from seeing the Crucifixion as one man's humiliation to humanity's victory over sin and death, and do such evangelizing in a way that is dignified and meets people at a place where they are in terms of their spiritual life?
By no means are these questions simple to answer, and I struggle with them as much as anything else in life. In my opinion, the main way we draw others to Christ is through the way in which we live. As I've written about in other posts, to be an attractive Christian one must have an abundance of hope that does not waver greatly, especially in times of trial. All humans are searching for their purpose and their calling, whether they realize it or not. No human is every satisfied by this world, because it is full of sin and despair and is not our true home. Many go their whole lives in search of something or someone to satisfy the longing they feel in their heart. By having hope and confidence in God amidst the world's drudgery, we can become that beacon of light that guides a non-believer to the Lord's safe harbor.
We also draw attention to Christ working in us when we wage war against our vices. Being moderate in things such as drinking, gambling and gossip will bring us notice. Being quick in our forgiveness and slow in our tempers will bring us respect. Our job then is to turn that attention away from ourselves and towards God, who gives us His grace to resist the fleeting pleasures of this world that bring only emptiness and decay. Many fail to reform themselves because they believe the task is impossible for them and fear failure. They are correct in that it is impossible for us alone to conquer the evil that pervades our lives. But with Jesus, the sinless suffering servant who gave his life as a ransom for us all out of an infinite love, all things are possible if we but admit our weakness and profess our desperate need for Him.
If we have begun to answer how we can bring others and to the Lord and the Lord to others, how then do we answer the why? Why do we believe? Like my friend said, I do not go around explaining my beliefs to people who do not ask. But like Saint Peter said, I am obliged to respond when I am asked to give a reason. Since I've started this blog, I've gotten asked at least a dozen times why I believe in God when I have never felt, heard or seen Him. I respond that I believe because I have felt Jesus' presence and heard his voice in a moment I describe in this blog's very first post. I've seen His work in ordinary people who do extraordinary good. I then add that even if I never had a personal, intense encounter with the Lord, I would still believe for another reason. And that reason is His apostles: the 12 men whom He called by name and who lived with Him during his ministry on Earth. After Jesus' death and resurrection, these men suffered persecution for preaching the Good News. At any point, any of them could have admitted that they had hidden Jesus' body or that their stories about His appearances after he rose were contrived stories. None did. The fact of the matter is that 11 out of the 12 gave their lives instead of renouncing their belief that Jesus is God (the other died of natural causes). A man simply does not die for something he knows is a lie. All these men were not relying on faith or the testimony of others, they had been in the Lord's company and were firsthand witnesses. Two thousand years later, the work of Christ is still alive but still unfinished. It is our job to continue it, through living lives of holiness, through brining others to Christ, and through continually (or initially) saying "yes!" to God's invitation to salvation.
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