Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear...(Jude 1:22)
I noticed that the headlines on USA Today, ABC News, and Yahoo! were all the same last night: "Most Americans believe that Obama is Muslim." I certainly can not provide any more insight and don't want to write about politics here, but if the White House spokesman defends Obama and says he is a Christian, then I believe them.
In all honesty, the articles about Obama's religious preference made me think about the way other people view me. Am I living my life in such a way that people know what I believe in or are the lines blurred so much that I need to defend my faith and actually tell people that I am a Christian??
In trying to find common ground with people that may not believe, we must be careful not to compromise what we know is right. This is something that is difficult for me and I often struggle with finding a balance in my life.
Here is a small and corny example...I watched the David Hasselhoff Roast on Comedy Central the other night. It was crude(and pretty funny) and I actually felt guilty for laughing at most of the jokes and insults, but was it necessary for me to repeat the same offensive jokes back to my friends the next day?
We have to be careful not to attempt to"fit in"so much with non-believers that we allow them to influence us and cause us to stumble and fall. The flip side (and I know people like this) is that we can become so disconnected with the world that we actually shut ourselves off from the outside and only communicate/socialize with people who are similar in nature to us and share the exact same beliefs as us and go to the same church, etc. Either way, fitting in too much or isolating ourselves, will make us lose our effectiveness to witness to others.
We have to be careful not to become so much like non-Christians that no one can tell who you are or what you believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment