Yesterday’s Lake City Reporter carried a letter from a Gerald Witt of Lake City. If you haven’t read it, you might catch it in the online version. I don’t recommend reading it because you will be edified, but rather because his opinion is (a) totally contrary to biblical Christianity and (b) representative of the people we live among and have responsibility to reach.
One quote from his letter serves to introduce the message I will preach a week from Sunday night. Mr. Witt declares, “Religion conceived as a total way of life will never be seriously affected by advance of knowledge because the convictions aren't validated until after death.”
His quote is completely true – if, and only if, our faith is simply meant for “the sweet bye and bye when we meet on that beautiful shore.” Fire insurance. But, that is not biblical Christianity.
We are called to renew the meaning of the word “Christian” in this generation. Remember that disciples were called “Christian” for the first time in Antioch. Their lifestyles were radical. Their conversations were so full of Christ that the local population nicknamed them “Christians”, meaning “little Christs”. We are called to reflect the message of Philippians 2:14-16: 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life… (NIV).
The saddest part of Mr. Witt’s letter is not that he doesn’t have a clue about what life is all about. The saddest part is that he lives in Lake City and hasn’t yet been affected by a life so dominated by Jesus that he recognizes it as more than “religion”.
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