One of the things I´m learning in the public debate is that my opponents ask a lot of questions which we don´t hear good, streamlined preachers behind the protected church walls usually answer.  Questions on the Bible,  the absurdity of God´s love in an absurd world, hell, other religions, how to know if God exists, the proof or evidence of a supernatural world, the origin of man, etc. etc.

One gentleman asked me if I could unveil what´s so special about “God´s wisdom” contrary to “the world´s wisdom” and he wanted me to make more specific the contents of God´s wisdom by way of practical examples.  I gladly did that by the grace of God , but I couldn´t help thinking what answers my co-Christian friends would give to modern man´s provocative questions?

So I´m learning.  I´m learning  how to approach my contemporaries or to understand the lingo of our time.  I love the intimate fellowship with the saints, in fact I can´t live without it, but sometimes I fear that we can be so self-sufficient that our fellowship becomes an isolated club or lodge with little or no real concern for a present lost generation.  I say this with utmost caution as I´m living in a glass house myself and shouldn´t throw stones.  But the challenge is there, and I thank God for every child of God who has a “doing the work of an evangelist-heart”.

Paul too had his “market place” where he “reasoned” with people (Acts 17:17-18).  “His spirit was provoked”, we read, not to give a profound, theological lecture, but to give them the gospel.  O, let us be “market place” witnesses, literally and in a figurative sense. The gospel is at stake.  If the church as a whole doesn´t care or just handles the Bible as an interesting “text book” for Sunday use, that doesn´t mean that you and I should be caught by that kind of apathy.  An aggressive atheist said to me, “I want you to stand firm on what you believe” even though she vehemently opposes my faith.  A watching world has its own discernment.  It  wants to see “firm standing” Christians on gospel ground.

August 1, 2013 – jn