Perceptions

I use Facebook as an outreach quite often by posting a verse of scripture or creating a link to a relevant Christian website. For the most part, people in my sphere of influence don't react to my small but highly visible attempts at open evangelism. This causes me to consider how they perceive me as a Christian or for that matter how they perceive Christianity in general.

I remember while teaching Bible 'n Schools some years ago that I recounted the tale of the great English woman missionary to India, Amy Carmichael. One of the stories of her life was of a dream she had where she saw her self walking amongst a river of people. Those around her seemed to be walking in their sleep toward a cliff and certain doom. She tried to wake them and turn them away from their dire fate but only a very few woke up and heeded her warnings.

I don't dare compare my trifling attempts at sharing the truths of the gospel to the works of a truly devout saint like Amy Carmichael but I do relate to the feelings of inadequacy she described from her dream. People happily respond to mere worldly banter and discourse of sweet nothings that dominate most of the interaction on the social websites, but mention anything of a spiritual nature and suggest real consequences of inaction, then the silence becomes deafening.

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I would love to tell my friends and the community on Facebook that it's going to be fine so don't worry. I'd love to be able to make them feel secure and happy that they're moving on the right course but the fact is that this is not the case. Mankind is separated from God by our sins and God has made a covenant with man through Jesus Christ who bore our sins upon the cross, that if we believe on him we shall not die but inherit eternal life - John 3:16.

This is not a popular message and Christians may seem a little out of step with a world that accepts only that which can be measured and defined by rational science rather than faith. However, even those who promote evolution have to make some allowances for inconvenient anomalies within that theory which amounts to showing a certain degree of faith and shows that it is really just as much a religion as any other.  

So what is a Christian to do then? Do we just walk away and leave the lost to their fate, since it seems that they don't want to be warned about it. Or, do we just keep on going and present them with the same old message that they don't want to hear. I guess we can be popular in this life or we can listen to the scripture which tells us we will be persecuted for the gospels sake and suffer as Christ suffered. Not a popular message at the end of the day but I suppose it comes down to seventy years in this life versus eternity in Paradise.