Morality Vs. Love

Recently I have listened to several people say that they deny the Christian faith because it unreasonably emphasizes morality and rules. These same people often tell me that we should love others and worry less about rules. I wonder if these people have really thought through the relationship between morality and love. How do we love and not at the same time avoid doing things that harm the one we are loving. If I love some one I shouldn't steal from them, lie to them, murder them, curse them, take their wife, or cheat them. So what is the relationship between love and morality? Christianity is not about morality for the sake of morality. It is not about rules for the sake of rules. Christianity is about honoring rules and living morally for the sake of love. Because we love, we understand that we should not murder, lie, steal, lust, etc. Morality is only onerous to the extent love is onerous. They go hand in hand.

It was a year ago that we participated in our first real evangelism outing. A friend of mine invited us to go to the Jehovah Witness Convention in San Diego and simply hold a sign that said www.followtheChrist.com . A few years a go “follow the Christ” was the theme for their conference. My friend bought the URL and built a website designed to challenge JW’s to seek the truth about the WatchTower organization and more importantly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we held the signs I recall people sticking out their tongues. giving us the thumbs down, and worse. I was a little surprised. I have seen picketers at my church but the thought never crossed my mind to stick out my tongue at them. It turned out that the site got an abnormally high number of hits and I was interviewed by the news media that day. The Gospel was heard.

This event was the beginning of the wildest year of my life. Well, I have had wilder but this was a good kind of wild. This event launched us into the development of our website www.allneedChrist.com, a Youtube channel, Facebook page, Tangle page, iTunes Podcasts and a couple of blogs. We began going out twice a week to talk to people about their beliefs, faith, and thoughts on the afterlife. We used many of Ray Comfort’s, Kirk Cameron’s and Todd Friel’s resources but ultimately it is the simple Gospel message that has fueled our passion. We have talked with hundreds of people on camera and posted these videos for the world to see. Our site has reached more than 70 countries and generated more than 300,000 hits in its first year. We have wrestled with atheist, Jehovah witnesses, Hindus, Buddhists, luke warm Christians and a wide variety of others through comments on Youtube.

This week we returned to Qulacom Stadium where 40,000 JW’s were again having there convention. I was excited. I thought for sure we could walk around the parking lot and find some people to interview for the website. We were not antagonistic. We just wanted to record a JW communicating what JW’s believe. In the process we hoped to leave them with some lingering questions that may lead them to the true Christ. I was quickly disappointed. My son was operating the camera for the first hour. No one would speak to us. One guy started to speak to us but was quickly taken away by an attendant. Others were just mean or scared. Discouraged I went to one of the gates going into the stadium and leaned against a wall and just watched people. They were hugging and greeting one another with terms like “brother”. So loving it seemed. But only with each other. They were very much under the control of the Watch Tower organization. They cannot think for themselves or test the JW faith. If they think I am “lost” why not speak kindly to me? Why not try to save me? Maybe because in their faith there is not much to be save from. There is no hell or eternal consequence for sin. I didn’t say anything to offend them. I didn’t challenge their faith. Not that I wouldn’t if given a chance.

Later, a friend of mine joined me and we went again through the parking lot at lunch asking people if they were willing to participate in a short interview explaining the JW faith. A guy sitting in a van with his doors open said sarcastically something like “why don't you go find an usher and ask them to take you to administration? I am sure they will talk to you.” Well I thought that was a great idea. That’s what we did. Sure enough after a little conversation and explanation we found ourselves in their press box high in the stadium. We were overlooking the whole event. A man named Kevin, a JW representative handling media requests, did an interview with us. We were totally unprepared but had an interesting discussion. He articulated his JW views in such way that there was a clear distinction between the JW faith and the orthodox Christian faith. We walked away saddened knowing there was no salvation being offered to these 40,000 people. As were getting ready to leave we were stopped by security and questioned.

Well we are off to year 2 now. Please pray for us. We are 2 families with many responsibilities. We have many challenges ahead of us but realize that there are eternal implications to the Gospel. We must share it with others!

Life's big questions?

What are the big questions in life? How did we get here? Why are we here? Where are we going? People seem to answer these questions with only a few significant variants. Start with is there a God who created all things? Some say yes and others say no. Just think once you say no to God, the rest of the questions don't really matter... do they? For those who believe there is a God, there are many variants but only two that matter... the true God or a false god. If we chose a false god then we are like the atheist in many ways. Then there are those who seek and follow the true and living God. To them the rest matters. The why... to glorify God! Where are we are going... to be in His presence forever! Where will everyone else go? Now that's a question that should trouble our hearts. Are we messengers of the Gospel?

Atheist

When I ask an atheist a question I usually get an angry, arrogant, diatribe because I am violating his/her first “assumption”. For example, not a perfect example, If I asked an atheist “what is in this bottle?” And let’s say it was water. The atheist may assume its vodka. He then would tell me it is clear, it is liquid, it is in a bottle, the culture of that time was known to put vodka in bottles, etc. He could then go into great detail using science to prove it was indeed liquid, or build a solid case that the culture of that day bottled their vodka and so on. If at any point I tested the contents of the bottle and said I think it is water, I am ridiculed as stupid and dishonest by the atheist. An honest atheist will have to admit dating methodologies, the theory of evolution, and the Big Bang Theory are built upon “significant” assumptions and that these assumptions have not been validated to this date. This should allow for continued questioning.

Evolution

If we still have chimpanzees after the evolutionary process brought us to the modern human, why are all the other species between he chimpanzee and the human extinct and without any fossil remains? Even if we find some questionable fossils, where are the living intermediary species? The chimps did not die off. Why would every single intermediary species die off and on top of that not leave a single conclusive fossil to support the evolutionary theory?

Blind Faith: Christian or Atheist?

Which calls for blind faith: Atheism or Christianity? Many Atheists claim the following: The universe was created by the “Big Bang”; life was created randomly but not sure exactly how; humans evolved from apes. Atheist don’t know what went bang, where it went bang or when it went bang. They think aliens or a cesspool with a random electrical charge created life. They believe apes had millions of years to evolve into humans but do not have one complete fossil to prove this actually happened. There should be millions of such fossils. Now compare this lack of evidence to the Christian faith. Christians look at the creation and recognize there must be a creator. The same would be true if we looked at a building, a painting or a watch. We would not look at these things and say that they just randomly appeared or evolved. Christians believe that the God of the Bible is the Creator of all things and is eternal. They believe this because they trust the Bible is God’s inspired word. They believe this because the Bible has accurately reflected history and science for thousands of years. Sure the atheists will claim science has refuted the Bible. These claims are based on assumptions not concrete facts. Based on wishful thinking to eliminate a God that will judge them one day for rejecting Jesus Christ as the Savior of all the Universe.