I as a Christian believe I must present my beliefs to anyone who would listen but nowhere does Bible tell me to impose those beliefs on anyone or attempt to restrict the beliefs of others.
I believe simply that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for the sins of each and every man and woman irrespective of who they are. That each person must make the choice for themselves as to who Jesus is. To accept Him as the Son of God or not.
At the height of the civil rights movement in the United States Kenneth Waters wrote this description of God
So then, just talk about Spiritual colour and tell them:
Whatever colour love is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour justice is, that’s that colour of God:
whatever colour peace is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour freedom is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour joy is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour healing is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour salvation is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour power is, that’s the colour of God:
whatever colour truth is, that’s the colour of God:
So, then, regardless of who we are or where we come from,
regardless of our own skin colour or racial identity,
we should strive to be God’s (spiritual) colour.
Amen.
Kenneth WatersI have been a Christian since I was nineteen I’m now sixty-one, you do the math. Throughout that time I have strived to present the Good News of Jesus Christ is a pure a form as I can.
The more I read it the more I realize the importance of presenting the teachings of Christ to this world.
For me the apostle Paul when speaking at the Areopagus in Athens presented the message of Christ in a way we as Christians should emulate the book of Acts records,
“So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”
(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others”
Acts 17:17-34.
Notice Paul never once criticized the beliefs and lifestyle of those around him. He kept to the script if you will of preaching the love of God and the Salvation that only Christ can bring.
This dear Christian is what we should be doing.
Please think about it.
