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| Photo courtesy of Glacier National Park |
BY STEVE DUNN
Christians are sometimes criticized as negative, judgmental, and living in the past. They are often labeled as Bad News instead of the Good News they profess to be. It is, as they say, a bum rap.
Christians do not casually nor naively see everything that is new or emerging as progress. They readily recognize the shallowness and self-aggrandizement that accompanies many cultural fads and trends. They do not support the narcissism that causes much of the world to withdraw from meaningful participation in the human community.
As such they are often voices crying in the wilderness--with others simply shouting back "shut up and don't disturb us." And as Christianity becomes more and more a counter-cultural faith, that distinctiveness (and disturbance) will grow.
What too many people within our culture miss is that its heart, Christians are carrying a message of hope. Consider these words from the Bible:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5.17)
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." - Jeremiah 29:11
"...so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." -Titus 3:7
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4.16-18
And then, perhaps the most well-known and hope-filled: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John 3.16-17
I know that are some Christians that get it wrong--that believe judgment and condemnation are the message; but trust me, those of us who take the Bible seriously are not in the judgment business but the hope proclamation one.
Give us a chance to share.
What too many people within our culture miss is that its heart, Christians are carrying a message of hope. Consider these words from the Bible:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5.17)
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." - Jeremiah 29:11
"...so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." -Titus 3:7
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4.16-18
And then, perhaps the most well-known and hope-filled: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John 3.16-17
I know that are some Christians that get it wrong--that believe judgment and condemnation are the message; but trust me, those of us who take the Bible seriously are not in the judgment business but the hope proclamation one.
Give us a chance to share.
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