20-21 April
I am once again, late. I have a blazing headache, and I am floundering in the sea of things not yet done. Tax reports, contacting potential business associates, dealing with a problem with a family member, trying to meet a continuing financial state of emergency, trying to start a law practice once again, trying to make two-day old promises happen of getting documentation to people who I am trying to persuade simply to consider the claims of Jesus. Some of those self-appointed experts in ancient history has the nerve to assert that the man NEVER EVEN EXISTED! As if an entire history of the largest faith in the history of the world, an entire set of principles, built upon eyewitness testimony and substantiated by the recognition of historians, that has irrevocably changed and transformed all civilization, is based upon a fictitious character! Unbelievable! I can handle discussing whether his claims to divinity are valid, that's honest inquiry. But "prove to me that the greatest man who ever lived actually lived?" That's when I begin to scream....and I mean shriek like a banshee! You don't want to know the thoughts I have. The people on that group on Multiply are simply either deliberately ignorant, or maliciously dishonest....I go for the latter of the two.
Well, I am going to return fire. They don't know what they have run into. They think I've quit. Oh how wrong they are!
In the meantime, the more I read about the new Pope Benedict XVI, the more I like...a lot. If it wasn't for a handful of doctrines that I could never accept, I would consider Catholicism. Alas, the handful of doctrines are such that I would go positively nuts. I definitely prefer my freedom as a Christian. However, his moral stands and his determination to passionately defend the basic gospel which all true Christians everywhere do agree on, evoke my deep respect. And like John Paul the Great, his love of music and culture, as well as his knowledge of so many languages, inspire me to drive forward with new fervor.
I am an advocate of Jesus Christ. Yes, that title is something that I will embrace. Little stirs my passion, if anything at all, more than those words. I find myself unable to relate to the tired, dusty words "evangelist", "apostle", "pastor", what are they anyway? They are religious words, that evoke something either bigoted or a throwback to a bygone era. But to persuade people to believe, in a way that empowers and dignifies them, it is embodied in the word "advocate." And so I am. The name attached to a lawyer is transformed into the essence of what a Christian is to the world. Urbi et Orbi---the City and the World.
I am an advocate of Jesus Christ. I will do my best, in the time I have left, not to fail him.
Well, I am going to return fire. They don't know what they have run into. They think I've quit. Oh how wrong they are!
In the meantime, the more I read about the new Pope Benedict XVI, the more I like...a lot. If it wasn't for a handful of doctrines that I could never accept, I would consider Catholicism. Alas, the handful of doctrines are such that I would go positively nuts. I definitely prefer my freedom as a Christian. However, his moral stands and his determination to passionately defend the basic gospel which all true Christians everywhere do agree on, evoke my deep respect. And like John Paul the Great, his love of music and culture, as well as his knowledge of so many languages, inspire me to drive forward with new fervor.
I am an advocate of Jesus Christ. Yes, that title is something that I will embrace. Little stirs my passion, if anything at all, more than those words. I find myself unable to relate to the tired, dusty words "evangelist", "apostle", "pastor", what are they anyway? They are religious words, that evoke something either bigoted or a throwback to a bygone era. But to persuade people to believe, in a way that empowers and dignifies them, it is embodied in the word "advocate." And so I am. The name attached to a lawyer is transformed into the essence of what a Christian is to the world. Urbi et Orbi---the City and the World.
I am an advocate of Jesus Christ. I will do my best, in the time I have left, not to fail him.
