12 Reasons People Give for Rejecting Jesus

I nearly used the word “excuses” in the title but thought that “reasons” was less provocative. However, in reality the reasons people give are excuses because the evidence is there for anyone who is concerned enough to investigate.

1. I’m too busy- People often say this when we attempt to speak to them in the street or offer them a leaflet. It’s tempting to point out that we are only after a few minutes of their time and that we are talking about their eternal destination. However, we all know that we make time for the things that are important to us, so what they are really saying is that they aren’t interested.

2. I’ll consider it when I’m older- We had some young lads say this to us during a mission this year. You would’ve thought the pandemic would’ve made people more aware of their mortality and that no one is guaranteed tomorrow. However, it’s amazing how quickly people are lulled back into a false sense of security when times of crisis appear to have passed.

3. I’m too old to change my beliefs now- Tragically, we sometimes hear this from people. Again, it’s more a case of not being willing to change, or even to consider the case for change rather than their age preventing them. Jesus welcomes anyone, of any age, who will repent and trust Him for salvation.

4. I’ll get there on my own- A little like the Pharisees (religious leaders) in the Bible. People like to think that they can earn a place in Heaven through good deeds, a religious life, prayer, confession, charity work etc. A Catholic man of 83 who said he had been doing all these things all his life asked me what I had done in comparison. As he walked away, he called out that when he died, they would be “over the moon” to see him. I feared for that proud man who was not trusting Jesus but relying on his own goodness.

5. I don’t want to give up my lifestyle- At least this is more honest. It’s different to saying I can’t live up to God’s standards of holiness. If that was the requirement, then none of us would make it. This is where someone knows that repentance is required and knows they would need to be willing, with God’s help, to try and turn away from lifestyle sins that they are attached to.

6. I can’t read/concentrate/understand- A lot of people who say these things actually don’t want to hear because when we offer them a CD/DVD or try to use simpler language, they aren’t interested. They aren’t willing to seek God or make any effort to understand. The Bible tells us a child can understand the way of salvation.

7. I don’t know which religion is true- This is interesting as it can be a genuine dilemma, but it’s also used as a red herring. Two young guys recently told me that they had been given a John’s Gospel by a co-worker and were reading it every day. I asked them if they understood the message and they said that they did. I asked them whether they had become Christians. They looked shocked and immediately replied that they had not. I asked them why and they said it was because there were lots of alternative views out there. So, I asked them to consider whether Christianity was true before worrying about all the other religions. It struck me that these lads seemed not to be searching for the truth but possibly just acquiring knowledge. People can sit on the fence their entire lives if they aren’t willing to take a true step of faith.

8. I can’t go to church- This isn’t a requirement for salvation, but because people know that if they become Christians, they will be expected to attend church, they sometimes say this. It can be due to bad experiences in the past, due to fears of large groups of people, anxiety disorders, or other reasons. The best thing to do is not to say that someone doesn’t need to attend church as a Christian but encourage them to take one step at a time in that direction, to decide firstly if they are ready to repent and believe that Jesus died for them. God will then help them with getting to church.

9. Christians are hypocrites/religion causes wars- I’ve put these together as they are essentially the same. When people use sin in the church, or in Christians they know to justify their own negative response, all we can do is to remind them that we are all sinners. It is awkward when a professing Christian falls into grievous sin, but this is why we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and not on other Christians who are just as fallible as we all are.

10. I just don’t believe it’s true- Most people who say this have never read the Bible. Most people don’t know the true Gospel message. Most are placing something else that they consider to be more plausible above God e.g., science, or Richard Dawkins. People who say this aren’t usually willing to investigate for themselves, they are closed minded because they don’t want to believe. They have nailed their colours to the mast eternally, without considering the evidence which is pretty risky if you ask me.

11. God is unfair- Usually these conversations start with, I can’t follow a God who allows…. or how can a God of love send people to Hell? Questions around suffering are difficult, especially when it is personal. However, there are reasons for suffering, pain, death and Hell. They all trace back to humans committing sin. People who use this as a reason to reject God are essentially placing themselves in God’s position and making a judgement on Him. We can’t see the big picture. We are the creatures, and He is the Creator. There are things that we can’t understand that we must leave to God.

12. I’m an Agnostic- I’m meeting more and more people who say this rather than that they are an Atheist. However, believing that the truth about God is unknowable when He has clearly revealed Himself in sources that we can easily access (The Bible), just means the person is unwilling to commit to an opinion about something. Ignorance is not an excuse in any other area of life so why should it be any different with God?

Maybe you are reading this, and you recognise yourself in one of these categories. Perhaps, you are thinking that by giving these reasons, you are not really rejecting Jesus, but just living your life.

The Bible says that we are either following Jesus as Saviour and Lord, or we are not. If we are not, we are following the world which is under the influence of the devil for this period of time.

If we are Christians, we are safe and heading for eternity in Heaven. If we are not, we are currently heading for a lost eternity in Hell.

In light of the eternal nature of these things, it seems sensible to suggest that people should either be on an urgent search for the truth, in which case they will be willing to read, pray and perhaps visit a church, or they are already Christians and will be wanting to lead others in this direction.

Please don’t let one of the reasons above, or others that I haven’t thought of, stop you from searching for the truth.

The Bible says that if we seek God with all our hearts, we will find Him. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me."

Why “Imagine” is Not the Right Song for Armistice Day, or Any Day

I was driving along earlier today listening to the radio. There was a 2-minute silence at 11am to remember the Armistice at the end of World War 1, and to honour those that lost their lives.

Immediately after the silence, I recognised the first notes of the melancholic song, Imagine, by John Lennon. Probably one of the most well-known songs of all time, certainly in the Western world.

The first words, which people tend to mouth zombie-like as they let the music wash over them, “Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try. No Hell below us, above us only sky.”

As a Christian, I’m likely going to take issue with this lyric whatever the context. But the fact that many of the soldiers who lost their lives in the early twentieth century were also Christians who are now enjoying the Heaven that Lennon wanted us to imagine away makes this an odd song choice for the occasion.

In the next verses, Lennon describes a world without pain, suffering and death. A world of equality where everybody lives at peace with their fellow man. Dare I say it, a world without sin. This sounds remarkably like the Heaven God has prepared for those who love Him. I guess it’s not so easy to erase Heaven from our collective minds after all.

The fact that Lennon tells us to use our imaginations in the first place demonstrates knowledge that creative thinking is required because reality paints a different picture.

Similarly with Santa Claus, we create this fantasy world loved by children globally. Yet, we all remember the day we finally understood that it wasn’t real. The loss and disappointment as the final glimpse of the miraculous escaped our grasp and we came down to Earth with a bump (I’m not taking a position on whether or not parents should teach their children about Santa.)

Surely, we wouldn’t dream of attempting to do the same thing with adults, to try and convince them to determine reality through their imaginations. Yet is that not what this song tries to do?

If I imagine that I am the Queen of a country or imagine that I can fly, would you endorse or encourage? No, you would be afraid in case I acted on the craziness my imaginings had created and seek to stop me getting arrested, sectioned or killed.

Why, then is a song like Imagine that magics away the realities of Heaven and Hell, and the consequences of sin, so popular? Well precisely for this reason. If there is no God, there is no accountability, no judgement, no after-life, so we can live as we please. Lennon even says this, “Imagine all the people, living for today.”

Is closing our eyes to the evidence that there is a God and an afterlife, a Heaven and a Hell, a sensible way to live? Will creating a world of our own imaginations that doesn’t actually exist achieve anything at all?

The obvious answer is no as like the person who imagines they are Queen or can fly, a rude awakening beckons.

The reality is that there will never be peace on Earth, and suffering, sickness and death will continue, until the day God wraps things up, as a consequence of sin.

The good news, that we can discover not through our imaginations, but in the Bible which is 100% reliable, is that Jesus died for our sin on the cross paving the way for us to be forgiven and to spend eternity in Heaven.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather base my eternal security on reality than the imaginings of a famous dead musician, who now knows that God exists.

Revelation 21:1-5 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Revelation 22:1-5 ESV

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Can Anyone Be Saved?

Seeing this title, you might think that I’m going to attempt to deal with the complexities of election/ predestination. Sorry to disappoint, but that’s well above my pay grade!

If people are elected to salvation, we don’t know who has been chosen and who hasn’t, so the fact doesn’t change our responsibility to share the Gospel with anybody and everybody.

We’ve probably all had that conversation with someone who is wondering if they, or someone they love, hasn’t been saved because they aren’t elect. Is that really helpful? All that happens if we think like this is that we give up, succumb to the belief that they cannot be saved, and stop witnessing to and praying for the person.

For the purpose of this post, I’m thinking more about how we view people when we are involved in evangelism, and whether we really believe they can, and will be saved.

Here are a few examples:

 -The aggressive atheist. You know the type. We may know that the person is suppressing the truth and that deep down they know that God exists, but do we really believe that they can be converted?

One of my friends was like this, arguing aggressively with me to the extent that sometimes I got so annoyed that I left the conversation rather than responding in kind. Although, I sensed that this person’s struggle was genuine, I’m not sure that I had the faith to believe they would actually be saved. However, in 2018, Billy Graham died. My friend told me he had seen the death on the news and asked me if I knew of him, realising the connection to the Christian faith. My friend then said he had watched a YouTube video of Billy Graham’s. I asked what the title was, and he replied, “Who is Jesus?” Next thing I know, my friend is attending my church, every service in fact. Then, he became a Christian, and a while later got baptised. At his baptism, he chose the hymn, “O How the Grace of God Amazes Me.”

Originally, I had met this person in a large group. Out of the group, I would have said that he was the least likely to a) be interested in Christianity b) actually be converted. For me, it was a lesson not to judge the outward appearance, and not to try and second guess God. God used the sermon of a dead preacher to draw my friend to Himself.

-The family member or close friend. We’ve likely been praying for this person (s), perhaps for years, but do we really believe they will be converted? In our hearts, have we given up on them, or on God?

Two of my relatives were recently converted in mid-later life. One of them had started working with a young man who is a Christian. The young man had witnessed to him which led to a Bible study, then conversion, baptism and joining the church. Apart from years of prayer, which is clearly crucial, my family didn’t have a lot to do with the practicalities, as God used someone else. Our initial incredulity, and fear of believing that it would actually happen, turned to joy, as we realised it was genuine.

A newly converted church friend, just this week, received a call from a relative she had been praying for, telling her that they wanted to get right with God. I advised her to ask them if something had happened to cause this. Their answer was that nothing had happened, they had just realised they were living a sinful life and wanted to get right with God. 

Sometimes, when God is at work like this, we are almost paralysed by shock. It takes us a while to accept that God has actually answered our prayers and then to move forward in helping the person take the step of faith. This can demonstrate that we aren’t really trusting God that the people we are praying for will be saved. It is good that God is gracious, and accepts our meagre efforts, and weak expectations, but it must be disappointing to Him, especially when it’s not the first time He has saved someone we are praying for. Answers to prayer should encourage us to greater faith.

-The person who is ready. Some of my favourite stories in the Bible are those where people have been prepared in advance by God and are literally waiting for someone to point them to Jesus. The Philippian jailer who asked, “What must I do to be saved?” The Ethiopian eunuch who asked who the Scriptures were referring to, and then asked for baptism. The crowd who was told they had crucified their Messiah, were cut to the heart, and asked with some urgency, “What shall we do?”

When involved in evangelism, we are sometimes so astonished when we get these questions that we are rendered speechless, or tongue tied. Yet, they occur far more often than we expect.

In the last few weeks, I had a group of lads who had been asked if they knew how to get to Heaven turn the question around and say pointedly, “No, but can you tell us how to get to Heaven?!” Also, a man recently released from prison, on hearing the Gospel, said urgently, “I don’t want to go to Hell, I really don’t want to go to Hell, can you help me?” Another young guy approached the book table, asked us to tell him what we believed, and then asked if he could film our response. There was a pause as all three of us stared at him before realising that we were there for that purpose!

Many times, I’ve been asked what a person should do if they want to become a Christian and even a few times, “What must I do to be saved?”

-The unlikely convert. No matter how much we try to avoid it, we all judge a book by its cover, similarly with people. We look at someone and think that person would never be interested in Christianity. This can be based on all manner of external factors, but we forget that God deals with the heart, and that He saved people like Saul of Tarsus, and King Nebuchadnezzar.

I’m reading a book at the moment entitled, Out of the Black Shadows. Gang member Stephen Lungu, attended a Christian tent meeting in Zimbabwe, carrying a bag of petrol bombs with the intention of committing mass murder by firebomb. However, God stepped in, “The preacher was now saying that anyone who wanted could have this Jesus. I could exchange my poverty and sin for Jesus’ love and riches. The transaction that Jesus was offering me suddenly became clear. Tears for all the pain, loneliness, self-hatred and fear I had known coursed down my cheeks. If this great burden could not be removed by this Jesus, I no longer wanted to live. So, clutching my bag of petrol bombs I stumbled towards the preacher…….” Can your Jesus save even someone like me?” 

There are plenty of other testimonies of people that we might think outwardly wouldn’t be interested. I often find during street evangelism that it’s these people with whom I have the best conversations, perhaps to remind me that it’s God’s work and He can save anyone.

-The child. Society tells us that we shouldn’t brainwash children and that they can’t understand the things of God. Yet, the Bible tells us we have to become like little children to be saved, in terms of them having a simple trust in Jesus.

Many Christians that I know date their conversion to their childhood, one person was even as young as 4 years old. On a mission team this year, we had a question board with the question, “Does God exist?” The parent confidently placed his mark next to “No” but was then silently rebuked by his 8-year-old daughter who just as confidently selected “Yes.” I asked her how she knew that God existed, and she said that she just knew, she then spoke in simple terms about Creation.

Sometimes, children have a better understanding than adults as they haven’t been exposed to the corruptions of thinking that occur as we get older and mingle with supposedly more intelligent people.

-The cult member. I recently attended a conference dealing with cults and other religions. It was pointed out that we shy away from dealing with these people as a matter of course. We might even think they are unreachable because we tend to end up in lengthy conversations that never really seem to make progress.

Yet, there are Christians even in my limited circles who were formerly Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Mormons, Catholics etc. Some of them are now Pastors and Evangelists.

-The prodigal. We know that God saves prodigals because of Luke 15 and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I know that God saves prodigals because I was one!

Sometimes, we forget the love of God shown in the parable as He runs to meet the repentant son, or daughter, that has turned their back on Him, embraces them and restores them to their former place.

Are we still praying for prodigals that we know and love, or have we given up in despair secretly believing that they are beyond redemption?

So, can anyone be saved?

In the Bible, we are encouraged to believe and persist in prayer for people. A visiting speaker at my church recently told us this story about George Muller, a 19^th century Evangelist.

​” In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land, on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second and prayed on for the other three. Day by day, I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted.

​
Thirty-six years later he wrote that the other two, sons of one of Mueller’s friends, were still not converted. He wrote, “But I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.” In 1897, fifty-two years after he began to pray daily, without interruption, for these two men, they were finally converted—but after he died! Mueller understood what Luke meant when he introduced a parable Jesus told about prayer, saying, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).” (www.georgemuller.org)

Surely, based on the evidence we have considered, including the Bible stories, the answer is that yes, God can save anyone. This is what we should be communicating to anyone that asks us if they can be saved.

We have some great verses like Romans 10 vs 13, “All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved,” and 2 Peter 3 vs 9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.”

We can be confident that God can save anyone, and that He wants to save everyone. Sadly, not everyone will be saved because many will reject the free gift of God through Jesus.

However, until the day a person dies, we must keep praying for them and witnessing to them, believing that God will answer.

Is There a Solution to Our Biggest Problem?

“Let yourself have fun and let yourself fail. Who cares? We’re all going to die. Just have a go.”               A heavily edited excerpt from an interview my cousin, Connor Swindells, recently gave to a national newspaper. At 26 and on the edge of stardom, you might think that death would be the last thing on his mind, but it isn’t.

In fact, no human being has ever had an answer to the problem of death. It hovers over us like a dark cloud throughout our lives rearing its ugly head from time to time when we lose someone close to us.

So, we do one of several things; ignore it, refuse to think about it and bury our heads in the sand choosing instead to live for the moment, or we become obsessed with health and safety to ensure we live as long as possible, or even, in extreme cases, we arrange for some kind of preservation of the body, just in case the scientists find a way to restore life in the future. If you are hoping for the latter, by the way, it will never happen!

We can’t beat or cheat death and, at the risk of stating the obvious, it gets us all in the end.

I often meet people who are upset about a particularly serious accident or tragedy where lots of people have died. The terrible incident at Aberfan, where a rubbish tip on hills above the village merged with springs of water causing a catastrophic collapse of slurry that killed many children at the village school and some adults, have been mentioned a few times this year even though it was decades ago.

People ask how God can be loving yet not have intervened as these, and other tragedies, unfolded. One man told me that if he had been God, he would have moved the trajectory slightly as the slurry descended the hill, so it avoided the school at Aberfan. I had no answer to this particular observation, and I’m not sure the man was expecting one, it was more like he was thinking out loud.

Reflecting, I wondered whether the man would still have been upset if he had been able to change the course and a group of different people had been killed instead of all the children. What if one of the new victims had been a relative of his, or the parents of one of the children that had survived and was now an orphan?

We can easily fall into the trap of thinking like this man. Perhaps we think the saddest aspect is because most were children that had barely started life. But is there ever an age that makes it easier to lose a loved one?

Some of the angriest people I meet in the street are still holding a grudge against God for allowing one of their grandparents to die decades earlier. Often, they had lived to their 70’s or 80’s but the person still believes God was unfair in allowing it to happen.

They are asking, “Why Me?”

Leaving aside the issue of us being unable to assess the fairness of God due to our comparatively minuscule minds and the fact that we cannot see the bigger picture.

The reality is that if God intervened to prevent your relative or friend dying in an accident or from an illness, others with people who love them are dying in similar circumstances all around the world every second of every hour, of every day. These people might well ask why your loved one was saved and theirs was not. 

If fairness is what we are concerned about, would that be fair?

Taking this to its logical conclusion, the result would be that God would be forced, or expected, to intervene in every situation where someone’s life was at risk, otherwise He would be showing partiality, or favouritism, to one person over another.

Then, we would all live forever!

Maybe at this point you are thinking that this sounds like a good idea and wondering why God didn’t set things up in this way in the first place.

Actually, He did…. but we messed it up. 

Our first parents rebelled against God and rejected His rule over them. So, God gave them over to their own ideas and, because of their sin, He cursed the Earth with suffering, sickness and…. wait for it…. death.

The Bible makes it clear that we ultimately die because of our sin, “the wages of sin is death…” and that we all are guilty of sin, “for all have sinned”.

God can’t just overlook sin, or He wouldn’t be just and fair. He can’t just intervene every time someone is in danger or there would be no penalty, or consequence, for sin which also wouldn’t be just and fair.

This would be a pretty diabolical position for us all to be in, and this post would be seriously depressing, if it weren’t for one important fact.

God loved us so much that He had a rescue plan. A plan to defeat the curse of sin, suffering, sickness and death that He had placed on the Earth due to our rebellion. A plan to send His Son Jesus to live a perfect life on our behalf. A plan for Jesus to die on a cross, taking the punishment you and I deserve, and to be buried in a tomb. A plan for Jesus to defeat the curse of death by coming back to life.

I said earlier that no human being has an answer to the problem of death. This is true, but thankfully God does.

Jesus was able to stand in our place, pay for our sin and reverse the curse of death because He was sinless. If we repent (turn away from our sinful lives), ask for forgiveness, and trust that Jesus died for us on the cross, we are promised eternal life in Heaven as a free gift.

Effectively, we can receive the benefit of Jesus defeating death and live forever with Him.

The alternative, which I don't recommend, is to stand before God on Judgment Day carrying all of our unforgiven sin. God has to punish us at this point, or He is not just. The punishment is eternal in a place called Hell.

Either way, death doesn’t have the last word, God does. 

Will you face Him joyfully having been forgiven through Jesus or will you suffer His righteous anger for all eternity?

 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(1 Corinthians 15 vs 55-57)

10 Reasons I Am a Christian and You Should Be Too!

Maybe when you see a title like this you feel irritated, annoyed or even angry. Who am I to be telling you what you should believe? What gives me the right to suggest that every person needs to become a Christian? What about other religions? Or a combination of these and other questions.

The truth is, I have no right (apart from God's command), and my plea for you to consider Jesus has nothing to do with my believing that I’m in any way better than anyone reading this. We are all the same. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect standards. We are all in need of a remedy for that broken relationship with God.

The good news of the Bible, that Jesus died on the cross for our sin making a way for us to receive forgiveness, peace with God, and a permanent home in Heaven, is available to ANYONE who will repent of their sin and trust Him. Repentance is a complete change of mind and direction from living for ourselves and what we want to do, to following Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

This message is urgent as we are not guaranteed tomorrow. The loving thing for me to do is to tell you so that you too might be saved.

It is with this in mind that I ask you to consider these reasons:

1. I believe Christianity is exclusively true. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” This statement should silence those who believe all religions lead to God, or that you can pick and choose bits of one and then another. It’s either a true statement or it’s false. My believing it doesn’t make it true, but there is plenty of evidence that it is.

Rather than being a faith I have just accepted because of my cultural roots, my parents, or a label I have had since birth. I became a Christian in my early twenties having wandered far from God for many years.

2. I don’t want to end up in Hell. I have listed this before speaking about Heaven because personally it was a greater motivation for me in coming to faith.

Many Bible characters, including Jesus, warned about Hell being eternal, conscious torment, facing the wrath and justice of an angry God towards unrepentant sinners. A place where people will want to die but won’t be able to. We are told to flee from the wrath to come.

Thankfully, Jesus has made a way for us to do this and, believing the warnings, I took it.

3. I want to go to Heaven. In the Bible, Heaven is described as a place with no sin, suffering, sickness, pain or death. We are told that no one can imagine the amazing things that God has prepared for those who love Him. Christians will be there forever with God.

Heaven is not a worldly place full of carnal lusts like the Muslim’s paradise. It does not celebrate sinful vices as we tend to do on Earth. Nor is it a boring place with people sitting on clouds playing harps as some seem to imagine. Finally, it is not too crowded as someone else surmised.

Heaven will be perfect like the world was meant to be in the beginning before humans rebelled against God.

4. The meaninglessness of life/purposelessness of life as a non-Christian. I’m not a Christian purely because I was lacking purpose and meaning in my life. However, being a Christian has given me both.

Prior to my conversion, I was seeking satisfaction and happiness, perhaps fulfilment, in worldly things; vices, relationships, career, material things, money. I ended up realising these things were empty and meaningless by themselves which led to hopelessness. It was also a very selfish way to be living and I was troubled by guilt because of my sin.

5. Receiving forgiveness of my sin- past, present and future, and peace with God. On becoming a Christian, I clearly remember that my biggest emotion was a sense of relief. Relief that I was no longer at war with God, no longer running from God, no longer at risk of Hell. I felt an immediate sense of peace knowing that all of my sin had been forgiven and that I couldn’t lose my salvation which had been secured by Jesus on the cross.

Then, I wanted to live a life that pleased God out of gratitude to Him for rescuing me.

6. Jesus changed my life. I’ve spoken briefly about vices but some of these were deeply ingrained. I had tried hard to deal with them myself and was unable to. It was only when I recognised that they were sins against God which had become idols in my life, and asked for God’s help, that I was able to be rid of lifestyle sins that had plagued me for years.

In time, I found that I no longer wanted to do these things and, whilst I have to be careful with some things, others are no longer a temptation for me. I have seen others trapped in these vices and been able to help them because Jesus helped me.

7. Creation makes sense of the evidence. I’ve never believed in the Big Bang or the theory of Evolution. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m a logical thinker. I’m often astonished when talking to people far more intelligent than I am, who seem to have swallowed the evolutionary nonsense, hook, line and sinker, despite all of the flaws in the theory, and the much more plausible alternative.

How do people explain the conscience, the soul, our wills, feelings and emotions? Also, the irreducible complexity of things created which have obviously been intelligently designed? The Bible tells us that people are without excuse for rejecting God because His Hand can be clearly seen in Creation.

8. The Bible is factually reliable. There is a lot that could be said here. I’ve never had an issue with accepting the supernatural in the Bible because if God created everything then He can do whatever He wants.

A few of the main evidences are that there are hundreds of specific prophecies in the Old Testament that came true thousands of years later in the New Testament. There were many witnesses to Jesus' life, death and even His resurrection. The tomb was empty. The disciples went from being timid and afraid to associate with Jesus when He was arrested and killed, to boldly proclaiming that He had risen from the dead. Most of them lost their lives for their stance.

Additionally, there are plenty of facts from sources outside the Bible that confirm its reliability. Facts about the Geography of the area, the language used at the time, the names of people etc.

We know that the Bible hasn’t been changed as we have the Dead Sea Scrolls and eyewitness testimonies from the time.

9. God answers specific prayer. I know of people who have had supernatural experiences including someone who asked God to switch a TV off if He was really there. Imagine the terror when it actually happened!

Though I haven’t personally experienced anything supernatural, I have seen answers to prayer that cannot be explained away. When I was first saved, I prayed for an opportunity to speak to a group of lads that were smoking drugs on my train. I was so stunned when it happened, and was initiated by the lads, who were being chased by train security at the time, that I was almost lost for words!

10. God orders circumstances. We need to be careful about reading things into our circumstances especially when seeking guidance. But there have been several times in my life where circumstances have miraculously come together to give me the confidence to move forward in faith.

A major example was when I was seeking God about heading to the mission field, but I had a mortgage. God used my lodgers, who weren’t Christians at the time, to provide for me for the next seven years. Even my lodgers said that it felt as if things were being taken out of their hands and they later became Christians. This type of intervention gives me confidence in my faith knowing that God works things for good for those who love Him.

I could add a section dealing with the fact that Christianity works but experiences are subjective and can often be explained away. If you do want to look into this aspect, there is a good series on this YouTube page every Saturday night called Real Lives that tells individual stories of lives changed through becoming Christians. There are millions more around the world with similar stories from the mundane to the miraculous. Jesus does change lives, but this doesn’t mean that all of your problems will disappear, or that Christianity will make your life easier. My life got a lot harder when I became a Christian.  

I’m not going to mention that the Bible is the world’s best-selling book, or that Christianity is the largest world religion. Muslims often ask why, if Christianity is true, Islam is the fastest growing religion. These facts are largely irrelevant as many people who think they are Christians are just born in a “Christian” country but have no faith to speak of. Likewise, anyone born in a Muslim majority country is automatically classed as a Muslim even if they convert to another religion. A lady I know who converted to Christianity from Islam is still repeatedly told that she is Muslim by her neighbours because her father was a Muslim despite her being a member of a Christian church!

The Bible says that "narrow is the way that leads to life, and few will find it and that broad is the road that leads to destruction with many on it." This immediately makes a nonsense of any statistics regarding religious adherence. We all know also that people can be sincerely wrong, and that the majority are not always right.

These are some of the reasons I am a Christian. I’m praying that if you really think about these things, you’ll realise that you too should become a Christian for “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Danger of a Wrong Diagnosis

Many of us have had the frustrating experience of being repeatedly told that the result of a medical investigation is that there is nothing wrong, or to put it in simpler terms “the blood tests are normal.” Our plea which seems to fall on deaf ears, “But Doctor, I just don’t feel right!”

The weekend before last, I went walking with some friends. A few steps (literally) up the first hill and I was gasping for breath, wheezing, and with serious chest pain. Berating myself for being unfit which seemed to be the only possible explanation, I forced myself to continue at a slower pace and finished the walk in the pouring rain several hours later. Seemingly, no harm done, apart from my wounded pride.

At church the following day, a friend suggested that this was not normal, even for an unfit person, I had already been walking regularly so was not that unfit, she then told me of someone that had had a heart attack in similar circumstances at 40. I felt afraid, but not very afraid.

The following day, I woke up with slight chest pain and, my friend's words ringing in my ears, decided to go to A and E. To their credit, they took the situation more seriously than I had been taking it up to this point and arranged all manner of tests. After several false alarms, a few days later I was diagnosed with severe iron deficiency anaemia and told not to do any further exercise, until I could have the first of several iron infusions.

Suddenly, a lot of symptoms I’d been struggling with on and off for years made sense. Why had this not been picked up earlier, you might be wondering?

Basically, because I have an under-active thyroid which involves similar symptoms, every-time I tried to get to the root of the problem, I would end up in a circular conversation like the one above. I’d grown so tired of fighting a losing battle with medical professionals that I’d given up and convinced myself that it was my thyroid issues that were the problem.

What’s my point? I think that sometimes we do the same thing in evangelism.

We might meet someone in the street and be so determined to communicate our message, or reach as many people as possible, that we don’t really listen to the person in front of us. We provide a solution without really hearing the problem. The person is left feeling like a number in a doctor’s waiting room, or worse, telling us that they still don’t feel right (understand the Gospel) by which point we’ve already finished our script, given them a book that doesn’t answer their questions, and moved on to the next person.

We can also make assumptions about what someone believes and end up in long discussions that don't deal with their real problem. I covered this last time in the difference between red herrings and real hindrances. But we can also do it when we assume that because someone is a Muslim, they won't believe that Jesus died on the cross, or because someone is a Catholic, they are relying on good deeds to get to Heaven. Sometimes, this happens because we sub-consciously like to show off our knowledge, or conversely it may happen because we are ignorant about something the person has mentioned, and we don't want to admit this. I've even ended up in a long discussion about Creation vs Evolution with someone who also believed in Creation because I wasn't listening properly to what he had said. Whatever the case, we haven't gathered the correct information which will inevitably lead to a wrong diagnosis.

Perhaps, more worryingly, we can make assumptions about what people need without reference to the Bible, or God. We might decide that they need food, a place to stay, help getting a job, a reference, a loan, friends, a social life, a holiday, time off etc. Yet, when someone is sick, they need a doctor not a well-intentioned stranger to make a diagnosis. We can be impulsive and jump in with a wrong diagnosis. The sin-doctor is Jesus, and we must refer to Him first if we are to really help anyone.

Another tendency is to determine that we can save the person either through our exhaustive efforts, or through money, or practical help. We give 24/7 to a person for weeks, months, years. We have everyone praying for them. We raise their plight at every opportunity. We create dependence, then resentment. We are left broken when the person isn’t saved and finally walks away from God for good. We can’t redeem or pay a ransom for someone else (Psalm 49). This is another form of wrong diagnosis as we have wrongly, (and usually subconsciously), determined that the person needs us rather than God.

I’m sure we can all see the danger of giving someone false assurance of salvation, yet we do it often. John MacArthur said once that if someone came to his office with doubts as to whether or not they were saved. He would say to them, “You’re probably not saved”, and explain again the way of salvation, rather than offer false assurance. Each time a member of another religion tries to tell us that we are all on the same path, or a cult member says that they are a Christian, or someone says that they were born a Christian, or that they are sure they are going to Heaven because of good works, and we fail to challenge it…we are potentially giving the person false assurance that they are saved. In this case, if we don’t pluck up the courage to tell the person we don’t agree with their statements, we may be contributing to their own wrong self-diagnosis!

A less likely issue in street evangelism, but something that is occasionally possible would be making a real Christian doubt their salvation. We might wrongly decide that the person isn't a Christian based on something they say or do, or we might be, usually unintentionally, adding church culture or our traditions as necessary for salvation. We have again made a wrong diagnosis which could be extremely damaging.

How can we make sure we are not causing, or contributing to people being wrongly diagnosed?

It’s true that the Bible holds the solution to our greatest need, forgiveness of sin and peace with God. But people are individuals and can’t be treated en masse with the same medicine delivered in the same way.

We need to really listen to a person’s heart when we are speaking one to one with them and not be rushing to solutions or looking around for our next contact.

We all know that there’s nothing more annoying than someone coming up to you at church and asking how you are. Then, as you begin to reply, you notice that the person has gone, or turned their back on you to talk to someone else, or interrupts with an “I’m fine too”, before you can say anything! Or the person who is looking over your shoulder for someone more interesting to talk to, or who seems easily distracted by anything and everything going on around them whilst you are pouring out your heart. It’s just another way of looking at a watch which we would all say is extremely rude!

People are in different circumstances and often we have no idea what they are going through when we talk to them. We need to be sensitive to God’s leading and aware of issues that may crop up in discussions.

It’s obvious, with hindsight, that a wrong medical diagnosis could have led to my collapse halfway up a mountain. Yet, a wrong spiritual diagnosis could have a far more deadly consequence.

Let’s make sure we are not getting in the way of what God is doing by offering people a wrong diagnosis without reference to Him.

Is it a Red Herring or a Real Hindrance?

Often when having conversations about faith with people in the street, there will come a time during the discussion when they will raise objections to what is being said. So far, so obvious.

We were speaking to a lady today at the book table in Rochdale for a long time. During the conversation she spoke about karma and reincarnation as something that she loosely believed. Later, when we spoke in depth about Jesus, she suddenly responded sharply with words to the effect of, “Wait a minute, so in order to be a Christian, you have to believe that Jesus was punished for your sin. I don’t believe that. I’d rather pay for my own sin.” It was as if a switch had been flicked, she understood what was being said and didn’t like it. The discussion continued for quite some time afterwards and she ended up taking a Gospel of John from one of our team.

Reflecting on this afterwards, I realised this was a prime example of someone with both a red herring and a real hindrance (not my phrases, but useful here.) The red herring was the lady’s loosely held new age beliefs as they didn’t stand up to scrutiny, and we were relatively easily able to redirect the hearer back to the important matters. The real hindrance was the idea that she could somehow atone for her sin herself. This conviction was more deeply held in her heart, and concerned key elements of the Gospel, so it was necessary to try and remove the hurdle before continuing.

Perhaps you have spoken to people like this and wondered whether to redirect the hearer, effectively ignoring the red herring, or to attempt to remove the hurdle of the real hindrance which is likely to be an ongoing barrier to the person seeking to understand.

It’s an interesting dilemma for Christians and not always as obvious as the example I have given. Furthermore, what may be a red herring for one person, may be a real hindrance for another!

Consider how you would deal with these:

-I believe in Science

-What may be true for you may not be true for me

-I’ve lived a pretty good life

-Sometimes, I think my mum is looking down on me from Heaven.

-I’m a Muslim/Buddhist/Hindu/Catholic

-I can’t change religion at my stage of life

-I would like to believe it but I just can’t

-Christians have never helped me when I’ve needed it

-Do you believe in Noah’s ark then?

-Why didn’t God stop Aberfan?

-Aren’t Catholic and Christian the same thing?

-The cross is cosmic child abuse

-So, you think you’re better than me

-The God of the Old Testament is vengeful and slaughtered loads of innocent people

-It’s not justice for Jesus to be punished in my place

-God seems arrogant, demanding worship for Himself

-I can’t come to church as I’m socially anxious

-Why did God create evil?

-We’re all going to end up in Heaven anyway

-Religion has caused loads of wars. What about the crusades?

-I only trust myself

-I’m a drug addict, God can’t help me as I’ve tried asking Him before

-I want to do things my way

-How can God have a Son?

-We believe in Jesus too. We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints.

-I don’t believe in God, so He can’t judge me.

-Will I have to give all my money to the church?

-Is being gay a sin?

-Why did God create the world if He knew what would happen?

-Nobody has come back to tell us. I can’t believe unless I see.

-Churches are full of hypocrites.

-Is there any sin that can’t be forgiven?

-So, your God died on a cross, couldn’t He have stopped that happening?

-The Bible was written 2000 years ago.

-When you’re dead, you’re dead.

-What are you collecting for?

A lot of the time, the tone of the conversation will tell you whether the person is really struggling with something, or whether they are just mocking the Christian, or attempting to show off to their friends. They might even be deflecting you with a red herring to avoid getting into anything serious.

It’s worth knowing the biblical answers to these questions and statements, to help those who are sincerely seeking God. It’s also good to make sure you know what you believe, (the key elements of the Gospel), so that you can redirect and refocus someone who has thrown you a red herring.

There will also be times when someone asks something that you haven’t thought about before. Don’t be afraid to admit this, and then either ask someone else, or get back to them with an answer.

Nobody has all the answers, and there are some things we just don’t know because God has left them unanswered.

Prayer is key as God is in control and He promises to honour us if we honour Him. He wants us to seek to share the Gospel with others, so even when we think we haven’t done well in a discussion or when we have engaged with a red herring, or failed to address a real hindrance, God can still use our weak efforts for His glory.