Conversations About Religious Intolerance

My friend Lauren and I always seem to have some really good conversations. I'm sure most, if not all of you have heard of the new "youtube.com" craze. Well, Lauren mentioned to me the "vlogs" (video blogs) that some people post. So, I figured, hey, lets look for some! We were somehow on the topic of Buddhism, and so I typed in "Buddhism Vlog", and watched a couple. One of the people post a "vlog" about how she thought that we, as people, need to stop "acting" like whatever religion we claimed was true, while offending others. Well, Lauren and I looked at eachother, and we were stunned. We immediately said to eachother that we did not agree with anything this girl said.

This got me thinking about the calling that God has given us as His disciples. Are we truly claiming Christ? God calls us not to be ashamed of Him. I'm not merely talking about the times where we just can't get over our fear of mentioning God to someone (which is a whole different blog post), I'm talking about intentionally not including Him in conversation because we fear that we will offend someone. Paul says,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." -Romans 1:16

To not be ashamed means that we shouldn't be scared of offending others. Honestly, so what if we do! How could you believe the gospel, and not have a deep desire to tell others?? This deep desire must overcome that fear! There have been certain people in my life who know this truth, that the gospel is the power of God! How can any one of us shrink back and be scared? What about passion for our Creator?

I will be the first to say that I am not perfect. I mess up. I don't always do what I know God is calling me to do. But that's just it... He has called us to live for Him. Right now. Life is too short to say that you'll talk to that person when the time is right, when you know that they can trust you. How can we be a true light if we're not shining for Him at all moments?

These are just the thoughts that have been flying around in my head while I do Spanish homework...