Blog — rice

The death of outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens last week was mourned by both believer and non-believer alike. There was something about this man that people loved – even those whose faith he tried to destroy. He wrote how “religion ruins everything” – pointing out excesses in various religious practices that were wrong. His attacks, for the most part, were drastically biased and philosophically flawed - yet at times were justified, especially when pointing out extremists blindly following ideologies that produced terror and death. Yet, he met very competent and strong opposition when it came to the Christian faith. Debates with men like...

“You don’t have to know a drowning person to save their life.” There has been enormous emphasis placed on the need for relationship with people as the prerequisite for evangelism. So much so that some go as far as saying that relationship with others should be the only motive and not the hidden agenda of evangelism. Relationship-Relationship-Relationship… This seems to be the word of the hour. I spoke to church planters who had not succeeded in their efforts to launch a ministry. As I dug deeper it became apparent that they made a lot of friends and very few disciples....

2000 years ago the preoccupation of the disciples seemed to be the establishment of the physical, visible Kingdom of God. Christ’s crucifixion temporarily dashed the hopes that He was indeed the triumphant Messiah they thought the prophets had spoken about (rather than the suffering servant). After His resurrection, the disciples still hoped these expectations would be fulfilled. Jesus explicitly admonished them to not worry about times or dates of God’s plans. Instead they (we) will be given power to be His witnesses to the “ends of the Earth.” Their focus is to be our focus: Preaching the Gospel and being His...