Queen's Road Cell

Eugene and Joyce shared stories of how people ill with advanced cancer had turned to Christ. I asked whether it was right that Christians should share the gospel with those who were physically weak and emotionally vulnerable - would this not be wrong? Our answer was that we are not told to stop sharing the gospel with people. Who knows but that it was God who granted them an illness out of loving grace, rather than out of anger and judgement, if the illness led to their salvation? We are to " be ready in season and out of season" (2 Ti 4:2) - not to say we preach and share at times inconvenient to people, but times inconvenient to us. I shared the touching Christian story of the birdcage: There once was a man named George Thomas, a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Several eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak.   "I w...

I asked how we might respond to this meme: My thought is that an adequate Christian response will not be immediately obvious, because, factually speaking, the meme is not incorrect. However, it presents God/Jesus as unreasonable and demanding. The implication is that all would be well if only He did not knock to be ask to be let in. In the first place, the verse (Rev 3:20) to which the picture refers is directed to a church (i.e. Christians, not to non-Christians). The Bible presents not only a picture of invitation to be saved, but also of the sovereign power and right of God to save. The main wrong assumption involved in this meme is that mankind is perfectly fine when left alone by God. The meme does not acknowledge the grave sin of man against God that justifies our condemnation. So mankind is not in a neutral position - we are already condemned (Jn 3:18), and God the righteous Judge reaches out in mercy to extend salvation to us. Grace asked on behalf of her youth cell ...