The Western World

Sometimes I struggle with something. Sometimes I put it to the back of my mind and try to ignore my part in this struggle. This struggle is my incompetence at being a Christian at times. I also am very frustrated with they way we people are in North America. Very few people discuss religious beliefs. The conversations I've had with people are very limited. We make religion such a touchy subject. I realize that this is probably the case in many countries. But the thing is, I know that everyone thinks about this and struggles with it sometime in their life, maybe they do continuously. So why is it so off limits? Why does everyone suddenly get uncomfortable when the topic comes up? I think it's because each person thinks their own world view is right. And when we talk about it we're trying to convince the other that our world view is the only way to go.

A question I've been thinking about lately is, " how much do you believe in your god/religion that you would die for it? are you that sold on it? Or are you believing it because you need to feel secure, you want to feel safe that you know what's going to happen to you when your life ends? Do you believe that this religion is the answer for the world? Do you believe it can change the sorry condition, the sin condition of people?"

I read stories of the underground church and I see their fervency for the Gospel to be spread, their willingness to die for it. I see the purity and realness of their faith. And I think how many of us in Western Churches are like that? Is that why we belive we're here on this earth? To spread the gospel? Why aren't we continuing to strive to be more pure, strive to be more like Jesus? Are we willing to put our reputations, our securities, our lives on the line for what we believe. Or are we like everyone else? And I struggle with this in my own life. It haunts me, there's something more I need to be. If I believe in Jesus Christ with everything, why doesn't my life show it? I want to share this quote from a Jesus Freaks Book. V2. This passage is one that makes me feel sad at my lack of conviction for not sharing Christ with everyone I meet. If I had done that, who knows it there may have been more Christians in the world right now?

"What encourages us to preach the gospel in captive nations is that there those who become Christians are full of love and zeal. I have never met one single lukewarm Russian Christian. Former young Communists become exceptional disciples of Christ.....
Whoever has known the spiritual beauty of the undergroudn church cannot be satisfied anymore with the emptiness of some Western churches.....
One out of every five people in the world live in Communist China, where thousands of Christians evangelize without "permission." Persecution has always produced a better Christian, a soul winnning Christian. Communist persecution has backfired and produced serious, dedicated Christians such as are rarely seen in free lands. These people cannot understand how anyone can be a Christian and not want to win every soul they meet....
These millions of dedicated, true and fervent believers in the lay church have been purified by the very fires of persecution which the Communists hoped would destroy them......
In a letter smuggled out secretly, the underground church said, " we don't pray to be better Christians, but that we may be the only kind of Christians God meant us to be: Christlike Christians, that is, Christians who bear willingly the cross for God's glory."

Richard Wurmbrand
Founder of Voice of the Martyrs
Spent Fourteen Years in a Communist Prison
Romania
1940's. 50's, and 60's