I remember talking with a friend about the importance of putting a Christian fish on the back of his car. You know those shiny little silver fish that you can see on almost every car in the church parking lot.
\nHe said he really needed to get one to as a conversation starter.
\nI then asked him, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How many conversations do you have flying down I-35 at 80 miles an hour?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if he got my point or not. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so easy to do what he wanted. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so easy to slap a bumper sticker on our car that says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In case of rapture this car will be unmanned.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nIn other words, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to cause a 12 car pile up when the rapture takes place, so you better get saved or avoid me at all costs on the highway.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That really says love doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?
\nI heard of another bumper sticker that said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In case of rapture, can I have your car?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nNow I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be the first to admit I have a closet full of Christian T-Shirts (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m even part owner of a Christian T-Shirt company).
\nBut most of the shirts I own are now worn to threads and mainly used for playing sports or doing work around the house.
\nBut I still remember always wanting to wear the coolest Christian T-Shirts so everyone would know that I go to church and they could ask me how to get to heaven.
\nBut you know what?
\nNo one ever asked me. At least not when I was wearing my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re living like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no heaven or hell, you better be right\u00e2\u20ac\u009d shirt.
\nNo, I never had one person read my shirt and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please tell me how to get to heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nBut I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had people ask.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had people see that there was something different in my life and they wanted to know what it was.
\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the personal witness that I believe Jesus lived out each day He walked on this earth.
\nJesus was not about bumper stickers or T-Shirts. He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about catchy slogans. He also wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about mega-church events to invite the sinners to. He was all about the one-on-one relationships.
\nIn Luke 15 the Pharisees judge Jesus for his ministry. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This man welcomes sinners and eats with them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d they said.
\nJesus responded by telling two stories — the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin. In each story Jesus turns the logic of the world upside down.
\nA shepherd leaves 99 sheep to find one. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ridiculous.
\nBy the time he finds that one, it will be mauled and eaten by hungry wolves.
\nAnd by the time he gets back, wolves will have attacked the other 99 and be ready to attack the shepherd as well.
\nYou don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave 99 sheep just to find one. Cut your loss and move on.
\nThen there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the story of the woman with the lost coin.
\nWhen I get home at night I pull my coins out of my pocket and toss them on the dresser or in my coin cup.
\nI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count them, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how much money I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pulling out of my pocket, I just toss the coins down.
\nAnd if I were to drop one coin on the floor, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d spend maybe an entire three seconds looking for it. If I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who cares?
\nAnd if I did find it, in no way would I throw a party to rejoice with my friends. It would cost more to throw the party then the coin was worth.
\nThe ideology behind these stories is ridiculous.
\nBut Jesus is saying that that one person, that one coin is that important to Him. Rather than holding a big huge mega-event or crusade or party, He spent time with the one.
\nHe left the crowds to go to Nicodemus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 house. He left the crowds to go to Zacchaeus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 house. He felt the touch of a lady in the crowd of hundreds and healed her.
\nHe stopped his preaching in a packed house to heal a man lowered by his friends from the rooftop.
\nHe ignored the crowds jeering Him on Calvary and made a connection with the theif hanging next to Him.
\nHe was and is about the personal relationships and each individual soul. I think I (we) need to follow His example.
\nOur catchy slogans won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lead anyone to Christ, but a personal relationship with our neighbor or co-worker will.
\nLetting them see the difference Christ has made in our life will be all the conversation starter we need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I remember talking with a friend about the importance of putting a Christian fish on the back of his car. You know those shiny little silver fish that you can see on almost every car in the church parking lot. He said he really needed to get one to as a conversation starter. I then … Continue reading And They Will Know We Are Christians by our T-Shirts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2090],"tags":[2088,2089,2092],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-reflections","tag-belton-journal","tag-columns","tag-newspaper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}