Since I became a Christian I have been struggling with explaining to my friends. Not my friends back home, my friends down here. The brilliant thing about Stornoway is that everybody, whether they are a church goer or not, understands what you mean when you say “I’ve become a Christian”.
The church is part of the culture up there, it’s a way of life.

Down here if you say to someone “I’ve become a Christian” they say, “well weren’t you one already” or “we’re all Christians in this country” and if you tell them you’ve been born again they look at you as if you’ve joined some weird cult!

How do you explain to someone that has no grasp whatsoever of the concept without them thinking you’ve completely lost their marbles.
Obviously you can do it but I’ve just been a coward. I’ve been making excuses why I can’t go out drinking with them and avoiding situations where I would have to come out and explain to them. A few weeks ago one of my really good friends called round and I was watching the God channel on TV and she laughed and called me a geek, that would have been the perfect opportunity to explain but I just shrugged it off and said nothing.

Tonight I was browsing You Tube. They had showed a video clip of Richard Wurmbrand in church this morning and my baby girl had been a bit grumpy so I had taken her out into the foyer and missed it. I thought I’d search for it and whilst doing so I came across some clips posted by Voice of the Martyrs. It was powerful stuff.
They were telling of the thousands of Christians being persecuted all over the world for their faith. Right now. As I’m typing this. A Christian is martyred every 3 minutes.
I saw a clip on there of a ten year old boy in the Sudan who had been thrown on top of a bonfire and left to die because he wouldn’t deny Christ and turn to Islam. I heard storied of people locked in prison cells underground for 15 years suffering unbearable torture all because they wouldn’t deny Christ.
Christians in China are being arrested and beaten for attending church, they could easily avoid these horrors by denying God and they won’t!

And I can’t even stand up for his name to my friends.

I will NEVER make excuses or shy away from telling anyone about my faith EVER again and whilst I’m doing it I will thank God that he’s put me in the position that I can do it without having to fear the horrific consequences that so many in the world are suffering today.
Jesus didn’t deny me when he hung upon that cross and I will never deny him.

But the amazing thing is that no matter how pathetic, shameful or cowardly I am, God still loves me, he still holds his arms out to me and offers me sweet salvation.
His capacity for forgiveness is amazing and his love is never ending.

People need to know how much God loves them, there are so many broken, empty people in the world today, if only they realised what amazing love and comfort is within their grasp so many hearts would be healed.