The Heart of What’s the Matter

The secret of the Christian hope

I can’t tell you how many posts I see regularly from Christians that expect politicians and the legal system to change the world. It seems we’ve forgotten the lessons history can teach us, like recognizing that positive change typically comes from the passions of the heart of humanity, not from its political systems.* One who exemplified this best was Jesus Christ himself. Have we forgotten the model he showed us? It was one of compassionate purpose focused on the Kingdom of God, a spiritual dynamic, not a world system. Every believer should recall how Jesus acted while on Earth. He showed us a better way—a connection to our heavenly Father.

A friend of mine, Sally Fam, originally from Egypt, has seen first-hand what happens in a culture that rejects connection to Christ. She currently lives in Canada, a very secularized culture, and is pursuing her Master’s in Apologetics from Biola University to help show people a better way.  A post she wrote recently speaks beautifully with regards to creating lasting change in culture:

True and lasting cultural reformation does not happen through legal reformation. The order here is reversed. To save the legal system from corruption that legalizes moral decay, we need to reform the culture first. But, how? If our culture is left to blindly believe that morality, purpose, meaning, human value and destiny are all subjective, cannot be objectively known and are only informed by our equally valid yet conflicting traditions, we lose any common ground to seek the truth and knowledge about these critical matters through an edifying search for these answers.

Knowledge and truth must be sought not enforced. We must create in our culture a curiosity that seeks to know and understand the secret of the Christian hope. We must aim at the heart, our heart, so that we can live a life that showcases the reality of the transformed life that is reflective of Jesus.

We must also aim at the mind, our minds, so that we can demonstrate that spiritual knowledge is real and accessible. This will ignite curiosity and blow away the layers of apathy, stereotyping, and indifference. Law, social and moral codes alone do not create curious inquirers but angry rebels and hollow followers of the Christian faith.

 

~ Apologist, Sally Fam

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Many don’t understand this “secret of the Christian hope,” as Sally so poignantly said. This hope does not seek a politician as the savior. This hope does not seek a world system to create Utopia. The true secret of our hope lies in God’s love. The love of God must be realized to find true joy. This joy can then transform culture. This is what humans were created for and it is the secret of the Christian hope. It’s this secret believers need to share to see transformative change. Let the secret out!

 

 

*Note: in no way am I advocating that Christians not engage in our culture through being an active voice in the political or legal system, by voting, or even running for office, if that is what God calls you to do. This post is merely to recognize that the root of the cultural problem stems from the human heart. When one’s heart is changed by Jesus’ love, then the world becomes a better place, one heart at a time.

Sally gave me permission to repost her statements here.

 

 

11 Comments

  1. Yvonne May 17, 2018
  2. Sally Fam May 17, 2018
    • LisaQAuthor May 18, 2018
  3. Nancy E. Head May 18, 2018
  4. Karen Friday May 18, 2018
  5. Marcie Cramsey May 18, 2018
    • LisaQAuthor May 18, 2018
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  6. Robin Steinweg July 8, 2018
    • LisaQAuthor July 10, 2018