Defending Our Hope

At my church, we have a ministry called the Get Trained ministry. These are courses that are designed to expand our knowledge of who God is, what is He calling us to be, who are we in Him, etc. etc. Some are on specific topics, specific times of life, different books of the bible, etc. I've had the privilege of being a part of several of these classes, and they have always blown me away. The teachers are dedicated to the truth, and are so wise. I've really enjoyed having this ministry at our church. It's a huge resource to me, and to many others.

This semester I'm taking a class called Defending Our Hope. Here is the summary of what we are going to walk through:

As Christians, we should wrestle to understand the deep things of our faith and share all that God has revealed about Himself and His promises. Join us as we reflect on all that God has done for us in the Gospel and give reason for the hope that is in us by digging into the big questions: How can a loving God send people to Hell? How could a good God allow suffering?

Tonight was our first class. It's being taught by a friend of mine, Fabs, and she asked me to be a table leader (our class has about 35 people, and we all sit at tables for small group discussion time). Needless to say tonight's class already just blew me away and it was only the INTRO! God has so much to reveal to me, and so much to show me. I just sat there and was thankful, but also a little scared. Fabs pushes you to truly know what you believe, and to truly be strong in that... because she is. She's passionate about the gospel, and passionate about her love for Christ. I sense that each time I'm around her.

One thing we talked about tonight is the fact that we are ALL evangelists for the "good news" of your life. Whether or not that's the gospel, that's another story. As Christians, it should be, but it rarely is. We are too scared to hurt some one feelings, to offend someone, to be awkward, etc. I know I am in most cases. And the truth of that is that we (I) honestly don't believe that people apart from Christ are slaves to their sin, and slaves to having NO hope, and slaves to the fact that they will spend an eternity apart for Him. Why doesn't that move me? Why doesn't that make me want to call each person in my family or any of my friends who don't know Him? I don't really know the answer, but I have a feeling in the next six weeks I'm going to figure it out.

It's not going to be an easy class, but I am thankful that God has called me to take it.

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who ask you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence.
1 Peter 3:15