Good morning to everyone. Grace and Peace be with you.

I think the hardest witness that I have ever done is to someone that I love. Someone who is close to me. Someone that I admire. Someone who has overcome battles. Someone who I want to walk the streets of gold with. However, their views and my views are miles apart.

The world has intertwined so many ‘logical’ explanations, ‘logical’ conclusions, and ‘logical’ dismissals for believing in God.

1. If there is a God, why do kids get sick?
2. If there is a God, why do those who believe in him suffer?
3. I asked God to help and he didn’t.
4. There is no way that the flood happened.
5. Once you die, you die…you cannot wake up again.
6. I believe there is a higher power, but I don’t know about Jesus.
7. Why would anyone purposefully die for someone they don’t know?

Seven very common, very real, very distinctive arguments that I have run into from those that I love. But the one that gets me the most is this: There are a lot of religions; what makes yours the right one?

Anyone else run into these scenarios? Or is it just me?

The first two kind of go hand in hand. Suffering. Illness. Without suffering, how would we know what was good? Without suffering, how could we learn empathy? Without suffering, how would we learn compassion?

Number 3 … I asked, and he did not answer. Hmm. What did you ask for? Money? Revenge? To fix something that He told you not to do in the first place? God always answers, but sometimes the answer is No. When the answer is No to what you are asking, there is a follow-up plan; you just have to be patient. That is one thing that the enemy has exploited to a bare thin thread. We do not have any.

Four has been proven by science. Five, if you can believe in a higher power, then why can you not believe in the Trinity? Then seven, Jesus came, he taught, he demonstrated and he died to demonstrate His love for us. He did not have to … He chose to. To demonstrate that we all have choices … some are more unpleasant than others.

Then finally, the last common one, there are so many religions … blah blah blah … There are. Factions, splits, denominations … I am sure that they are innumerable by now … however, there is only one tomb that is empty. There is only one way to heaven.

So, when you present facts and figures as it were, to family and they still disregard your pursuit, it cuts to the core. But know this: you may have only been the merchant who sold the seeds. Do not be disheartened. You may have only been the worker to plant the seed. Do not be discouraged. You may not be the one at the harvest, but prayerful watering that the right servant will be placed in their path; that is how I get over that hump of fear. Knowing that God has placed me where he wants me for those I am to sow into, and that he will place someone in my loved one’s path to do the same.

Do not let the enemy steal your peace for their salvation; continue to pray and speak love.

Be blessed.

**So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:18