Why do we keep our mouths shut?

Let me explain the question: as Christians, we belief, and we know, that knowing Jesus Christ is a great blessing and the most important thing in our lives. Yet, when it comes to talk about this to friends, collegues, and relatives, we instead talk about many other things: sports, the weather, chess, politics, etc.

There is one choice in life everyone must make which is the most important - are you going to live your life with, or without God.

I belief and have experienced that living a life with God is good. At times when things are difficult in your life, you can experience Gods support, and your faith can help you better through those times. Also, the rules and guidelines from the Bible can help you to have a life of a better quality, and Gods guidance helps to make decisions better. The fact that God loves you personally is a wonderfull source of inspiration.

In addition, the Bible learns about what happens to us after we have died. With Jesus, we go to heaven after we died. People without God will go after their death to a place where he is not present, and that place (hell) is, mildly stated, a place to avoid at all cost. To tell the truth, this is not my favorite Bible fact. I still hope that this interpretation of the Bible proves to be wrong, and that God is so mercifull that also non-believers will enter heaven - but it seems that the Bible learns us otherwise.

Given these things, the question pops up: why do so little Christians tell non-Christians about this. And, the question I have to ask myself: why do I not tell my friends, collegues, and relatives about this. I found three possible answers to the question.

• We do not really believe it. While we say with our mouths things, we do not believe it with our hearts.
• We are too selfish. As we are saved ourselves, why should we worry about other people? We have so many other things to do, there are so many other things to talk and think about.
• We are too afraid. Reactions of non-Christians may be harsh at times, and we fear to be laughed at, scolded at, not taken seriously anymore. What is the sense of telling about Christ, when people anyhow won't belief you?

To tell you the truth, I am still too afraid to talk to many of the people I know about Christ. These webpages are an attempt to do at least something - to talk about these most important facts of life here on the World Wide Web. About three years ago, after a revival of my faith, I had put my creed on a webpage. Now, I hope to write more about the Christian faith on my webpages - this text here was the first I wrote.

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Hans Bodlaender, January 14, 1999