God is a loving God, and his offer of salvation to us is something that we must take seriously. The Gospel of Christ comes with power and authority to help us access this salvation. Yet the credibility of the Christian message can be affected by the way we respond to it. There are two major factors that impact negatively on this message today.

The first is unseriousness of those baptised who have reduced the Christian message to a feel-good information that no longer stirs our heart to repentance. Everything is relativized, every norm (including the commandments of God) are jettisoned, and the feelings of individuals becomes the measure of righteousness: ‘do whatever you like, God will understand!’ These ones destroy the faith from the outside.

The second comes from those who in their zealousness to represent the Christian message presume to speak for God. They become fundamentalists when it comes to the Scriptures, interpreting what they think as what God says. They have no space for the weaknesses of others, and with time you drift away in the ‘authority’ that they claim is given by God. These ones destroy the faith from within.

Virtue lies in the ability to allow God direct our lives and to be faithful to the Holy Spirit who works good things in us, never getting ahead of God, but allowing his will alone to be done in our lives.