Well, today is Easter Sunday and it has been full of ups and downs.

First of all the most important thing is that Jesus Christ is ALIVE and that He died, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this for you and me. He died so we could live.

I get up to go to church like I do on most Sundays, but this one is different and somewhat depressing. Today our pastor and his wife retired. They will be missed. I’m happy for them though and know that they have a bunch of doors ready to open for them and for us.

Then I got to talking to my friend Nancybratt on Facebook. As a Christian, the death and life of Christ is the most important event ever. Because of these things, we have hope that we will live forever and reside with Christ.

She posted a topic about how her nephew and she got into an argument. She is a Christian, and he isn’t. He has denied Christ and she is very upset over that. I can’t blame her for that though, because I got into arguments with my niece Bridgette.

In school she was being told mythology and evolution. I’m sure all kids are taught these things if they are in public school. I was when I was in high school too and thankfully I knew it was lame. But that isn’t the case for everyone.

Bridgette decided that the whole evolution thing made sense to her, and in that same conversation, a battle of truth and stupidity took over at my house. If she wanted to believe she came from a monkey, I was thinking “let her”. But I was more concerned about her soul then her thoughts that was injected into her teenage mind at the time.

I very much believe without a shadow of a doubt that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. There is no if’s, an’s or but’s about it. But to this young mind that believes anything that comes at her, she thought that there can’t be a God, because where did He come from. How do you explain faith to a person who has no faith? They have to have everything proven and see it.

While I was having this conversation with her, I wanted to throw a shoe at her and knock some sense into her. My mother in law came out of her room and had about enough of it. If you want to get a sweet little mother in law that is under 5 feet tall upset, this is a good way to do that. She was so upset over what Bridgette was saying and the non sense, that her dentures almost flew out of her mouth. I think she would have thrown a shoe at her too if she was close to hers.

After she came out and tempers were flared, I decided that I had enough and had to go outside. It was such a battle over stupidity and faith that I was horse for two days afterwards.

After some time, I came to the conclusion that there is no making someone believe the way I did or do. Sometimes people and teens aren’t ready for the truth and I can’t hit them over the head with a hammer to get them to smarten up.

My friend Nancy is dealing with her nephew who once believed as a child. I don’t know how old he is now, but he has decided that there is no God and that the Bible isn’t true. Nancy is very upset over this and I can see why. When we love someone, we want them to be with us forever in eternity. We want them to know that Christ loves them and that He died for them. The alternative is a horrible thing to even imagine.

I did tell her that the best thing to do is to live by example and be there for him. He is the only one who can decide to follow Christ or not. Also, I think about how many different faiths or no faith at all that feel just as strongly about what they believe or don’t believe. Arguing will get us nowhere. Well, yeah it will, but that would be on high blood pressure meds and Lord knows what else.

I do pray that her nephew and all those who don’t know Christ personally will get to know Him. I pray that they will see the truth for what it is and to have faith in Christ alone.

I went to check out why some people choose not to believe and here is a list of some of the reasons why;

Reasons why people don’t accept Jesus:

• They’ve been hurt.
• They like their sin.
• They don’t think He’s real.
• They think He’s someone He’s not.
• They’re ignorant of their need.
• They’re afraid of what peers will think.
• They don’t want to give up stuff.
• They don’t believe in hell.
• They think there’s more than one way to heaven.
• They think they’re okay without Christ.
• They’ve seen His followers act like hypocrites.
• They’re deceived.
• They feel unworthy
• Never really read what the Bible had to say

There can be many more reasons why someone would choose not to become a believer in Christ. From my own experience  it does no good to make people believe  because that takes faith and if they have none, you are preaching to the choir. On most days I do good about not arguing about my faith in Jesus Christ, most days! For those other days, I have to understand that I may just be the seed planter and someone else needs to come along and water. It takes many people to help someone become mature in their faith. They don’t need to be mature in my faith, they have to have a personal relationship that is real to them. My faith does them no good if they have none for themselves.God knows what needs to be done and each person is given free will. We may not like this and many times I don’t because I want to use that hammer of common sense. But that isn’t for me to decide for them.