Jesus Hates Me. I saw that bumper sticker on a car that read Jesus Hates Me. That kind of thing really does hurt me on a deep level. The probably meant it to be funny, but that is beside the point. There so many possible bumper stickers out there: I brake for coffee, I had a life but my job ate it, Don't like my driving? Get off the sidewalk. Of all the quippy bumper stickers out there, he chose Jesus Hates Me. Why?

I was at Portland's favorite music store the other day, Music Millennium, shopping for the re-mastered Beatles CDs when woman went to the counter and asked: "Where is your religious section?" Another worker there kindly replied: "I can show you." The guy behind the counter responded: "You know where the religious section is? I can't believe you'd ever go down there!"

These two things, the bumper sticker and music store lady really got me thinking about our culture, our faith, and religion in general. What is the reason for this stark disassociation with religion?"

Two things came to mind. First, I think about us as Christians. Have these people encountered hypocrites? Have they encountered people who are not authentic witnesses to gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is it we who are off-putting and annoying?

Second, I wondered if the gospel presented these people with a sign of contradiction for their lives. The gospel challenges the immorality of a lot of people. To put it bluntly, do feel they feel convicted?

This is the conclusion I came to. I was reminded of some scripture passages that I paraphrase here:

"don't judge or else you will be judged"
"the measuring stick you use to measure others is the measuring stick that will be used for you."
"the world has me ...it will hate you."
"always be ready to give an account of your joy"

Have I been bad a witness? Do I live in a manner that says life in Jesus Christ is the purpose for living? Is it also just hard for me to accept that people are not going to like the fact that I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. I ultimately came down to this. I simply have to love without fear: fear of rejection and fear that I'm not being faithful to preaching. I saw another bumper sticker relating to war to once: "We'll do the shooting. God'll do the sorting." This person al most got it right. I'd make it: "We'll both do the loving and God can do sorting." It seems that the Lord says our job is to love and His job is to sort the sheep from the goats. I kind of like our job better. We must always remember We Gotta Love