Confessing Christ

In an interview, actor Jim Carey was asked about his views of Jesus. Carey struggles with believing in the deity of Jesus but he still can't stop thinking about Jesus.

He's constantly coming up in my head. I definitely remember the first time he came up in my work: It was in art class, grade three or four, and because I was in Catholic school, I decided to draw a really beautiful picture of him. I was so proud of it, and I couldn't wait to bring it home and show my parents, because I'd show them all my art and they'd flip out and throw me the metaphorical dog bone and tell me how special I was.

But on the way out of the school yard, some bully got in front of me, and this gang started picking on me for it, saying, "You drew a picture of the lord." A fight started, and I just remember seeing the picture float through the air between bodies and a mud puddle, because it had been raining, face down. And then I became like a whirling dervish and just started punching faces, any face that I could find. I lost my mind. It was like somebody killed my baby. I don't remember what happened exactly—all I know is I punched a lot of people that day. [Laughs.] Maybe not the reaction you want, and not the reaction Jesus would have wanted, but it just took over. There was love in that picture…

Pastor Steve May writes:

I decided to buy a banjo while I was in Brazil, even though my limited knowledge of Portuguese makes shopping a challenge. I also have a limited knowledge of the Brazilian banjo, knowing only that it is much smaller than its American counterpart and has fewer strings—not much on which to base a purchasing decision. Nevertheless, I went looking.

There are plenty of music stores in downtown Rio de Janeiro, but, unfortunately, the salesmen knew as little about the instrument as me. Most didn't even know how to tune it, let alone play it. They just pointed at one on the shelf and told me the price. I made a stab at playing one, but it was an awful noise. Must not be a very good banjo, I reasoned.

I visited three or four shops. With each stop, I found myself a little less inclined to buy. And then I found the right place. This salesman knew a little English, and more importantly, he knew the banjo. He grabbed one off the shelf—the same make I had seen earlier—and began to make the little instrument sing. He showed me how to tune it, he showed me a few chords, and he had a good instructional book to get me started. The longer he played, the more I began to believe that I, too, could play the banjo. I shelled out the money.

My point is, that banjo didn't sell itself. What's more, a banjo poorly demonstrated is even more difficult to sell.

The truth is, as much as I wanted a banjo, I would have gone home empty handed that afternoon if I hadn't found someone who could get me started in the right direction.

When others see you living out your faith, they glimpse the difference that Christianity can make in a person's life—and they long to experience that difference for themselves.

The animated story A Charlie Brown Christmas airs on one of the major television networks seasonally. The two producers who worked closely with Charlie Brown creator Charles Schultz remembered their desperate efforts to convince a network to show the special originally. All the major networks were hesitant. Finally, one agreed, and the great cartoonist got to work.

A memorable and moving part of A Charlie Brown Christmas occurs when the cartoon character Linus strolls to center stage and reads the biblical account of the meaning of Christmas. The two producers working with Schultz cautioned him about putting something like that in the special, because they were convinced it wouldn't go over well. Charles Schultz faced both of the producers and said, "If not us, then who's going to do it?"

In the first game of the best-of-seven, 2004 American League Championship Series between baseball's New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Boston's ace pitcher Curt Schilling was in pain. An ankle injury kept him from being able to plant his foot and throw the ball with his usual skill. Schilling was removed from the game after allowing six runs in just three innings. Teammates feared Schilling's injury would end his season and their hopes to get to the World Series.

But in the sixth game against the Yankees, Schilling surprisingly took the mound again. Facing elimination if they lost, the Red Sox watched Schilling throw an amazing seven innings in which he only gave up four hits and one run. Every time the TV camera focused on Schilling's ankle, viewers could see blood seep through his sock. Doctors had stitched his ankle tendon into place to allow him to pitch. The Red Sox won the game, and afterwards a FOX Sports reporter asked him about his performance.

Schilling answered, "Seven years ago I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I tried to be as tough as I could, and do it my way Game 1, and I think we all saw how that turned out. Tonight it was all God. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. And I prayed as hard as I could. I didn't pray to get a win or to make great pitches. I just prayed for the strength to go out there tonight and compete, and he gave me that. I can't explain to you what a feeling it was to be out there and to feel what I felt."

Chinese Christian leader Brother Zhong tells this story:

I was attending a training course for my house church network's council members and youth leaders. The Public Security Bureau (PSB) raided us the first day. All the leaders were arrested.

The prison authorities shaved our heads and interrogated us. We were warned that the hardened inmates would beat us. So with much trepidation, another brother and I entered our cell.

We were greeted by the sight of 16 other inmates, lined up in two rows and thumping their fists. My heart beat rapidly as I sent prayers up to God.

The leader of the gang asked, "Why are you here?"

"Because we are Christians," I replied.

"You don't beat people up?"

"No," I assured him.

"Do you sing?"

"Yes," I answered.

The leader ordered me to sing a song. I wept as I sang. The Holy Spirit moved in our midst, and by the time I finished singing, every prisoner was also in tears. To my shock, the gang leader then asked to hear the gospel.

After that, my cellmates hungered to hear the gospel every day. One Sunday, we held a worship service. The prison guard demanded to know who was behind it. He threatened to punish everyone if no one spoke up. I stood up and confessed.

I was forced to remove my clothes and stand at an inclined angle to the wall. The gang leader couldn't bear it anymore. He asked to be punished with me. All the others volunteered to do the same. The infuriated guard stormed out. I was moved by my cellmates' act. One of them, who had been there for three years, became a believer that day.

In the year he was elected president, Jimmy Carter was one of three men invited to speak to the 17,000 delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention. Each had a five-minute time limit.

The first of the three presenters was the eloquent evangelist, Billy Graham. The speaker following Graham was a truck driver. The man was not well educated, and seated beside the next U.S. president, the truck driver shared that he had never given a speech in his life. Nervously he confessed, "I don't think I can live through it. I just can't do it."

After Billy Graham gave his powerful talk, the truck driver rose to speak and stood silently before the audience. Taking a glass of water handed to him, he mumbled into the microphone.

"I was always drunk, and didn't have any friends. The only people I knew were men like me who hung around the bars in the town where I lived."

The truck driver went on to describe how someone told him about Christ. Once becoming a Christian, he wanted to tell others about the Lord. Spending time in Bible study and with other Christian men prepared him for witnessing. Since he felt comfortable in barrooms, he decided to talk to people there. The bartender wasn't sympathetic, telling the new convert he was bad for business and a nuisance.

Not discouraged, the truck driver kept on with his mission, and in time the people at the bar began asking questions. He said, "At first they treated me like a joke, but I kept up with the questions and when I couldn't answer one, I went and got the answer and came back with it. Fourteen of my friends became Christians."

Carter writes, "The truck driver's speech, of course, was the highlight of the convention. I don't believe anyone who was there will ever forget that five-minute fumbling statement—or remember what I or even Billy Graham had to say."

In 370 A. D., Basil of Caesarea, one of the "church fathers," became the archbishop of Caesarea, which brought him into conflict with the Arian emperor Valens. In an attempt to intimidate the stubborn bishop, Valens sent the prefect of the imperial guard, Modestus, to threaten him with punishment. Basil answered that he was ready and eager to die for Christ, and that he had so few possessions that banishment, confiscation, or imprisonment would mean nothing to him.

When Modestus complained that no one ever talked to him like that, Basil answered that perhaps he had never met a bishop before: "When the interests of God are at stake, we care for nothing else."

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.