love wins

yesterday (October 14th) i had the priveledge of visiting the city of Berkeley California. It's one of those postmodern cities, with a lot of different people. Berkeley is the home of UC Berkeley, a world renowned institution. a lot of college students are around. we were there for thrift shops and used CD stores (because we who doesn't love browsing for vintage stuff). as we step out of the car onto the street, i immediately noted the area. there was a church group on the side of one street singing worship songs and preaching the gospel and passing out tracts. as we walked down the streets were laden with vendors and homeless beggars. a block down was an eastern religious cult of "spiritual yoga" passing out pamphlets. a block further was a group that I'm not quite so sure what was. i also saw a bunch of people handing out books on Scientology and "Dianetics." we had a good time walking around and searching for stuff. it was a great day, but i just couldn't get my mind off of that Christian group. after a while it hit me. that church group was doing nothing different from any of the other religious groups on that street. if a non-Christ follower was bombarded with numerous facts about several religious faiths, what do you think will happen. chances are, they're gonna look at it as religious propaganda and not read any of it. now, remember the gospel is in all this religious clutter, and it doesn't get read either. more than likely people are going to be turned off by such presentations of religion rather than turned toward it. while i commend that church group's heart for the gospel and for witness and evangelism, i don't think it was very effective at all, because it was no different than any of the other religious groups. the key word here is "different." Christ calls us a His followers to be different than this world. i shall ask, what would it look like if we took on a different approach to the gospel. if we understood that people need love more than anything. if we went to them, on their turf, in their gutter, to meet their needs. what if all we did was love them. sure, we let people know that were Christ followers but we don't force them to believe it, but we just live out a Holy example of Christ's love to them. the other key word here is LOVE. love wins. you see, that church group on the street was trying to scar people into accepting the gospel because "the wrath of God will judge them", but i think they missed the point. the point of the gospel isn't to scar people into salvation. how often did Jesus condemn people for sinning? NEVER! what did he do? He loved! Even on the cross, as he suffered, he loved. Not only did he love, but he forgave sins. often times i think we look at the world with a boastful "thank God i'm not like them" attitude, when according to the Bible, the sin of partiality is no worse than the sin of homosexuality. we need to love this world, not condemn it. God is the final judge, not us. we need to converse, to immerse, and to saturate this world with the love of Christ. love wins.