Miss USA and the Apostle Peter

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Peter 3:15)

Two nights ago, I got a phone call about our church. The caller wanted to know about some of our theology and specificially about our theology about women. Now, I'm the pastor. It's expected that I'll get questions like this from time to time. But it was also a reminder that working on your theology is a constant job. It's not ok to just know answers while you're preaching. It's not ok to just know answers when you've had time to write a paper. Peter said, always have an answer.

Now, I know he was talking about being able to explain salvation. But I want to expand that a little further. One of the problems Christians today have is not knowing what they believe and not knowing why they believe it.

Many of you have heard of the answer Miss Teen USA contestant, Caitlin Upton gave to the question, "Why is it that 1/5 of Americans could not locate the United States on a world map?"

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as, uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”

Wow! I wonder how clear our answers are when we are asked about our faith. I'm afraid that many times our answers come across like Miss Upton's.

Scriptures tells us to study to show ourselves approved to God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed. (2 Timothy 2:15 paraphrased).

Let's use the example of Miss Upton to make sure we never need to be ashamed at how seriously we take our Christian faith.

Pastor John