“… be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. … “If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)
Question 1: Why do people with a certain personality type believe they are destined for a higher purpose?
Answer (October 2025)
Because they ARE destined for a higher purpose, as is everyone else. The difference is that personality type or any other with awareness has looked beyond the obvious to the unobtrusive and connected the dots. We were not made to merely exist – be born, grow, school, marry, reproduce, pursue and live the American or other regional dream, grow old, and die. There is so much more to life than that, and if we fail to ponder, pursue, and possess it, we are of all beings most pitiable. Life doesn’t begin at forty, it begins when we genuinely connect with our Creator through His Son Jesus and progressively capture glimpses of the glorious plans, purpose, and future He has for us, and wholeheartedly plug into them.
Until then, we are simply just dead men walking, living in a matrix that clearly hints at the realities beyond but will not compel our active participation. If we don’t take the clues and ignore the cues we have been given to pursue the higher life beyond the ephemeral one we are living now, our end will be unequivocally and irrevocably tragic. Please do the work of investigating the realities of Jesus Christ, the truths He shared, and the life He offers. Don’t take anyone’s word for it, genuinely seek and find out for yourself, evaluating the evidence and determining its validity. Your destiny (both earthly and beyond) depends on it.
Question 2: As a Christian, I have won many debates against skeptics and non-believers online. Even though I clearly won, their hearts are too stubborn to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. What do I do?
Answer (October 2024)
Friend, the goal of any discussion about Christ is not to win a debate. It’s not even to convince people to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, as desirable and and as wonderful as that would be. The goal is to rightly represent Christ and offer people the truth (evidence that point to His existence, authenticity, reality, and to the fact that He is the only way to the one true God), so that they can come to their own conclusion about Him and make their own decision to receive or reject Him – all through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
God does not force Himself or His knowledge on anyone, and neither should we. The Holy Spirit alone has the ability to convict people of sin, of not doing right, and of the Truth (see John 14 & 16). Our role is to love them, pray for them, and sincerely and humbly present the Truth to them. The rest is up to them (the Holy Spirit is always at work in people’s lives to open their hearts and eyes to the Truth … through multifaceted means, including online platforms like this, social media, one-on-one or group encounters, and many other means). If He does the initial work of conviction and conversion, He will do the maintenance work of growth and preservation. If your power of persuasion (ALONE) is what convinces someone to come to Jesus, that person can just as easily be persuaded OUT of believing in Him, as seen in many instances once hardships and challenges arise.
This approach has several benefits:
- It takes the pressure off you in regard to the outcome/results. Again, the Holy Spirit is the only ONE Who can transform a person’s receptivity to the Truth and transform hearts (we are only influencers/agents/vessels that He partners with to accomplish this purpose).
- It promotes a love-lensed approach, i.e. winning a debate may make you feel good, but likely won’t do much for the other person’s heart toward Christ or the Gospel; it may actually make them more averse. Viewing people with the same love-lensed perspective that God does equips you with a superior desire and approach that is more about the individual coming into a relationship with God than it is about winning a debate. I’d rather give a person something solid to think about as it relates to the truth about Jesus (Proverbs 21:22; Acts 17:16–34), even if they don’t accept or acknowledge Him right away, than win a debate with them (see Proverbs 18:19). Truth is more important than temporary triumph, and until a person’s heart is softened enough to receive the Truth, barraging them with facts and Scriptures is useless.
- It helps to remember that many nations have undergone a lot of unpleasant and unrepresentative leadership depictions of what was supposedly “Christian” in the last few years. Many people still view Christianity through that unfortunate lens. Christians are often seen as unpleasant, mindless, Bible-thumping, out-of-touch-with reality, uneducated, and unreasonable people who are religiously self-righteous and who promote a strict, angry, rigid, unfeeling, dictatorial, fictional, rules-bound God/religion (among many other theories). It is easy to understand why many people are anti-Christian, not to mention the Antichrist spirit of the age that was already hard at work before this. Keeping this in mind helps you understand where people are coming from, the distrust that has evolved, and the spiritual work that must be done to “unskew” this terribly false perception.
- Viewing people with the same heart of compassion Jesus did helps guide our approach to them and ultimately impacts their hearts for Christ. Whether or not they accept or acknowledge Jesus as Lord, people are spirit beings first and foremost, and can pick up on genuine love and interest, versus a religious desire to make converts. Your pure motives (i.e. having a genuine love and concern for a person as an individual – the way God does) is the first step in touching hearts for Christ. And that can only happen by your own lifestyle of authenticity and character, habit of speaking/writing the Truth in genuine love (not forced or pretended – via a veritable encounter with Love Himself), and an unfeigned concern for people as individuals – resulting in a bodacious, firmly-rooted, unshakable stance for the Truth, which is simultaneously loving and piercing (see Mark 10:21–22; Luke 19:1–10). All this should come across in our responses and writings if our hearts are aligned rightly.
- All the above MUST be backed by a life that is deeply intertwined with Jesus on a daily basis. If we talk the talk AND walk the walk as a lifestyle, it is easily translated to and discernible in our writings. We are imperfect in the sense that we are human and thus susceptible to human flaws and failures but MUST be perfect in the sense of possessing an upwardly mobile heart, mindset, and lifestyle that values and pursues being like Jesus above all else (see Matthew 5:48, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Philippians 3:12-14).
In summary, do your part in sharing the truth of Jesus with a right heart and let God do His. Humanity’s repentance and restoration to a right relationship with Him is ultimately His will and His deal, you and I just get the privilege of partnering with Him along the way!