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In this special episode we interact with our first listener feedback: an email from Anna (who found our emphasis on authentic personal experience of God helpful) and Charlie’s comment about our motives from Episode Three. John also underscores how much we value and welcome listener feedback (negative and positive) while also welcoming questions on wider related subjects where we might be able to suggest other resources.
Expanding on Anna’s point about personal experience, Gregg comments on the need for Christians to be interested and engaged in all aspects of our world. He also makes the distinction between agenda and motive by using Charlie’s comment as a jumping off point–arguing that while I’m necessarily always involved in my activities this does not mean that my self-involvement is always “sinful.”
For example, drawing personal agenda and personal experience together, Gregg urges that Christians can and should ‘judge’ God: we assess our experiences of God in drawing conclusions about how (and indeed whether) God loves me, because taking God’s love for me “on faith” is actually a way of detaching ourselves from the real world!
Gregg argues that Christians “witnessing” by giving tracts is a prime example of this detachment: there is no relationship or even personal interaction, there is little or no regard for the timing of this interaction, and typically any negative feedback is sloughed off as Jesus “being a stumbling block” or “the world hating me” on account of Jesus, instead of taking the criticism seriously.