Nominal Faith

They wake up in the morning, get dressed in normal clothes, eat breakfast, say goodbye to their normal families, which they love. They go to work or school and do the normal work and school things. They have normal friends, who think like normal people. They have normal problems, that they try to solve in the normal way. They eat a normal lunch, and a normal supper. They go back home to their family (who is still normal). They watch normal TV. They talk in the normal way and about normal things; weather, religion, politics, and their families. Oh and they go to bed and sleep in the normal way (whatever that is). Who are these normal people? They are actually two types of normal people who are very more alike than they realize. In fact, they have more similarities than they do differences. They are the normal nominal Joe Christian and Rashad Muslim. (This is not true of all Islamic cultures, but I am speaking from my experience in this culture) Joe Christian is a good person, is a moral person…so is Rashad Muslim, in fact, Rashad might even be more moral than Joe (the western mind might find this hard to grasp). Rashad loves his family just as much as Joe does, in fact, Rashad probably has a higher respect for family. Joe does the whole Easter and Christmas ‘go to church’ thing, and Rashad likewise does his once or twice fast during Ramadan and reads the Koran about as much as Joe goes to Church. Joe is so ingrained with culture that it is hard for him to see the real God, Rashad is just as ingrained and it is hard for him to see the real God. Both need Jesus exactly the same. Both will spend an eternity void of the real God. In all reality, Joe and Rashad are the same person.