Once again, good to hear from you so soon. I want you to know that I read your email last night to my wife, Sherri, and my closest friend, Pat. They were thrilled by what they heard. Pat said that your writing impacted him in a very similar way to my own (that's a compliment from him, believe me). On Wednesday PM's we drive about 45 minutes south to Ft. Lauderdale for a Bible study, which this month is at Pat's place. There are usually only a few who show up at any given time and Pat, Sherri and I were the only ones there until another couple came about half an hour later. I'm telling you this so that you can get the picture of how your letter affected my friends. Pat and Sherri reflected on many things you spoke about all during the evening. It was cool. We had a great evening.

It is so true that "Christian witnessing approaches" mostly leave out the actual freedom of Christ. I, like you, have questioned and re-questioned what it is that I really want to attest to when I speak to others about Christ. It sure doesn't sound like the nice neat formulaic patterns I used to expect!! Something that has really impacted me has been to observe the amount of Christians who have to go outside their "church" to a support group to be able to cope with "real life". If the "Church" is supposed to be anything to those who have been set free in Christ it should be that it would be a place where they would be able to discuss their problems, failures, disillusionments, inability to cope with this world, etc. But who in their right mind is going to put themselves out under the microscope of a group that specializes in guilt and judgment, misunderstanding and holding you "accountable" for your sin? Odd that the place that is supposed to be proclaiming freedom FROM sin instead proclaims nothing BUT sin!

And the real kicker is that those who hold to the FACT of freedom through Christ by what He did on the cross are the ones who receive the harshest criticism from those who profess this freedom (at least, in form). Well, I could say a lot about this, but time is limited.

Thanx, once again, for venting in my direction! I love the freedom I'm hearing. It is worth more than all the sermons I ever heard!! :)

Love, Jim