"I hate Christians. You Christians are all the same, you don't respect other people's religion and you keep trying to force your beliefs on others." Someone close to me quipped at me last night (not exactly verbatim but the meaning is the same). And I wasn't even trying to share the Good News with her.

And it sank deep in me. This whole morning I tried to work it out in my mind the answers that will not further offend the person.

I still don't have an answer as I begin to write this - and I know why I won't find the answer - because it is not in my head nor in my reasoning power to convince a lost soul of the reality of God. Only God Himself is able to transform a person. He holds the key to life. The only keys I hold are the keys to my uncle's apartment and my wife's car.

In the midst of feeling hopeless about the whole issue, God has brought about memories of my own journey to salvation, and reminded me that He is still God.

The Bible clearly states that God commissions (the Great Commission) His disciples to preach the good news to the ends of the world and make disciples. Over the centuries, some Christian sects and "cult-like" groups have taken the name of Jesus and spread the Gospels in ways that have been offensive and controversial.

It can also be argued that for the very same reasons that many were offended and are lost today, many more were also saved because of the power of God's word.

Looking back, I was also offended by Christians many many years ago. Christians that I confronted claimed that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and the rest who do not accept Him shall be condemned to eternal damnation. "How rude and arrogant are these Christians!" - I thought to myself.

How can the "Christian" God be a God of all and a good & holy God if He has created so many tribes & tongues all over the world but made Christianity available to so few - mainly the western worlds? And worse of all, why condemn those who do not accept Christianity to a burning lake to fire called Hell? How can this be called justice! I was then truly offended and ready to lock horns with any Christians on this subject.

It is for this very reason of frustration and self-righteousness that my search for the meaning of life continued for many years with Christianity as the most outrageously "invalid" way to a life of meaning.

When I reflect on my journey and where I am today, I can surely say that my salvation was a miraculous work. And I am convinced that every salvation is the miraculous work of God no matter how insignificant or redonkulous it may seem to the world.

But in the midst of my journey, a lot of people played various roles to instill God's word & truth in my life. I may have been offended by them then but today, I am truly thankful to all of them for their selfless acts of reaching out to me.

And I certainly remember a piece of old carved stone in Ohio Wesleyan University that I had crossed almost everyday on my way to classes between 2004 to 2006. The old stone have the following verse: "The Truth Shall Set You Free."

God has His own timing.

Once again, I am reminded that we are his fellow workers in evangelizing to the lost. As in the analogy made in 1 Corinthians 3, we can only continue to plant and water but it is God that will give the increase. Some will continue to sow and some will reap the harvest.

In it all, all glory be to God.