Still Ruffling Feathers

So after the whole How to Ruffle Feathers on Facebook debacle, I decided to reach out to my old (now ex) friend to see if we can lay our differences aside and be friends again.

Here is what I said:

Hey ________,

I just wanted to drop you a message and let you know that I have been
thinking about you a lot since our "fall out". Listen, I love you and I treasure
your friendship very much. Losing you as a friend really hurt me, and it hit me
the hardest on Tuesday when I was going through a box of stuff in my closet and
found a bunch of pictures and stuff from our trip to San Marcos.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I still look back on our
friendship with fondness and I hope that one day we can lay our differences
aside and become friends again. So anyway...I just wanted to share with
you what's on my heart. Please feel free to e-mail me back...I'd love to hear
from you.

~Amanda Jo

to which he replied:

Amanda, I realize you have your beliefs. What bothers me is you can't seem to
reconcile those beliefs with life. If you care about me, great. Give god enough
credit to take care of what he created. How can we question him? We don't know
his plan, and by judging people you're stepping on his toes. Christ's whole
point was love and support everyone. Without that, we have nothing. Christ would
not agree with degrading anyone. Religions can have their beliefs excluding
people like me, but Christ would not have done that. He accepted and believed in
everyone. We should all aspire to that. You know me, you know my religion is
important to me, my family, my extended family can reconcile that. They know
Christ wanted people to be good people, and to try to be happy. Believe in
Christ, believe in his goodness, believe in his understanding and acceptance.
That's the whole point of being a christian isn't it? I will never forget that
response to prop 8, do I forgive you, yes, long ago. You love god, love Christ,
but love like they do and work like he did for everyone's life. Give me the same
chance as he does. Let everyone in and give everyone the chance.

So, yeah.

Needless to say he does not have a Biblical view of Jesus. This e-mail further demonstrates how society sees Christ and how far off base it is.

I have many more critical words about his views on Christ but I will spare you guys those (for now at least). I do need your help though...

How should I respond to this e-mail?

It is true that Jesus loved everybody...He loved everybody enough to die on the cross for our sins! But, while salvation is given by the grace of God to anybody who has faith in Jesus Christ...there is still a matter of repentance.

There is still a matter of sin. Without knowing our sin, we would never know our depravity or our need for a savior. If I didn't know that I took the Lord's name in vain by calling myself a Christian and going on with my sinful lifestyle I would have never known I was Hell bound. I thought that just because I didn't use God's name as a cuss word I was in the clear. Once I found out I was trashing the name of Christ by calling myself a Christian and not really knowing Him I realized my sinfulness and how I had never actually been saved.

Homosexuality is a sin just like fornication (sex before marriage) is a sin. Homosexuality is a sin just like not honoring your parents is a sin. And whether you are a "good person" or not a sin is a sin and we ALL do it...myself included.

Even as a saved believer in the TRUE Jesus Christ of the Bible, I sin. My sin is disgusting to me and I work very hard to avoid sinning and to persevere through temptation but I am not always successful.

I am just so thankful that God's grace and Christ's sacrifice is sufficient even for my continued state of depravity. That's not to say that I continue in sin just cause, well, I'm forgiven and "why not?"

Anyway...all that rambling comes down to this: How should I respond to him?