If there's anything that's been lost from our culture,

it is the idea that human beings are privately, personally,

and individually accountable to God for their lives.

People aren't running around asking the question,

how can I be reconciled to God?

How can I escape the judgment of God?

So many people say to me that they are not Christians,

not so much because they have never been persuaded

of the truth claims of Christianity.

That's not so much the issue with them,

as it is that they have never been persuaded of the need

for what the Bible is teaching.

How many times have you run into people who said,

well, that may be true, maybe it isn't true,

but I personally don't feel the need for Jesus,

or I don't need the church, or I don't need Christianity.

I was in a shopping mall not too long ago,

and Vesta was shopping in one store and I went out in the hall

and was waiting for her and I came on a bookstore

and I can't walk past a bookstore without going in it.

And there were just rack after rack after rack and shelf after shelf

and counter after counter of books in the bookstore.

...