When Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink,” he does not mean, “Let’s all become lechers.” He means, there is a normal, simple, comfortable, ordinary life of human delights that we may enjoy with no troubling thoughts of heaven or hell or sin or holiness or God – if there is no resurrection from the dead. And what stunned me about this train of thought is that many professing Christians seem to aim at just this, and call it Christianity. Paul did not see his relation to Christ as the key to maximizing his physical comforts and pleasures in this life. No, Paul’s relation to Christ was a call to choose suffering – a suffering that was beyond what would make atheism “meaningful” or “beautiful” or “heroic.” It was a suffering that would have been utterly foolish and pitiable to choose if there is no resurrection into the joyful presence of Christ… Judge for yourself. How many Christians do you know who could say, “The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection?”
John Piper

Becky Roolf

Becky Roolf

I first got my modem about a year ago, near the end of June, 1985. I

just called the usual BBS’s, for computers and so on. Then, I think it was in October or November, I started calling a BBS run by a Bible Baptist Church in Scott Township, near

Pittsburgh. This BBS was different. It was run by a person called Pastor Bob. Now, to the average BBSer, even the title “Pastor” has a threatening, churchy sounding ring. But I stayed on the board, partly because I liked the principles stated in the log-on agreement, which all new users must agree to before they are permitted to use the BBS. The log-on requests that the user agree to log on under his REAL name, not to use profane or obscene language, not to have wars (fighting anfd abusive language), and not to upload any software that is not public domain. Since I had often found profanity on the other BBS’s to be offensive, this agreed with me.

While calling this board, Proteen, as it is called, I began to have “different” conversations with the other users, and with Pastor Bob. Sometime in December, we had a rather deep

discussion on separation of church and state. This, along with a few other conversations, started me thinking about God.

In the past, I had always sort of waivered about what I believed about God, if there WAS a God. I took the whole

confusing lump and just left it in the back of my mind, in the “undefined” corner.

By this time, I was among the most active users on the BBS, especially in the singles section. It was through this singles section that I started typing to this guy named Chris, who was a Christian. We started a rather lengthy conversation in E-Mail (private messages between two users), in which he began witnessing to me. At first, I was reluctant to actively do anything about this, especially as I felt any kind of religion was a very

personal matter, not to be discussed with everyone! I said I din’t have time to read the Bible, and I kept trying to shove it away, back to the “undefined’ corner. But I did admit that it was something I needed to and intended to look into, soon.

Chris wouldn’t take “no” or “later” for an answer, though, so he persisted in leaving me messages about Christ. Eventually, he showed me that I didn’t need to read the whole Bible and to understand everything about God to have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

So, after trying to read the Bible a little, and a lot of thinking and praying, I finally accepted Christ, sometime in the beginning of March.

In the months since then, I have grown tremendously in the Lord. I am still an active user on the BBS that changed my life, although now I am often on the opposite side of the arguments! For me, the BBS was the perfect way to communicate about God, since before, and even after I was saved, I was too embarrassed to talk to talk voice or in person. So, PTL! for showing me the light of His love, in a way that I could accept!

Becky Roolf

Pittsburgh, PA

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