Misconceptions about born-again Christians abound today, in the media and in the minds of people who look at the exploits of men such as Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart and conclude that it's a scam. And sure, men throughout the ages have used the name of God for personal and dishonest gain. But Jesus is no scam artist! We must not close are minds and hearts to him.

I commend Shonna Days for the letter of Feb. 23, as I commend others for their public defense of Biblical Christianity. We must make people aware of the reason for our faith, rather than trying to force our way of life on non-believers.

There is a problem that I see with her argument, though. How can we know if someone is truly a child of God?

What we're really asking is: Does Jesus dwell in his heart? Is he born again of God's spirit? We can get a clue from his behavior.

Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits." But it is just speculation on our part to assume that an individual is or is not a "true Christian." God knows.

While for our part, "now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror," and "our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect. When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away."

We can make lists of people who we believe are saved, and those we believe are not, of people who we believe are "true Christians" and those we believe are not.

We can draw up lists of our personal criteria for distinguishing between true Christians and pretenders. The Christian who does this is merely giving his or her opinion. God is the one who tests the human heart. Only God knows who is truly His own.

As you pointed out, Shonna, it is not the doing of religious deeds that makes a person a true Christian. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "If I have the gift of prophecy and, with full knowledge, comprehend all mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Yes, there are those who go through the motions of church but do not know God as their Father. And yet, the true Christian is not "better" than the pretender. God loves the pretender just as He loves His own.

The hope for the "pretender" to Christianity is just the same as the hope of the child of God, salvation in Jesus Christ. That is, in fact, the only real hope that anyone in a lost and dying world can have.

This is the awesome challenge of Christian living: to love people no matter what they say or do. No matter how they wrong us. And no matter who they are: brothers and sisters in Christ, or atheists, followers of non-Christian religions, or religious "pretend" Christians.

This love, unconditional as it is , and unreasonable as it seems, is the very love with which God reaches out to each of us.

Moreover, we Christians, as those whom God has entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, cannot give up on anyone in our attempt to make known the love of Jesus and the truth which will set them free from sin.

"As I live," says the Lord God, "I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live."