I noticed on a "This Day in History" that Mother Theresa died on this day in 1997. This was less than a week after another famous woman died -- Princess Di. The two women could hardly have been more different.

Mother Theresa was raised in a fairly well-to-do family and left it all to become a nun. Not content to live the cloistered life of most nuns, she started a mission to the "poorest of the poor" in Calucutta, India. In time, she began numerous missions throughout the world serving lepers, those with AIDS and numerous others who were so sick the world had no need for them. Her love for all humans -- from those dying in sickness and poverty to those residing in their mother's womb yet to be born -- has inspired multitudes and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize. Though loved and admired by so many, her death was way overshadowed by the death of Princess Di along with its attendant scandal and huge state funeral.

Mother Theresa died at the end of a long, productive, fruitful life. Princess Di died tragically while on a date with a wealthy man to whom she was not married.

As time went on, we discovered that Princess Di was beset by multitudes of personal and relational problems. Her storybook existence was not so wonderful beneath the surface. Of course, time has shown that Mother Theresa also had a "darkness of the soul" where God seemed far away from her. Personally, having seen a bit of the suffering sick and poor in India, I don't see how this woman was able to endure as long as she did without being overwhelmed with grief, but, by the grace of God she did. I'm not a Catholic and am troubled my many Catholic doctrines, but Mother Theresa's courage, faith and love have deeply inspired me. A movie about her life, simply titled Mother Theresa, is one of my favorite movies.

So, one wonders which of these two women would YOU most like to be like? The one who came from a "common" background to arise and marry into British royalty? Or the one who left it all to show the love of Christ to the poorest of the poor?

Which of these women do you most admire? I know that atheists like Christopher Hitchens mock and despise Mother Theresa. I don't. I admire her. I hope you do as well.

I blogged about Heather last fall and how she thought it incredulous that I could believe a person could abstain from sex until marriage. She was convinced this moral standard was only possible b because, in Bible days, "people got married when they were 15" and since people get married later these days, God wouldn't expect us to try to abstain until marriage. However, she listened to my arguments and was also quite impressed by another girl who spoke up and said she and her boyfriend were waiting until marriage to have sex.

This March, I returned to NCSU and Heather was one of the first students to gather for the preaching. She had a big smile on her face and was obviously thrilled to see me. After my initial comments, I acknowledged her and asked if anything was new in her life. "Well," she replied with an obvious look of happiness on her face, "I'm not having premarital sex any more." She had argued with me in the past and, at first, I doubted she was telling me the truth. But she continued with her assertion and seemed so genuinely happy to in making this claim that soon I was convinced she really had made this change.

"Was choosing to abstain easier or harder than you thought it would be?" I asked.

"Much easier," she replied. "I didn't really think it would be possible, but it has been much easier than I thought it would be."

"Now that you've made this decision, is your relationship with your boyfriend better or worse than it used to be?"

"Much stronger," she said. "Now we relate to one another on an intellectual basis and an emotional basis much better that there isn't all that pressure to have sex with one another."

Heather stayed much of the day and her countenance and smile were so much brighter. Sin weighs a person down; righteous living lifts a soul. How about you? Are you justifying sinful behavior because you think we live in different times than when the Bible was written? I hope not. Sin is sin is sin whatever the time and whatever the culture, for culture does not define what is right and wrong: God does. And God does not change nor do His moral standards change. Follow Christ fully! You can do it in the power of His Spirit. And, when you do, you will be glad you did!

Scheduling problems and my need to cancel an earlier trip meant I showed up at Texas A & M without advance notice or planning. There was construction near my regular preaching spot, so, after scouting out a new location, I got started. It took a while, but a good-sized crowd gathered, including a small but confident group of atheists / agnostics. Marcus was one of that group.

Like many atheists, he grew up in what he thought to be a Christian home. When I inquired as to why he left the faith, he declared that "all the Christians I knew were a bunch of hypocrites. They got drunk, they did drugs, they had sex. I figured I'd rather be with people who didn't think that was wrong than those who said it was wrong and did it anyway."

I responded to Marcus along two lines of thought: (1) He should ultimately look to Jesus Christ as the One to follow - not people who claim His name. Jesus was 100% authentic and He, too, had a major problem with religious hypocrites, and (2) if you are going to look to people as your example, make sure you are looking at real Christians. After all, a person who gets drunk, stoned and fornicates is most likely NOT a real believer.

About a half hour later, a young lady approached me and asked if she could say something. When I granted her the floor, she looked directly at Marcus and said, "I want to apologize to you and to anyone else in this crowd who knows me. I'm a Christian, but when I came to college, I thought this is my opportunity to have a good time and do things I couldn't do back home. I am so sorry for how I've lived and if any of you have seen my witness and it has turned you away from Christ, I sincerely apologize."

The crowd was very appreciative of her humility and sincere apology. Marcus even gave her a hug. I pointed out that now that he has accepted her apology, he had no excuse to not believe, but he still had serious questions. Marcus stayed the entire afternoon, asking good questions and listening to the answers. As the day ended and I packed up the leave, he shook my hand, thanked me for coming and said, "Today, I met some real Christians. I want to thank you for being a real Christian and for standing up for what you believe. I'm going to accept your challenge to read the New Testament for myself and ask God that, if He is real, He will show Himself to me as I read."

I, too, applaud this young lady who so humbly and sincerely confessed her sin before so many people. I pray she will never be the same - and I pray Marcus and his friends won't be either.

The weather was threatening at Florida State, and so I selected a different (drier) location to preach that proved to be quite a good decision. My voice carried well and a large crowd gathered. During the first hour, I answered good and thoughtful questions about the existence of God and how our Bible was assembled and preserved throughout history.

However, after about an hour, a gang of homosexuals showed up waving the rainbow flag and carrying their banner advertising "FSU PRIDE." Evidently thinking the whole world revolves around them and their issues, they continually interrupted with questions involving "gay marriage" and other gay issues - mostly political questions. I wasn't really interested in going there and tried to stay on target, but they insisted that I must "be exposed" as the hateful bigot I am.

I spent some time answering their basic questions and explaining that, while I don't personally have a political agenda, nevertheless, I do not need to abandon my Christian faith simply because I enter a voting booth. After awhile, one of the group leaders stepped forward and wanted to challenge me on some specific comments that I was reported to have said.

"It is reported that you have said ‘Hitler didn't go far enough.' Is that true and, if so, what did you mean by saying that?" The crowd got very quiet, but when I did not immediately deny the statement, a number of hecklers - evidently like sharks smelling blood in the water - screamed loudly demanding an explanation for my "anti-Semitism."

And, so, when asked, "Did you say, ‘Hitler did not go far enough'?" I had to answer, "Well... yes, ...and no."

Again, the hecklers pounced. "Either you said it or you didn't. Did you say ‘Hitler didn't go far enough'?"

"Well, as I said, yes, I did say those words," I explained. "But that's not really what I meant."

Thinking I was in a trap from which there was no escape, my opponents asked me to explain just what I could possibly have meant by this inflammatory statement. I offered them the same explanation I've been giving for years. Here it is:

Back in the mid-90's, I was preaching at Texas A & M University. A young lady named Lisa Foxx (who happened to be Jewish) was arguing with me concerning the issue of abortion. She was "pro-choice" - in favor of unrestricted abortion rights; I was pro-life - claiming that abortion is murder and, therefore, wrong and should be illegal.

Lisa made her arguments and I provided a thoughtful pro-life response to each of her points. Generally speaking, I stood for the sanctity of human life (the belief that all human life is a gift from God in whose image we are made and, therefore, should always be protected). We debated what should be done in the case of rape, incest, underage pregnancy and danger to the mother's life. Finally, Lisa, somewhat exasperated, blurted out, "What if a woman just doesn't want to have a baby?"

I now felt we had gotten to the real issue - is all life worth protecting even if it is inconvenient? I responded to Lisa with these words, "Have we gotten to the place where we kill people simply because they are ‘unwanted'? Wasn't that Hitler's problem - that he killed people he didn't want? What do you think - Hitler didn't go far enough?" After this obviously rhetorical question, I continued to make my point that all life is sacred and to be cherished and that Hitler went too far when he determined that even one life was "unwanted." Lisa, on the other hand, argued that an "unwanted fetus" had no basic right to live. But that's not the way it was "reported" in the newspaper.

Several days after I left town, Lisa wrote an article to The Battalion (the Texas A & M newspaper) claiming that I had told her, a Jewish student, to her face that "Hitler did not go far enough." The following year, the paper reported that "Short allegedly told a Jewish student that Hitler did not go far enough" and the following year a columnist wrote that the university should not allow me on campus since I make such controversial statements as "Hitler did not go far enough."

Of course, I said no such thing. Lisa bore false witness against me and shoddy newspaper editors who never checked their facts allowed this false witness to become "proof" that I am anti-Semitic. (Note: the next year, Lisa was out at the preaching and acknowledged publicly that my accounting of this story was accurate, but that since she was Jewish, it was still wrong of me to use Hitler and the Holocaust to prove my point.)

The following year, after I threatened legal action for this slander, The Battalion allowed me to place a rebuttal in the newspaper and agreed to no longer print this false allegation (and, to their credit, they have abided by this promise since then). However, the damage was already done. The statement was now on the Internet. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League picked up on it, ran a story about it and was not in the least interested when I contacted them to share my side of what really happened. People who don't like me had it posted on Wikipedia (along with other false or misleading accusations against me).

But God can turn a curse into a blessing. The FSU Pride group didn't have much to say after hearing my explanation of the Hitler statement and ended up respectfully listening to me for hours. Besides, I don't think anyone who actually gives some time to read what I write or hear what I say believes there is any way I would really say such a hateful thing.

And, a note for Lisa in case she ever reads this blog:

She had begun the interaction that day by saying, "I'm a Jew. Am I going to burn in hell?"

"I certainly hope not," I said. "That's why I'm here today to tell you how to get to heaven."

"But, I'm a Jew. Am I going to burn in hell?" she persisted.

"Jesus came to save us from our sins. I certainly hope you come to Jesus and let Him save you."

"But, I'm a Jew. Jews don't believe in Jesus," she said.

"Most Jews may not believe in Jesus, but a lot do. You can believe in Jesus. He loves you; He died for your sins; He is your sacrificial Lamb. I hope you come to Him for salvation."

"I am a Jew. I do not believe in Jesus and I never will. Am I going to burn in hell?"

She was putting me on the spot, but I was not going to back down from the truth in the Bible. "No one goes to hell for being a Jew. People go to hell for rejecting Christ. Therefore, if you persist in rejecting Christ throughout your entire life, then, yes, you will burn in hell."

And, after seeing how she has deliberately broken the ninth commandment to not bear false witness against her neighbor and the intentional way in which she has maliciously sought to destroy the reputation and good name of another human being, burning in hell sounds like a just sentence. But her sins, like mine, though many, can be forgiven. I can only hope that Lisa turns to Jesus for the forgiveness she desperately needs.