His work finished for the day, Raymond leaves his plush office, and heads for a favourite restaurant where he is looking forward to supper with his friends.

Finally, it’s time to go. He walks back to his car in the parking lot, the breeze catching his long hair.

Still chuckling over a joke his friend had told, he noticed as he drove home, a police patrol car behind him, and it flashed its siren briefly. Raymond quickly glanced at his speedo to see if he was driving too fast. No, he’s under the speed limit. He pulls over.

A police officer appears at his window, and shining a torch into his face, starts asking questions.

Raymond tries to answer calmly and politely, but the policeman demands Raymond’s driving licence and goes back to his patrol car.

Finally, he returns, and says: “Okay, you can go.”

It turns out he had absolutely no reason for pulling Raymond over except that the car was a late model Jaguar, the driver was young and had long hair, and the officer became suspicious.

This story repeats itself often, and in many ways. People have prejudices that cause them to jump to conclusions that frequently turn out to be wrong. The prejudices can be based on any number of things, such as skin colour, clothing and general appearance, and age.

Prejudice – jumping to wrong conclusions – is a major factor why some people reject Jesus, and ignore the teachings of the Bible. They don’t know much about Jesus, and they have little or no knowledge of what the Bible teaches, and based on this vacuum of knowledge, they reject it all.

They have friends who aren’t interested, or they find that Jesus is irrelevant to their lifestyle.

We live in a troubled world, and many are carrying burdens too heavy to bear. From the Bible, Jesus offers help. He makes a promise that he can lighten your load, and give you peace. Set aside your prejudice and check him out. It’s a promise, and the results are guaranteed.