"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." Philemon 6 niv
i want to be more bold in sharing my faith with others, but never considered how it might also do myself some good - especially when it comes to growing in my walk with the Lord. yeah, yeah, for those seasoned Christians out there, you can call me slow, idiot, whatever you like, but i just didn't connect being a witness for Christ as helping myself to grow in Christ. well, i guess i knew it in my head, but it just hadn't made its way to the heart.
i have been praying for an opportunity to be God's witness (not just in action, but in words!) well, actually i have been praying specifically for a chance to talk to a co-worker of mine - a cleaning co-worker - about Christ. he is agnostic; he can't make up his mind. "there could be a god, but i think its more likely he makes it difficult down here on earth just so he can watch us squirm." so as i said, i prayed. i prayed for an opportunity to ask my co-worker what made him think of God in this way. you see, he grew up in the church and was turned off by God b/c when he prayed that God would show himself as real, he didn't get an answer. and all those "hypocrites" didn't help either.
so i had a chance last week, and i took it. we were driving along to a job and i asked him "when you prayed to God that He would show himself as real, how did you want God to respond? physically? what?" he didn't know. but he did know that he never felt the same inside, as everyone else did who had Christ. he never heard a voice when he prayed and if God is so good and loving, then why can't He get rid of hell and why hang it over our heads? i just let him talk - you see, sometimes witnessing isn't always about talking -
here are some other issues he had as well:
he felt that God was vulnerable b/c why would some super power create people, a fallen people at that, to have a relationship with them? he based this on human interactions and that we seek relationships b/c we are lonely - so that must be why God sought relationship w/ us and made us - b/c He is lonely. my co-worker also can't understand why God just doesn't make us do the right thing. in fact he went on to say that "it would be easier for me to believe in God if he forced me to believe in him." why did God punish adam and eve when they didn't know right from wrong - b/c that's what happened when they ate the fruit right, they now knew right from wrong, so why punish them when they didn't know better in the first place? he also doesn't believe that Christianity is anymore different than any other religion. who is to say one is right and the other wrong? how can you be so sure? what is faith anyway - why believe in a God who has only revealed part of himself and have to have faith that he is all he says he is? death is just a state of unconsciousness...can you imagine living forever? what would you do? you would eventually get bored and probably want to put a gun in your mouth and end it. why create things that will just disobey you anyway? things just adapt to their ever changing environment - not that it means it changes for the better - but they just adapt. there is a designer, but its not God - something in the big bang theory started it all. Christians have to "suck up" and do all the right things so they hope they go to heaven. people create religions in order to deal with death
i didn't just listen, i did respond, but you will have to check back later for that post.
i want to be more bold in sharing my faith with others, but never considered how it might also do myself some good - especially when it comes to growing in my walk with the Lord. yeah, yeah, for those seasoned Christians out there, you can call me slow, idiot, whatever you like, but i just didn't connect being a witness for Christ as helping myself to grow in Christ. well, i guess i knew it in my head, but it just hadn't made its way to the heart.
i have been praying for an opportunity to be God's witness (not just in action, but in words!) well, actually i have been praying specifically for a chance to talk to a co-worker of mine - a cleaning co-worker - about Christ. he is agnostic; he can't make up his mind. "there could be a god, but i think its more likely he makes it difficult down here on earth just so he can watch us squirm." so as i said, i prayed. i prayed for an opportunity to ask my co-worker what made him think of God in this way. you see, he grew up in the church and was turned off by God b/c when he prayed that God would show himself as real, he didn't get an answer. and all those "hypocrites" didn't help either.
so i had a chance last week, and i took it. we were driving along to a job and i asked him "when you prayed to God that He would show himself as real, how did you want God to respond? physically? what?" he didn't know. but he did know that he never felt the same inside, as everyone else did who had Christ. he never heard a voice when he prayed and if God is so good and loving, then why can't He get rid of hell and why hang it over our heads? i just let him talk - you see, sometimes witnessing isn't always about talking -
here are some other issues he had as well:
he felt that God was vulnerable b/c why would some super power create people, a fallen people at that, to have a relationship with them? he based this on human interactions and that we seek relationships b/c we are lonely - so that must be why God sought relationship w/ us and made us - b/c He is lonely. my co-worker also can't understand why God just doesn't make us do the right thing. in fact he went on to say that "it would be easier for me to believe in God if he forced me to believe in him." why did God punish adam and eve when they didn't know right from wrong - b/c that's what happened when they ate the fruit right, they now knew right from wrong, so why punish them when they didn't know better in the first place? he also doesn't believe that Christianity is anymore different than any other religion. who is to say one is right and the other wrong? how can you be so sure? what is faith anyway - why believe in a God who has only revealed part of himself and have to have faith that he is all he says he is? death is just a state of unconsciousness...can you imagine living forever? what would you do? you would eventually get bored and probably want to put a gun in your mouth and end it. why create things that will just disobey you anyway? things just adapt to their ever changing environment - not that it means it changes for the better - but they just adapt. there is a designer, but its not God - something in the big bang theory started it all. Christians have to "suck up" and do all the right things so they hope they go to heaven. people create religions in order to deal with death
i didn't just listen, i did respond, but you will have to check back later for that post.
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