Bill wrote: > Please do not assume to know something which > you have not yet come to understand.
Well, tell me a little more about what you are talking about. What you have shared sounds exactly like the way the church taught me to share my faith. I call it friendship evangelism. I would make friends with people, develop relationships, invite them to Bible studies, etc. Outreach consisted of establishing Bible studies on campus or in homes where people could be invited. Are you talking about something very different from this? The problem I came to have with this is that we were comfortable having a bless me club while people were out there in the world who would never step foot in a church or Bible study. We were not really bringing the kingdom of God to the gates of hell. We were waiting for people to step come out of the gates and be interested automatically in whatever we were doing. I could say more, but because you think I do not understand what you are talking about, please explain that to me first. I will be surprised if you are talking about something that I don't understand. Bill wrote: > And neither do the masses need you blasting at them > that this or that is wrong -- they already know it, too. Oh, Bill, you are so wrong. You really just do not understand. You need to go on campus and start preaching your gospel exactly as you understand it. Really. Just get out there and let God start using you. You will find out that they do NOT already know that it is wrong. Bill wrote: > Most people are disinterested in Christianity because all > they have ever got from it is either your approach, or the > love-at-the-expense-of-truth approach of the liberal churches. I just don't accept this, Bill. I was taught that all my life, but when I came to preach Christ publicly as the apostles and Christ did, I found out that the Bible was right when it tells us that people are not interested because they love the pleasures of sin and they hate God. It really is this black and white, but most churches have it all mixed up because the ministers who come out of seminary are completely out of touch with society. Bill wrote: > When people are loved, and they know it, > they are open to receiving the truth. This is but one factor at work. True love rebukes sin. It really does. What kind of parent would it be who only accepts his children and loves them in this way without disciplining them? Such a parent would not truly be loving their children. Love causes people to rebuke their neighbor and not allow them to continue in sin (Lev. 19:17). Bill wrote: > You act as though it is to the most perverted of > "sinners" among us that Christ will say, "Away from > me, I never knew you." Not so, David. It will be > to the most actively religious in our midst that he > will say these things. You are misreading me, Bill. I agree very much with you on this point. Bill wrote: > Check out your New Testament and just see for > whom the harsh language of Jesus was reserved. > It was directed at the self-righteous know-it-alls > of his day. See also how he treated those "sinners" > that you are so up-in-arms about. Notice the difference > between the way he treated the two and then start > modeling Jesus in your life. I do believe that I treat sinners exactly as Jesus did. Many of the people we get the strongest with on the streets are RELIGIOUS people. They are people who attend church, pastors, missionaries, etc. Let me give you a real life example. One night a few of use were preaching in a night club district. A young girl comes up to me angry at what my friend has said. She wanted me to straighten him out. She said that he had called her a whore and he was wrong. She was a good Christian girl and he had no right to say that to her. Well, I knew that he had not called her a whore. This is a common mischaracterization that happens, but the Holy Spirit is at work and they hear what they need to hear regardless of what was actually said. So I began to ask her about her life. Turns out that she was indeed a fornicator. She was a single girl who had three abortions just in the last couple of years. Of course, I told her that she seemed like a very nice girl, but she was indeed a fornicator and guilty before God. I shared the Scriptures with her and showed her God's Word, applying it to her life. She said was very active in the church and her parents were pillars in the community and church. She was about to go on a missions trip overseas in one week, and as she relayed this to me, she began to weep as the conviction of the Holy Spirit took over. She begged me to pray for her. She asked forgiveness. She wanted more of God. She didn't know what to do about next week. She said she didn't know what to tell her parents. To make this short, let's just say that the Lord marvelously woke her up about the error of her sins. It took some hard reproof to make her realize her hypocrisy. That same night, I remember meeting several ministers, one from the Church of Christ, another Episcopal, etc. They go out there to party and indulge the flesh. They know better, as you say. Then there are the other types who justify what they do and do not know that what they do is wrong. There are those with no church background, and then there are some preacher's kids I could tell you about. In contrast to this, you should see me when I minister among the poor and homeless. Completely different emphasis. I can go up to a homeless guy and say, "that crack you do is wrong." He sheepishly replies, "I know." I don't have to emphasize rebuke. I can be firm and loving at the same time. I can feed him, take him into my home, clothe him, help him find a job, etc. When I preach in the city park to the homeless, I preach a lot of grace and righteousness in Christ. But the religious and stiffneck are a different story, and our society is filled with them. I find them not at the city park, but in the nightclub districts at night and on university campuses. Bill wrote: > The truth is, most people I meet love me because > of the way I treat them. They are opened to what > I say because they value the relationship I have > entered into with them: my message has credibility, > in other words. On the other hand, there are other > people who dislike me very much. I am a real threat > to these people. But without exception, they are stuffy > religious types who see what I am doing and realize in > it that their scam is up. Those stiff-necks will never repent. > They will still be casting out demons on the day the Lord > returns . . . I don't think we are much different in this regard. I look forward to reading what it is that you think I do not understand about your methodology of being the salt of the earth. Peace be with you. David Miller. ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
