A Different Approach to Sharing the Word About Jesus

 I had a dialogue with several men on Saturday evening.  The conversation went well for about half an hour.  Then we got into discussing how to share our spirituality with others.  One of the men said that we had an obligation to tell someone that if they did not get Jesus in their life and repent, they would go to hell.  I and another gentleman felt that was a rather direct and somewhat harsh method to tell someone about Jesus.  We stressed that we would rather just dialogue with the other person and not tell that person they would go to hell if they did not change their lifestyle.  The "you will go to hell" person is a Deacon in a church, bible study leader, and was trained to think and speak the way he does. This after a life of not being a model citizen.  He is very sincere in his beliefs which is his right.  But me and the other man felt it was a somewhat rigid attitude to take towards someone else.  My thoughts were to just continue a dialog with the non believer and listen to what they have to say, and why they think the way they do.  I personally would rather take that approach. When the time was right, I would then bring up the "technical" aspects of giving your life to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.  Whatever I become in my spiritual walk, I do not ever want to become a "one way or the highway " Christian.

The Good News

 In a world destined for destruction in a horrific chaotic manner, God has created a system and method for human beings, as broken as we are, to have eternal life beyond this world.  God's system was to place His son in a human form on Earth, and to allow that Son to suffer and die for OUR SINS.

That system opened up a new door for all people to achieve eternal life.  The system/method is in place. The rules for humans to follow have been established in the words shared in the bible.  Now it is up to each of us to overcome the human ways of the world and to adhere to those guidelines if we want what God has offered.  

A narrow gate it is to enter.  What is your choice?  What is your chosen destination? Begin and continue your journey.  The path is full of obstacles and detours.  Tread carefully and in constant prayer.

Driving through the Storms When the Detour route does not work

When planning a return drive from a family reunion in Arkansas, I found myself constructing a journey analogous to real life situations.  I saw a weather report about bad storms north of our location.  I would be driving north and would likely encounter the storms on the route I planned to take.  In life we often know of bad situations and conditions that are not good for us and we have to decide whether to put ourselves into that situation or condition. 

In the instance of the storm north of us, I had the opportunity to try to avoid the weather by detouring to another route.  I would change direction to avoid the storms.  The same applies to our lives.  We often have to change direction in either our behaviors or thoughts to avoid situations that are against the Word of God or that may result in physically harm to us.

So I planned the detour route that I thought would keep us away from the storms.  In real life we make decisions to keep ourselves "out of trouble".  We try to avoid breaking religious and man made rules/laws.  During the course of my detour route, I periodically would check the weather ahead of us using the technology in the car I was driving.  It showed that even though I had adjusted my route, my route was still taking us too far north to avoid the storms.  As in real life, dangerous conditions and temptations just don't go away.  Some may even follow you!

Seeing that I would still be driving into the storm, I again adjusted our route.  The new route showed a better chance of avoiding the storm.  In real life we constantly make decisions and adjustments to avoid problems and situations.  Who likes to purposely move yourself into danger?

The new route was going well.  There was no rain or storms in sight.  Then I noticed that in checking the weather map in the car, a smaller storm was still headed our way and would cross our path.  All my planning and detours would not keep us totally out of the storms.  Just as in life we can try to avoid trouble, but trouble will often find us anyway.  Or a situation you purposely made a decision to avoid suddenly reappears in your life.

So the storm caught us.  I found myself just having to drive carefully through the storm.  I had to become more aware of my surroundings and prepare myself to make quick decisions.  Some drivers ahead of me were turning on the car's warning lights. The environment got stressful, but I found myself driving calmly knowing that nothing bad would happen to us.  I had done what I could to avoid the storm.  Now that I found us in the storm, I needed to calmly deal with the situation and drive us out of the storm.  The storm was temporary.  I didn't pull over and stop the car to wait the storm out.  I kept moving and purposely moved through the storm seeing clear skies ahead.

This is the same as in our daily lives.  We encounter problems and situations that present challenges to our religious beliefs.  We have to then make decisions on whether to drive through those challenges or to pull over to the side or the road and succumb to the power of the storm.