I was trying to make a point – what if Jesus walked up to you or spoke to you directly, if you were a non-believer, what would happen?

Nickhere,

In point of fact, JESUS decided to whom He would reveal Himself. I doubt He would want you dragging him over to people, insisting that they meet Him. He preferred (according to my reading of the Bible) to be available to them when they were ready to consider Him and His message. Um, have you considered that you may be unintentionally usurping His prerogative?

When you focus more on proving a point than on following Him, the result is that you get people's sensitive backs up. We can never know when the Holy Spirit is preparing someone's heart; intrusive proselytizing and argumentative messages to win points only hardens those hearts further. You may be "right," but being "right" is only the same kind of legalistic thinking Jesus and the early church tried so hard to transcend. (Remember that "clanging gong" passage?)

Another model from the Bible: people who had encountered Jesus told, simply, what they had experienced. Very, very few of them became teachers and preachers.... very few of them used the encounter to tell people what they ought to do. You may not have meant to speak in preaching terms, but when you said this: Bill D.... you have to let go of intellectual prejudice ... and have faith...., you tried to tell a good friend of mine what to do, who had not asked you what to do, whose heart is probably NOT being prepared by the Holy Spirit at this time to hear what you think he needs to hear.


You're a wonderful writer, and next time you feel so tempted to wade in on matters of faith, I'd welcome a PM to me instead. I'd especially like to hear how our Lord has changed your life.... more than how eager you are for Him to change others' lives. (I wish someone had invited ME to such a dialog when I first came here!)

If you feel called to teach and preach, that's a serious vocational exploration to conduct-- not something to enact in threads in a discussion forum. If you are experiencing such a sense of call, I'd encourage you to enter a discernment process to explore that call and see whether that is a direction our Lord would ask you to take. (I have some experience in that area if you'd like some information.)

Blessed Advent,

~Susan