[Fire And Grace - David Johndrow] Here's Your Opportunity to Witness, What Wo...

[David-FireAndGrace]

I have a online friend, I'll call him Marshall for the sake of anonymity. He has been struggling with this whole "God" thing. My suspicion is that he has had some bad religious experiences. I'd like to say get over yourself and join the club, but how would that change his mind and heart?

It is pretty common in pop-culture to believe in god, but deny the whole Christian/Jesus Christ thing. And honestly, I wish it was that easy - just believe in God. I remember when I cane to believe in God, I didn't know who it was, I just knew I was different. I remember singing Amazing Grace and I couldn't hold back the tears. I honestly don't know what happens when the human spirit is infused with the Spirit of God. The Bible uses terms like "seal of the Spirit," and "hearts filled with joy"; stuff like that. None of them explain what regeneration really is... oh and what it feels like.

If you go to an evangelical church, you might hear "testimonies" of how folks came to Jesus. It's a very personal path. I read some very compelling books in my early Christian years. One of my favorites is The God Smuggler by Brother Andrew. If you like testimonies, HERE are some that I found online.

My friend, however; is concerned that he would somehow have to become "bad enough" to truly find God. He feels that he is a pretty good person, and the fact that he is not in jail testifies to that fact. I was different, I had a lot of trouble in life, and when the time for Jesus came, I had exhausted all other options.

Jesus, now he was pretty cool. He hung out with sinners - one guy was a religious politician names Nicodemus. Judas, he was thief who stole a couple of grand. If they had income taxes back then, he probably would have cheated on them too. Then there was the woman at the well, all she did was get married 5 times and move in with her boyfriend. The woman taken in adultery, she slept with some religious politician. Zacchaeus, now he was a corrupt tax collector skimming a little for himself - and so was the Apostle Matthew. The others were fisherman; probably reciting limericks about the "man from Nantucket", as they cast their nets. Oh and the list gets worse, Mary Magdalene was a hooker someone said.

Did you notice the folks that Jesus was the most angry with the religious folks of his day?

Personally, I am tried of religion - and I recently wrote a blog with some reasons why you would not want to be called a Christian. I wonder if it would be easier for my friend to see the real Jesus, if there wasn't so much stupid religion around; leading others astray?

I think about the handful I folks that I have led to the Lord. Some times, those folks were witness to something amazing that God was doing. One had just seen demons cast out by the team I was on in Brazil. Another, God healed her back from an injury she sustained in a car wreck. There was an ice cream vendor in Brasilia City Square - I just traded him a few Reis for the opportunity to pray for him.

One of my favorites was at a young adults group that I did. The host parents had a foster child for a few days. The kids went around the room and shared how they knew God was real. They struggled for words to express spiritual things... finally one of the kids said this: "I know that God is real because I didn't care about life really. Then one day I felt loved." I looked across that room, and the foster child was in tears. She received Jesus right there - and the then power of God came into the room. She fell fro the chair to the floor and wept for a long time.

I don't know what to tell Marshall, should he go to a meeting, pray, read the Bible - what should he do? If I could afford to go there, I'd leave right now.

Here's your chance Christians, here is a guy who is interested in God. He'll be reading be reading this, so don't get all religious, but tell him what you think God would want him to hear.

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Posted By David-FireAndGrace to Fire And Grace - David Johndrow at 9/16/2010 05:30:00 AM