Stepping on my soap box

I'm a little bothered after reading the Anna Nicole Smith, Focus on the Family, and Church Discipline threads and now I'm projecting.

Fruit examiners, my foot! Who are you to judge the salvation of another???

I'll give you a very personal example:

I adore my little Sister. She and I have come through a terrible time in our lives and are very good friends.

She was saved as a child of 10 or so. As a teen, she went through the terrible separation of our parents and in her teenage rebellion, hated the very religion that our Dad stood for (long-time Pastor). She left home at 17.

The next time I saw her, she looked quite different! She had on a very revealing top, revealing a new, large tattoo. She had an eyebrow and nose piercing. She was a shock to our VERY Baptist family.

In time, she met an upstanding fellow. They married and started their family. It wasn't long before Sis realized the void in her life for Christ. She missed the Lord and His people. I encouraged her to seek out a church.

She visited her in-laws' church and was shunned.

A few months later we visited them after the birth of their second child. As was dh's routine, he found a church in the area and asked if he could walk around their yard and pray. The Pastor invited us to speak at the church that night. While dh was talking with him, he mentioned my sister to him. Dh told him that it would take a special church and a special Pastor to reach out to my sister and her husband. They neeeded so much love. They didn't need judgement. He said that he was indeed up for it and the church was the perfect one. Dh gave him Sis' address, with her permission, of course.

A couple weeks after we left, the Pastor and one of the men from the church visited. They sat at her kitchen table. She served them some coffee. They invited her to come to the church and told her that she really needed to be saved. Actually, if my sis wasn't exaggerating (which she is not prone to do), he told her that she was going to Hell and she better get saved soon. He told her that she was going to take her children to Hell with her. She called me, crying.

She went another 2 years without a church, all the time singing, praying, and reading with her kids. Then one day her neighbors invited them to a revival meeting at their church (a SBC). She only went because she adores her neighbors.

When she walked in the door, the greeter welcomed her right in, pointed out the way to the nursery, but let her know that the Pastor didn't mind little ones in the sanctuary. He spoke to her like every one else, even though she looked different. She said that the greeter sold her on the church. The people ended up being the same. The Pastor was the same. She said she'd never been in such a place.

She has grown by leaps and bounds, spiritually. She also made many friends. She finally feels peace.

I'm so glad she found a place where she can hear preaching and not be judged for her appearance. If she is to change, it will be God that does the changing. No one was ever mean to her. She found a church that would let God judge her salvation.

That's the way to be, Brothers and Sisters. Preach the Gospel. Witness. Tell of the hope that is in you. Then let God do the rest. Let Him be the judge!

Stepping down...

 

Dern tootin'! We wouldn't want that floozy and her ilk clutterin' up the aesthetically pleasing look of our sanctuary no how!

Welcome to your local Baptist church where we shoot our own wounded!

 

I can only speak for myself, Donna, but my flesh never quit stinking and I love the Lord dearly. You can clean up the ouside all you want (a general, "you", not you specifically) but that doesn't make you saved. I've met some very clean, very moral people who were not saved. I've also met some saved people who struggled with their rotten flesh until the day they died. It's not about the flesh. It's about the soul.

The apostle Paul himself battled (Romans 7). Our thoughts are wicked. Our hearts are desparately wicked. Our tongues are wicked. Even our good works stink like filthy rags. Clearly it's not the cleanliness of the flesh that pleases the Lord or it wouldn't be salvation by grace through faith.

I've never gone fishing naked, but I feel that Peter was a better Christian than I.

I've never been a harlot, but one made it in the lineage of Christ.

I've never wished for fire and brimstone to rain down on a whole city of people, but I didn't get a whole book of the Bible devoted to me.

I'm glad Christ ate with Publicans and sinners. I'm glad he pardoned the woman caught in the very act of adultery. I'm glad he saved the thief on the cross. I'm glad he forgave me and that he uses me, as small and as weak as I am.

 

Bold mine.

Thank you for those words. I have tears. You are so right!

 

Judging someone's remorse isn't all that hot, either. How do you know they are not sorry? When they lay their heads on their pillows at night and cray out to God, no one is there.

Honestly, if you saw a young woman with her breasts hanging out there and a tattoo on one---and with piercings to boot, would you assume that person was saved or lost?

 

I could/would. But then again, I recognize the powerful pull of the world and the lusts of the flesh.

 

Hear hear, MP (or is it "here here"?)!

 

The church was oblivious. A bit later, the church imploded and dissolved. After that, the separation, reconciliation, much fighting, and permanent separation. He is not in our lives now, by his choice. It's all quite sad, really.