Honest (but perhaps offensive) question:

If that is what God has called you to do, then "yes." Matthew 8:21-22, Luke 9:59-62, and Luke 14:26 say quite clearly that the God's call comes before children, wives, mothers, and fathers.

That we are. Our higher call though - is for Christ.

Yes. An old friend of mine lost a loved one in Yemen when the Christians were killed in Yemen some months ago.

He did give up his life for the non-believers. Men have risked their lives for non-believers. Do you just not feel comfortable in asking the question?

What is more important to you: the salvation of the aforementioned person or your own life?

 

Read again. There was a specific ministry to the poor (Acts 4:33-34) and a specific minsitry to the widows (Acts 6:1-7). We also read in Acts 15 that there were specific ministries - one designed for the Jews, the other for the Gentiles.

The Bible talks about it in Acts. Do we see a prohibition against it in the Bible?

Who are they? What do they say? What are their evidences that they have been redeemed? Have you talked to any of them one-on-one to find out their heart?

So, to you, the best way of evangelism is to tell the Sodomite what an abomination he is to God? Am I reading this right?

And a further question: What kind of stands do you take now against homosexuality? What kind of fruits do you see? Are people being saved because of your testimony?

And one more: Where is the love in doing so?

In the near future, I will answer my own question. From the answers I have seen so far, my guess is that my answer will surprise some people.

 

Didn't say you were. It is not a matter of providing salvation. Is your life more important than the salvation of this person?

What I do to help all sinners (homosexual or not) is pray for them, preach the word, and share the good news of freedom through Christ with them.[/quote]

Do you go out of your way to show them Christian love?

How can anyone understand sin without understanding the love of Christ?

We live in a world where Christianity is all to quick to condemn the sin and not show love to the sinner.

Joseph Botwinick [/QB][/QUOTE]

 

I had always said "yes" to questions like that. I thought that I would be ready to give myself up for someone else's life. It sounded so noble and "Christian" to say "yes." It wasn't until I specifically understood what Paul was talking about when he said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. I wish that I myself were accursed for the sake of my brothers," in Romans 9:2-3.

My church and another church held our own youth camp this year. We had about 130 students or so there. One of the girls in 7th grade came. She was raised Catholic, but was not saved. She had been asking questions to some of the other girls, and they told me about it. On Thursday, I sat down with her for about forty-five minutes and shared the gospel with her. She knew what she needed to do, but there was something holding her back. She knew what would happen (or believed she did) when she got home.

For the rest of the night, God was working on her, and me as well. It continued through the day. She spent a lot of time quiet, sitting by herself, contemplating the decision to abandon everything and follow Christ. She knew that salvation isn't about a specific prayer - it is about a surrendering of everything to place Christ as Lord of her life. My heart was burdened for her all day.

That night, the students were together and the adults were together, and I was just burdened to lead the adults in prayer. It was at that time that the Spirit of God just began working, and I began weeping and praying as I had never done before. It was right at that time that I understood exactly what Paul meant when he wrote what he did in Romans 9.

God is awesome in what he does. In what can only be seen as a miracle, at the same time I was praying, and unbeknownst to me, she was praying with a friend of hers to accept Christ. She came in a few minutes later with tears of joy in her eyes, came and gave me a big hug, told me what happened, and we just stood there crying.

That feeling comes and goes every now and then with lost people who don't know Christ, but not as often as I think it should. The feeling happened again when an eighth grader began talking to me about salvation and wanting to know what it took to be a Christian a few weeks ago. I felt the pain of the realization that this person, if she didn't make a decision to follow Christ, would spend eternity apart from me.

That said, and as embarrassed as I am to say, my answer would be "no." So far, I haven't felt like Paul did around strangers or anyone with whom I haven't built a relationship. I love my students in my ministry so much that it hurts sometime when I realize that some of them are not saved. That is the kind of love that I want to develop for all people, no matter who they are, what they have done - because that is the way Christ felt for people. That is the way he felt for me.

People can run circles around the question, and dodge it as much as possible, but when it comes down to it, I see so often on this board that there is more hatred and disdain for people because of what they have done or who they are than there is unconditional love. That is so against what we have been taught. The only people that Jesus pointed fingers at and yelled about their specific sins were the Pharisees - the religious leaders of their day. I wonder why we've lost that and aare consumed with preaching AGAINST sin instead of preaching WITH love to an undying world who grows alienated from a religion that does more telling them how bad they are instead of how awesome Jesus Christ is.


Bonhoeffer, in "Cost of Discipleship," wrote, "When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die."

 

The sad part is actually that you would say something like this. Since the time of her conversion, she has memorized more Scripture than most adults I know. She has voraciously read the Word of God more than other her age are reading the new Harry Potter book. She is already witnessing to her friends and telling them what a change Jesus Christ made in her life. She is reading the psalms and understanding what worship is all about.

Question me all you want, but what in the world gives you the right to judge a decision of a teenager to follow Christ? Like I said, I don't lead teenagers in this ABC and BANG! You're saved. That's not what salvation is according to the Bible. Salvation occurs only when a person is willing to sacrifice everything and place Christ as Lord in his or her life. That's what salvation is - not a prayer.

She didn't become a Christian for me at all. I didn't come up in the conversation at all. What we talked about was how God was working in her life, calling her to come to Him.

If you've never met her (as you haven't) then leave your demeaning and self-assured comments to yourself, please.

 

Tell us more. How did you realize this? Is it because someone pointed a finger at how terrible you were? Or were you exposed to the love of Christ and realized how far you fell short of that love? All of those who I have been exposed to will echo that they compared themselves with Christ to come to that conclusion - NOT because someone pointed a finger and told them just how wretched of a person they were.

I've never seen a church like that, at least not a Baptist church. Can you provide documentation for what you are talking about?

Showing the love of Christ is not tickling their ears. You REALLY need to do a study on the love of Christ here. It's noticably absent here.

Preach whenever possible, and if necessary, use words. The fact is that the world that we live in is built upon relationships. People are tired of being told how terrible they are. They hear that enough. Showing the love of Christ is what can enable many people to open up to an invitation to church or the gospel message. In doing so, we are not saying "Your sin is okay"; we are saying, "God loves you so much that He sent His son to die for you, in SPITE of all the things that you have done." What two different messages!

You are right - there is no love there. Where there is love, their is action, and where there is action, there is change.

Tell me, Joseph, what do you know about the love of Christ. How is it applicable in your life?

 

There is no connection between the two. On what scripture are you basing this philosophy and what exactly is your point? </font>[/QUOTE]We have been called to deny everything to follow CHrist. If He called you to give up your life for another's salvation, would you do it? My guess is, from your evasion, that you would not.

I am glad that you would call them friends. So many people would not. I don't go around making people feel better about their sins - I do go around supporting them, befriending them, listening to them, and being there for them. That, I think is Christian love.

I Corinthians 13 spells out specifically how successful we are in the Christian life without love.

What do you mean make them feel better? How woudl you quantify this? The church in general has developed an "us-vs.-them mentality." I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a church, specifically a Baptist church, that has done that.

 

That is what I felt. That is what Paul felt when he wrote Romans 9. That is not what she felt. That is not what led her to make the decision she made. So, neither of your choices are true.

 

Joseph, I never said that we should not preach against sin. However, this is not our primary focus as believers. The greatest commands we have are to love God and love one another. That is our focus - Christ said so himself.

Do you always call someone an anti-Christ when you don't agree with them?

Perhaps it is not my heart that is hard here?