I've been struggling with fear of man for quite some time now, but I've found out that there are some people, situations and/or things that are said that can inhibit said fear and let the Holy Spirit fill me with boldness to preach the Gospel to whomever, including family.
This happened last weekend at my dad's friend's home. They were having a goodbye/birthday dinner, they as in my dad's tennis players life-long friends (at least 6 of them out of a group of over 10 men) and atheists apparently. There was still one friend that had not arrived and one of the guys seized the opportunity to mock the fact that he is now a Christian, saying that he hadn't arrived cause his pastor had not given him permission to hang out with them. For some reason I felt so offended and in various occasions asked Mr. Mocker politely to stop mocking him, then one thing led to another and before I knew it one of the men, one who had been living in the US for quite some time (and the birthday boy that night), said "I don't think we are all that bad to be condemned by any religion" O the evangelist in me pushed away that fear of man and seized that beautifully phrased proclamation of man's goodness.
I took all them through the 10 commandments, all were guilty duh!, and explained that the Bible says that if you break but one of them you are guilty of breaking them all, and that we are condemned to hell unless we repent and put our faith in the Saviour Jesus Christ. Unsurprisingly Mr. Birthdayboy tried to defend himself by saying that the Bible was written by men and thus filled with mistakes and that because of this it couldn't be trusted, I replied back with a question "Have you read the Bible entirely?" obviously he hadn't, so I told him that it was ignorant of him to say such a thing. Then he and Mr. Mocker jumped unto the evolution vs. creation topic asking how on earth I could believe in creation being a medical student, funny thing is most evolution defenders who aren't scientist cannot mention one fossil or one piece of evidence to back their claim. The conversation soon ended but with a promise to continue at a future time.
The only one there that wasn't an atheist was Mr. Agnostic who sat beside me, when the conversation wined down he turned to me and said "I believe in God, just not the God of the Bible" I replied that what he was doing was idolatry conforming a god to suit himself a god he's comfortable with and while he disagreed about committing idolatry he agreed that this god he prayed to every night was one he was comfortable with.
While it saddens me that these people whom are dear to me didn't repent that night and so continue to live their sinful lives, I was glad to be able to preach the gospel yet again to my dad. Father's day is coming up soon, I plan to get him a fishing rod, he went on a fishing trip with some family friends a couple of months ago and came back like a kid with a new toy telling me how me and him are going to go fishing and how he plans to buy a boat. I pray to the Lord that I may be able to once more push aside this disease called fear of man and let the Holy Spirit do His work and use this opportunity to be a real fisher of man and preach the gospel to my dad for the third and fourth and fifth time during our fishing trips.
Until Next Time,
Rita M.
This happened last weekend at my dad's friend's home. They were having a goodbye/birthday dinner, they as in my dad's tennis players life-long friends (at least 6 of them out of a group of over 10 men) and atheists apparently. There was still one friend that had not arrived and one of the guys seized the opportunity to mock the fact that he is now a Christian, saying that he hadn't arrived cause his pastor had not given him permission to hang out with them. For some reason I felt so offended and in various occasions asked Mr. Mocker politely to stop mocking him, then one thing led to another and before I knew it one of the men, one who had been living in the US for quite some time (and the birthday boy that night), said "I don't think we are all that bad to be condemned by any religion" O the evangelist in me pushed away that fear of man and seized that beautifully phrased proclamation of man's goodness.
I took all them through the 10 commandments, all were guilty duh!, and explained that the Bible says that if you break but one of them you are guilty of breaking them all, and that we are condemned to hell unless we repent and put our faith in the Saviour Jesus Christ. Unsurprisingly Mr. Birthdayboy tried to defend himself by saying that the Bible was written by men and thus filled with mistakes and that because of this it couldn't be trusted, I replied back with a question "Have you read the Bible entirely?" obviously he hadn't, so I told him that it was ignorant of him to say such a thing. Then he and Mr. Mocker jumped unto the evolution vs. creation topic asking how on earth I could believe in creation being a medical student, funny thing is most evolution defenders who aren't scientist cannot mention one fossil or one piece of evidence to back their claim. The conversation soon ended but with a promise to continue at a future time.
The only one there that wasn't an atheist was Mr. Agnostic who sat beside me, when the conversation wined down he turned to me and said "I believe in God, just not the God of the Bible" I replied that what he was doing was idolatry conforming a god to suit himself a god he's comfortable with and while he disagreed about committing idolatry he agreed that this god he prayed to every night was one he was comfortable with.
While it saddens me that these people whom are dear to me didn't repent that night and so continue to live their sinful lives, I was glad to be able to preach the gospel yet again to my dad. Father's day is coming up soon, I plan to get him a fishing rod, he went on a fishing trip with some family friends a couple of months ago and came back like a kid with a new toy telling me how me and him are going to go fishing and how he plans to buy a boat. I pray to the Lord that I may be able to once more push aside this disease called fear of man and let the Holy Spirit do His work and use this opportunity to be a real fisher of man and preach the gospel to my dad for the third and fourth and fifth time during our fishing trips.
Until Next Time,
Rita M.
No comments:
Post a Comment