How do you deal with others? Do you view them as good or bad? Nice or mean? Saved or lost?
While I think that Christians should always be telling others about the Gospel of Christ, and seeking to save the lost, I wonder if we spend too much time debating the fine points. It's not up to us. It is between them and God. Our responsibility is to tell them the Truth and show them love - even if it is tough love sometimes. I believe it's good for us to remember that we can save no one. We just point them in the right direction and practice what we preach as much as possible. When we do mess up, we need to then teach and exemplify true repentance and grace.
Sometimes I think we make it too hard. The only way we can know the right balance of grace and correction is by the guidance of the Spirit. When faced with a difficult situation, the first thing we need to do is pray: Not for ourselves, but for the wisdom to know how to best serve the individual we are concerned about.
That is a trait I know I need to practice more often instead of jumping to conclusions. I often joke with the Lord that the reason I have been through and done so much wrong is so that I can't get prideful when someone makes mistakes. Sometimes I just have to say, "It's wrong. But, been there and done that. Move on to repentance and watch the Lord redeem!"
I have a friend who knows the state of everyone he knows. He will say things like, "David, he's a believer, did...". I think it is so cool that the most important thing about a person is their relationship with God. It helps him to focus on how to witness and pray.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, when he met David for the first time he said "he is not a believer" and then they did not work together for a while (and during that time David became a christian) and then when they worked together again he noticed that David had his Bible on his desk. He suggested that they should have lunch together and talked about his relationship with Jesus and told David that he was thrilled to know that he was a believer. We did a Bible study together for quite a while after that and he is now a dear friend. I think that during the transition that Rudy's prayers were instrumental in David coming to Christ.
Rhonda
Have I had the chance to meet Rudy? If not, sounds like a great guy!
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