TIME AND AGAIN! 11/10/13

IF SOMEONE were to ask you how many times do you get a knock on your door from nicely dressed young men, sometimes a young family with a bible in hand, and a paper to give you, and says; “This is for you, this is your personal copy;” what would your number be? Time and again, we get these visitors and I often wonder why they knock on our door, when we let them know before they even get there, where we stand!


WE HAVE a plague above our front door that says; “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” We also have a plaque on the side of our house, next to the front door, which is a cross that says; “We walk by faith and not by sight!” 2 Corinthians 5:7

TIME AFTER TIME we take the copy that has been handed to us and look at it and immediately know it is either, Jehovah Witness or Mormon’s. The paper has familiar phrases on them like; “Can the dead really live again?” Some say; “If you should die today, will you go to heaven?” And my favorite is “Do you know Jesus?”

MANY years ago, I was handed a “Watch Tower” and when I asked what it was, part of the explanation was, it was written by the Holy Spirit, who was locked in a tower in New York. My quick response was, they had better let Him out! I wonder why they didn’t know that the Holy Spirit belongs to the followers of Jesus Christ and not locked in a tower. Of course that was many years ago and I have sense learned that confrontation is not the way to treat people who have been mislead to believe that the Jesus they follow, is the Christ the Son of God!

I RECEIVED an email from a Pastor friend that was about confrontation! It said, in one paragraph; “Jesus calls us to a different paradigm: “I Win, You Win.” Confrontation was never meant by Him to estrange and separate us from a brother or sister. We are to restore relationships and we are to walk in love! When we receive these visitors, I don’t turn them away with a negative attitude. Instead, I have on occasion, prayed for them in their presence! I never let them feel they have changed my mind, or that I agree with them. Often, when I see them I will pray for them to know Jesus; the Jesus, I know!

TIME AND AGAIN Jesus says; we are to forgive our brothers when they sin and even when they do and say things about Jesus, without understanding. Jesus says; “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Both of these things, that we are to do as followers of Jesus Christ, are not without a struggle! We know what God’s Word says, and we want to press the issues and make the other person change their minds and believe as we do. We cannot do the Holy Spirits job; it is not our job! Far better for us to show our Faith by doing, than by telling someone they are totally off base!

“TAKE HEED to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says; “I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Luke 17:3-4     Is this a struggle for you? We are not to enable those who are sinning, nor those without understanding as they teach. Instead we are to become equippers of the saints. We are to love, forgive and love some more!

“AND JESUS said to them; “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” Mark 1:17     Many of us who have chosen the Way, find ourselves in positions of either contradicting those who misunderstand God’s Word, or teaching God’s Word to those of like mind, and to those who have been taught a different way. God calls us to love one another, and these moments of teaching, are to be done in LOVE.

MY PRAYER is that   “I will set my mind on the things above and not on the things of this earth.”    Colossians 3:2     I will not set myself above anyone, nor will I keep God’s Word hidden within me! His Word is for teaching, reproof, and must be shared! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 11/9/13