witnessing
I guess it is much better for me to write this than work on my NaNoWriMo at the moment (which I'll still write, there's no worries there). It's just that if I don't get this off my mind, I think it'll start eating away at me like crazy.
It's not that it would be bad if it ended up in my NaNoWriMo story, but at the moment, it doesn't have any place in it. My NaNovel is already going to have some religious themes in it. It seems that it is rare that when I write that there isn't something religious in them. It's just who God made me.
However, the thing that has been on my mind lately is witnessing.
Why is this?
Well, I see people say right online or wherever, "Do you want to be a Christian?"
Sure, that's an extremely direct way of witnessing, but it is the most uneffective way of witnessing.
I know, it seems strange, but it really is.
The first step in witnessing is to respect a person for who that person truly is. If they follow a different religion, respect that first. When you feel close enough to that person or when they know that they want to know about your religion and your faith, that is the time to open up and talk about your faith and why you believe in Jesus and in God and in the Holy Spirit.
I know my sister tends to post all kinds of negative things about Islam and other religions. I do not agree with them either, but the way to witness is not posting negative things. That just furthers the idea that Christians are these horrible people who just want to hurt them in some way.
However, Christianity is about wanting people to "be saved" (I don't like that term, really) and letting Jesus come into people's lives.
The thing is that Jesus is already there. Jesus is always there. He's standing there and knocking and just wants to come into everybody's lives. That means we need to keep going and being nice and respect people at first.
While we don't agree with other religions, it is important to just be nice and to explain things nicely (even if others are jerks).
The Bible says that the way to anger enemies is to be nice to them. So, why would we not anger people of other religions if we are nice to them? That makes them confused and that may want to make them learn more about Christianity - just why were we nice? We didn't compalin, argue, fight, etc.
Sure, I'll debate Biblical things when that's what a person wants to do. I do enjoy doing that. I've had people play "Devil's Advocate" to debate. I used to debate with an athiest when I was in high school because we were online friends. He wanted to debate and even complimented me on my debating skills.
I didn't confront him. However, I'd always pray for him. I didn't tell him directly, "I'm praying for you," though I'm pretty sure he probably knew I was.
Witnessing is a very delicate process. I don't advocate sheep steeling, either. I've been in congregations at times that wanted me to join them just because I wasn't a part of that congregation and instead was Lutheran. There was a church I attended once with a friend because she invited me and I found that they just wanted more members. There was a Catholic girl there, and I hated what they did to her.
(That's besides the one I saw that just "went to church" and "didn't really know about Jesus.")
So, that's what's been on my mind. Witnessing. At least I wrote up this post now. I'm sure there's much more to come, but that's what's on my mind at the moment.
More later that actually uses things like, oh, Bible verses.
It's not that it would be bad if it ended up in my NaNoWriMo story, but at the moment, it doesn't have any place in it. My NaNovel is already going to have some religious themes in it. It seems that it is rare that when I write that there isn't something religious in them. It's just who God made me.
However, the thing that has been on my mind lately is witnessing.
Why is this?
Well, I see people say right online or wherever, "Do you want to be a Christian?"
Sure, that's an extremely direct way of witnessing, but it is the most uneffective way of witnessing.
I know, it seems strange, but it really is.
The first step in witnessing is to respect a person for who that person truly is. If they follow a different religion, respect that first. When you feel close enough to that person or when they know that they want to know about your religion and your faith, that is the time to open up and talk about your faith and why you believe in Jesus and in God and in the Holy Spirit.
I know my sister tends to post all kinds of negative things about Islam and other religions. I do not agree with them either, but the way to witness is not posting negative things. That just furthers the idea that Christians are these horrible people who just want to hurt them in some way.
However, Christianity is about wanting people to "be saved" (I don't like that term, really) and letting Jesus come into people's lives.
The thing is that Jesus is already there. Jesus is always there. He's standing there and knocking and just wants to come into everybody's lives. That means we need to keep going and being nice and respect people at first.
While we don't agree with other religions, it is important to just be nice and to explain things nicely (even if others are jerks).
The Bible says that the way to anger enemies is to be nice to them. So, why would we not anger people of other religions if we are nice to them? That makes them confused and that may want to make them learn more about Christianity - just why were we nice? We didn't compalin, argue, fight, etc.
Sure, I'll debate Biblical things when that's what a person wants to do. I do enjoy doing that. I've had people play "Devil's Advocate" to debate. I used to debate with an athiest when I was in high school because we were online friends. He wanted to debate and even complimented me on my debating skills.
I didn't confront him. However, I'd always pray for him. I didn't tell him directly, "I'm praying for you," though I'm pretty sure he probably knew I was.
Witnessing is a very delicate process. I don't advocate sheep steeling, either. I've been in congregations at times that wanted me to join them just because I wasn't a part of that congregation and instead was Lutheran. There was a church I attended once with a friend because she invited me and I found that they just wanted more members. There was a Catholic girl there, and I hated what they did to her.
(That's besides the one I saw that just "went to church" and "didn't really know about Jesus.")
So, that's what's been on my mind. Witnessing. At least I wrote up this post now. I'm sure there's much more to come, but that's what's on my mind at the moment.
More later that actually uses things like, oh, Bible verses.
