There is just a feeling that I get when I encounter a non-believer. It all sounds crazy writing it out but even though I want my life to continually be filled with evangelism, I can't deal with non-belief. Just by walking through the halls of my small high school I see and hear the sad reality of the creation of non-believers. I have heard kids claim that the whole "Jesus thing" is all a scam and that believers are naive. And it is embarrassing to say that I just clam up when I hear this. Up until the very moment that any attacking my beliefs I totally freeze up and can't think of the very thing that I have always wanted to share with others every single day. I think it is the matter of that I have so many to share and so much that I have acquired that I planned to share with others that I do not know how to put it into action. I have gotten better with this but it is still a matter that I need to work on.
On my winter retreat last weekend, the speaker talked about how we need to NOT defend God. We all find it hard not to fight back non-believers harsh words against us without facts from the word. But if you notice, the first thing we do is go into defense mode. Our God is the best thing to ever happen to us and we will stand by him and for him on this earth. But there is a huge difference between spreading the word of God as a disciple and defending God. We need to first know that God does NOT need to be defended! He is beyond powerful and he does not need our help in defending that! This is not meant to be rude this is meant to show us that defending our faith and God is not where he wants us to be centering our focus.
Let us remember that Christ died on a cross for us. And not only did he take the brutal death but he CAME BACK!! That in itself is beyond any power this world could ever fathom. Yes God wants us to give the word of God to those that refuse it so they can personally hear the word of God but in a manner that we are meant to hear it. We aren't to jam the word down others throats and maybe this is why it comes off the way it did. Taking the shoes of God and defending him is why it all seems so wrong. He calls us to use our faith that we have built up. The whole reason why we have our faith and relationship is not only have eternal life and live in love with Christ, but to share it as our testimony.
So what does it really mean to defend our faith and our God? It is simply the act of telling and showing others that our faith as well as our God matters. The harsh words are what gets us because they are what last a lifetime. Instead of acting like we are Christ and that we know everything as if we are God, we should be helping others explain it as believers of Christ. Yes we are the child of God and we hold and important role but only through Christ but he tells us how to do that in Matthew 28 after he had died and rose again. He instructed his disciples to go and make nations built on his word. And in that way we are referred to as the eternal disciples of the original ones.
We should have faith in Christ that he can more than perfectly share his love with the non-believers but it is our job to lead them to the water to drink. There is to be no convincing in mind or defending of the matter of God. He can defending himself without coming off to others as if he is! God has so many better actions and ways about this whole matter that I can't even wrap my head fully around this lesson even. It is all so confusing at times. But I encourage you to keep looking at what it means to take a step back when needed so that we do not catch ourselves defending those that don't need it.
"You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
~2 Timothy 3:10-17
*For clarification, go to the following website written by other Christians.... http://mikefriesen05.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/why-we-need-to-stop-defending-god/*
Word of the Day: "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him;bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations"
~Psalm 100:4-5
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