In the morning I eat my breakfast and check out what’s
happening on Facebook. Yesterday morning
there were plenty of comments from Christian friends about the Bill Nye, Ken
Ham debate. Most of those friends were
of the view that Ken Ham mopped the floor with Bill Nye the Science Guy, and I
was all like “Yay, go team Jesus!" A few
of my friends admitted that they had watched only part of the debate and they
did not think that Ken had won at all; I was appalled that they could make such
assumptions when they had not seen the entire debate. Then I read a what a few bloggers wrote about
the debate and the comments that followed, what I realized, was that we all
watched the same debate (or parts of), but depending upon our stance beforehand,
we saw it differently, and maybe only heard what we wanted to hear. Honestly what I thought was that those with
an opposing view heard only what they wanted to hear.
And then I sat down to do my study, which is about being an
authentic, sincere Christian. From my
study yesterday morning John 1 from the English Standard version
9 The true light,
which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world,
and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came
to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive
him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of
man, but of God.
Jesus is the true light and He came to enlighten us all, but
not all of us will believe, accept, or want to know Him, Who is our Creator.
This is what the Lord bonked me on the head with. There are a great many people who don’t know
the word of God or who don’t accept the word of God, and the sure way to turn
them off of Christians and anything to do with Christianity and Jesus is to be
self-righteous, condescending and/or put down their beliefs or unbelief.
Uuugh…I don’t want to be the reason for (or reinforce the
reason) someone to reject Jesus!
What I/we need to do is to start listening with an ear of
humility (which might not tell us what we wanna hear) so that we truly hear. Why don’t the unbelievers believe, many have
valid reasons and if we listen with humility we’ll gain understanding, and when
there is understanding there is respect, and where there is respect there is
trust, and then we can communicate
the reason, the knowledge that we have that puts our hope and faith in Jesus. Some unbelievers will never
understand believers and want nothing to do with Jesus, the bible is clear on that and
that breaks my heart; but even if one person’s life is changed for eternity
because I/we listened and heard, and got the big picture, well that’s waaay more rewarding than being right in my/our
own mind(s)!
That’s the big picture, in the smaller picture I know for me
(and probably for some of you…I don’t know…just sayin’) that I need to listen with
that same ear of humility to the people in my life…ahem…like my husband (that’s
a bitter pill to swallow); for you it may be your kids or a sibling, or a
co-worker.
Thank you Lord for bonking me on the head once again (I get
bonked on the head a whole lot; which, now that I think about it, explains why
I get so dang many head-aches). I hope
and I pray that I/we will, from now on listen with an ear of humility so that I/we
can better serve you, and that when I/we share about my views, You and my faith
(especially on Facebook…just sayin’) it’s not about how self-righteous I am,
but how righteous You are!
Amen!
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