Good morning Lovelies. I greet you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. Father God, I come to You, first of all, to say Thank You. Thanking You God, for You are there through the thick and through the thin. Through my ups and my downs. Help us to wake up every morning knowing and believing we are blessed. Help us to leave the worries of last night to the darkness. I pray that the light of motivation and inspiring things take control of our minds and actions. In the Mighty, Matchless Name of Jesus, I pray Amen!!
I have a question for you-“If the people of your community were asked about the Christians who live there, (you) what would they say? Would they say they recognize the Christians by their love, or because of something else? Would they say that your walk has inspired them to be moved and want to know more about Jesus? Or, again, would it be something else? I’ve got two scenarios that I want you to consider. These happen to be two true situations that I read about.
In a small town, a restaurant decided to close on Sunday nights because the staff refused to work for the after evening church crowd. The people who came in from church were rude, messy and left small tips.
In another town, the manager of a store that sold concert tickets reported that some of the rudest people she had ever met were several people (Christians) who had bought tickets to hear a well-known Christian singing group.
Wow!! Sometimes we don’t realize it but the non-believer is watching us. Our neighbors, acquaintances, and others we encounter notice our behavior. They know that if we claim to be followers of Jesus we are supposed to be kind and compassionate. They know that our lives should reflect love and Christlikeness. They know that we shouldn’t be so busy with our own interests that we don’t have the time or love, other people. Do we as Christians really stop to think about how we are representing God? Have you ever thought about how the things we do and say affect non-Christians? Sure, we all worry about what our Christian friends and acquaintances think about the things we say and do, but how often do we really think about how non-believers view us?
In fact, what we do and say affects the non-Christians around us far more than it does the Christians. In other words, those who have chosen not to believe are looking for us to fail so they can justify their non-belief. Think about the responsibility that is inherent in that statement. Do we really understand that we can be either good or bad ambassadors for Christ simply by the words we speak or the way we live our lives? One thing I have learned about the lost is that unlike Christians, they really don’t know why they believe what they believe. Of course, there are some exceptions, but I have found that in most cases non-believers just believe what they believe because that’s what they believe. They believe it because they feel it, which makes it real for them. As Christians, we have a core and a foundation for our beliefs. Our beliefs are based on faith.
On the other hand, your non-believing friends have nowhere to go to support their belief system. With nowhere else to go, they look for us to give them a reason to deny God. They will grab at anything they can because they need it. When that happens, non-believers hang onto every word and believe it without evidence because they need to. However, those kinds of things don’t happen very often so where are non-believers looking for something to hold onto? They are looking at us! They take notice of how we act and what we say, and they hang on to our failures to help justify their non-belief. Think about it for a minute, every time a Christian says something they shouldn’t have said, the media jumps on it like a pack of dogs. Our words and actions have consequences, and when we fail, God gets the blame and non-believers have a heyday.
We need to remember that we are walking, talking representatives for Jesus. What do you think a non-believer thinks about that one off-color joke we tell in the break room at work? What about using that same break room to criticize another Christian or another church? What about that one crude word we still use because we have decided it’s acceptable even though it’s questionable? What about that one time we rip someone to shreds because we couldn’t control our anger? What about Christians that use the media to criticize other Christians publicly? We’ve all been guilty of these things, but we need to think about how these things affect the non-believers who hear them. We need to try to represent God as best we can, so we don’t give the non-believers more reasons than already exist to hang their hats on. Non-believers should be able to look at us and wonder what it is we have, and how they can get it. Lets’ make sure that the people who are watching our lives will want to get to know our Savior.
“He who says that he abides in Jesus ought himself also to walk justs as He walked. (1 John 2:6)
By this, all will know that you are My disciples if you have the love for one another.” (John 13:35)
Live life, give people hope and share your heart, wisdom, and resources. Never place a period where God says there should be a comma.
As always peace and blessings, be safe. Take advantage of your opportunities but never allow your opportunities to take advantage of you. Remember God loves you and so do I. ©krw 4.4.18
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