How to Stand Against Other Christians

Possibly one of the hardest challenges I have ever faced is having to stand up for what I believe. Many of us have faced this trial but the one thing I can think of that is even harder is standing up for what you believe when you have been confronted by another self-proclaimed “Christian”. Don’t get me wrong here, I understand many Christians believe different things than I do, but it is seriously hard to stand against them when they bring judgment upon your beliefs.

I am a part of a very small Boy Scout troop near my home. I have known many of these guys for a long time, and every single one of them claims to be a devout follower of Christ. This is great! Especially in this time where Boy Scouts are under fire for lifting the ban on gay scouts. However, during the time that I have been in this Boy Scout troop, I have had a few spiritual changes in my life that have led to me becoming more and more involved with my home church, and other churches in the area. It doesn’t sound like a problem at first, especially since all of the other guys claim to be Christians, but that is not so true after all.

In roughly the last year and a half, the guys will be talking about scheduling another campout for the troop. They will say a date and count how many can make it. In most situations, I can’t go because it has been planned to late and I already have a church commitment. Then the guys started giving me grief because of it. “You never come on Scout outings anymore because you’re too busy with your church.” At one point, they planned an outing and I was already signed up to work at the middle school retreat as a high school leader that weekend and one of the scouts firmly told me that I was “shoving God down peoples throat,” and that, “Your church is too focused on dragging more people away from other things and cramming the Bible down each others throat.” That seriously stopped me in my tracks. I was depressed that a so called “Christian” was saying such a thing, and angry because he would say it. So I started thinking about it and came up with several conclusions.

1. Sometimes Christians are so focused on doing the “churchy things” that they start to neglect other functions. When we as Christians start to neglect outings and functions with other people who might not be Christians, we aren’t able to spread God’s light to them. It is a good thing to have a friend group that is firm in their faith, but that doesn’t mean that you should spend every waking moment with them and no one else. Is it a good thing to be involved in your church? Yes! Absolutely! But occasionally it is better to spread the light with someone who might not be a Christian, and miss a church event. Where are you more likely to convert someone? In a church, or outside the church?
2. I couldn’t back myself up against this other person, and I should have been able to do that.When you can’t even back yourself up against another Christian, it really shows how devoted you are to your time with Christ and how much time you spend in His Word. After this incident, I spent hours looking for verses in the Bible to help back myself up. My overall favorite verse to help is Acts 20:24 “But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.” This verse literally explains the reasoning behind me trying to be devoted to my church! All I wish is to do what God calls me to do! But sometimes that involves leaving your comfort zone and going to a place where your friends may question you about your faith. If you completely stop doing things with your lost friends or Christian friends who have different beliefs, they will stop associating with you completely, blaming it on the fact that you are just another stuck up, snobby, “too busy” Christian. God’s will is not for everyone to stay hidden in their church families all the time.
3. As Christians, we should listen to the hidden message behind what people tell us. Whether it is another Christian, or a non-Christian friend, people are always watching our every move. Whenever we slip up, even though it is natural, they will take note of it, I guarantee. That night I finally, genuinely listened to that scout. Yes, it was to late, and I have lost that friend. Next time I won’t wait that long though! When I started thinking about it, I realized that a lot of the scouts had been trying to tell me that same exact message for a few months! Sometimes it was through a subtle comment, and sometimes it was even in the form of a joke! Instead of hearingthe people around us talk, it should be our duty to be listening to the message behind what they say without becoming cocky or arrogant because we think we know better than they do.
4. When we stand for our belief, we should handle it firmly and not be moved in our belief, but at the same time, be as gentle as a dove with no anger. What caused me to lose this friend, believe it or not, was not the fact that our beliefs disagreed. Instead, it was that way I handled it. When I found that verse I just about shoved it in his face. I was angry, and that is not the correct way to handle the situation.
5. Lastly, when you don’t have anything to back yourself up, you can be firm in your belief with a simple answer to the questioning. Wait for it! This is like the best thing I have heard from one of my role models in a long time! This great man said in a sermon recently that if you can’t back yourself up with scripture, simply answer this way. “This is what I believe about my God, and that settles it; I will not be moved.” This doesn’t excuse you from finding something to help back you up. In fact, you should be more excited and anxious to find something to back you up in the Word, so that you can stand firm in the face of adversity the next time you are asked the same question. Although no one will ever have all of the answers, knowing a few answers is better than knowing none.

God taught me a lot through this test of my faith. He showed me that my belief was a little off, and showed me that even if my belief was exactly what he wanted, I couldn’t back myself up. My belief could have been 100 percent correct, but if I couldn’t back myself up, what good was it going to do? It’s a hard lesson to learn, but thank God for His wonderful grace and mercy and that he wouldn’t be angry with me even though I didn’t have the answers and even though I didn’t handle it correctly. Oh yeah, there’s the last part!

6. You should know beyond any doubt that God’s grace provides for you individually. So when you don’t have the answers, or you mess up, God is faithful to forgive the child that is following him and is open to repentence and help.

 

Romans 6:22

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and it’s end, eternal life.”

Romans 5:8

“but God shows His love for us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Thessalonians 3:13

“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.”

Psalm 40:8

“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

-Sincerely,

John

God’s Timing is Totally Relevant

I can’t begin to explain how it feels to learn something in your everyday walk. It’s so much better than hearing it from a pastor or teacher!

Recently, I have been learning, along with my mom, what it truly means to fully trust God, and His timing, and His ways. I’m just gonna be honest by saying that this might be labeled one of the hardest lessons to actually learn, especially since everyone will deal with it until the day we die.

For several months, mom and I (we worked together) had been experiencing some tough times at our workplace. It seemed like it was one thing after another that we didn’t agree with or appreciate. Mom was getting stressed, which in turn, caused me to be just the same, and it had begun to get even worse in the past few weeks. One thing led to another, and to keep from dragging this out, we both quit our jobs last week. For me, being that I live with my parents and I’m not even in college yet, it wasn’t very hard to quit. Will I miss many of my co-workers? Yes! I will miss them dearly!!! However, I was not relying on my income to provide for my needs, and my mom was. After my dad took a large pay cut last year, my moms income became a need to keep us on our feet. We were facing an extremely hard financial time.

Mom prayed and simply told God that if she was supposed to quit, he would have to give her the strength and peace to do it. And guess what, she did it. And I followed in her footsteps.

Now let me take a minute to give some back story. Mom has been looking at one certain place for employment for several years and they have never been hiring. She logged onto their website the day we quit and found that they are hiring for two positions! I don’t believe that it was a coincidence.

To continue with a little background, my family only owns one car and currently we can’t drive it. It’s almost as old as I am and has 208,000 miles on it. We didn’t know how we were going to get another car but it seemed that it was our only option. Two days after we quit, a van became available to us, and boy it was a steal! 2005 car with 42,000 miles on it for $4,000??? Once again, I don’t believe it was coincidence.

What does this go to show? If we will only trust God, and take the first step of faith (like quitting your job!), he will do wonderful things! Now I’m not saying that if you go quit your job, God will give you riches and jobs, but he will provide when you follow his lead.

One last thing before I go! And it’s the best part!

Mom was stressing and very upset over quitting. But why should we be afraid and upset over doing what God has led us to do? James 1:2 says, “Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,”. We should instead rejoice in our hard times and rejoice when the adversary takes hold of our lives!

I will leave you with a quote that a wise man brought to my attention when I was telling him about all of this. “If we do anything to further the kingdom of God, we may expect to find what Christ found on that road – abuse, indifference, injustice, misunderstanding, trouble of some kind. Take it. Why not? To that you were called. In Latin America someone who feels sorry for himself is said to look like a donkey in a downpour. If we think of the glorious fact that we are on the same path with Jesus, we might see a rainbow.” -Elizabeth Elliot

Praise Him In The Storm

Wow, the southeast and midwest have been slammed this week with some really severe weather. I know one thing is right. Here in Georgia, we have had one of the worst storm weeks that we’ve had in a while. My grandparents experienced a storm that produced a tornado shortly after it passed their house. Friends in Newnan were affected by the tornado. And this morning we had a tree fall in our yard. But even worse is the huge tornado outbreak in the midwest. 

In Arkansas, they had storms that produced several severe tornadoes that killed several people and injured many others. Thousands lost their homes, and all they had. But something caught my eye on Facebook the other day. Here is a picture of what a family wrote on the rubble left from their house after the tornado destroyed it. 

It takes some guts to say that you will praise the God that had power to stop the tornado that just destroyed your house. How can you possibly praise Him in the storm? It’s hard. Trust me. But all things are possible through our amazing God! (Philippians 4:13).

If you are a victim of this storm, or any of the other storms that have caused damage throughout the United States, “Grace be with all of you!”- Hebrews 13:25.