How Do You React When Christians Assume You're An Unbeliever?
- Thread starter seoulsearch
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
K
Several years ago I knew this man who was, for lack of a better description, a little effeminate. He was very thin, bald, wore real thick glasses and had an odd gait. I'd have to say he didn't walk so much as he pranced. I know that sounds awful, but it's the best verb I can think of. He seemed a soft man too, his pants a little too high up on his waist, papery thin almost transparent skin, and a high kind of chirpy voice with a delicate kind of wisp to his "s's". He was a man who looked like a strong wind would place him in another county and a man accustomed to moving around in a shower to remain wet. And he was also part of the 82nd Airborne dropped from a glider on June 6, 1944 and was instrumental in gathering his lost platoon to follow through with the mission of capturing Cherbourg during the allied invasion of Normandy.
I didn't even know this until the VFW had sponsored a trip back to Normandy in 2004 and he was a guest of honor. In other words, the man increased his stature not because he swaggered about singing his own praises, but because he pranced and lived the quiet life of a man committed to his family and country.
I think of his example much like I do of a (now) friend of mine. I was at a pretty lonely country store getting gas. After filling the truck I went in to pay and came back out when the truck said "tic tic tic tic tic" when I turned the key. I worked on the battery a bit, cleaned the terminals, checked water levels and tried again. "Tic tic tic tic" said the truck. It was a long way home and a long way for help. Some time later another truck rolled up to the only pump so I started to push my truck out of the way and the guy driving got out and helped me. He asked me if I needed a boost - had the jumper cables - lit me back up and in the meantime became a friend of mine. He's a marine reservist, a Christian, a family man and goes completely out of his way and schedule to help others whenever the occasion arrises which for him is not an occasion at all but a perpetuity.
I think what i'm saying is I have just given up judging books by their cover. The toughest looking men I've ever seen turn out to be cowards. The ministers who have the largest followings turn out to be swindlers. The ones who point their fingers and shake bibles and say this Catholic boy is headed for hell, well - they just turn out to be confused. I think we have to walk our walk. I've always felt it was important to know me by my fruit before you heard me talk. Therefore, I've never witnessed to a total stranger. I am a steward of Christianity. Everything I do is on tv.
I didn't even know this until the VFW had sponsored a trip back to Normandy in 2004 and he was a guest of honor. In other words, the man increased his stature not because he swaggered about singing his own praises, but because he pranced and lived the quiet life of a man committed to his family and country.
I think of his example much like I do of a (now) friend of mine. I was at a pretty lonely country store getting gas. After filling the truck I went in to pay and came back out when the truck said "tic tic tic tic tic" when I turned the key. I worked on the battery a bit, cleaned the terminals, checked water levels and tried again. "Tic tic tic tic" said the truck. It was a long way home and a long way for help. Some time later another truck rolled up to the only pump so I started to push my truck out of the way and the guy driving got out and helped me. He asked me if I needed a boost - had the jumper cables - lit me back up and in the meantime became a friend of mine. He's a marine reservist, a Christian, a family man and goes completely out of his way and schedule to help others whenever the occasion arrises which for him is not an occasion at all but a perpetuity.
I think what i'm saying is I have just given up judging books by their cover. The toughest looking men I've ever seen turn out to be cowards. The ministers who have the largest followings turn out to be swindlers. The ones who point their fingers and shake bibles and say this Catholic boy is headed for hell, well - they just turn out to be confused. I think we have to walk our walk. I've always felt it was important to know me by my fruit before you heard me talk. Therefore, I've never witnessed to a total stranger. I am a steward of Christianity. Everything I do is on tv.
Well for Pete's sake, Nuke, you could have just told me, "Sorry, Ma'am, not interested... (and besides, I already drive a forklift)"...
I guessing... I shouldn't put the description "very low miles" in my dating dating profile/advertisement...
Pardon me, sir, but I think my mileage is excellent.
Now my tires on the otherhand...
(Seriously. I've loved reading everyone's responses and hope y'all will continue! It also give me ideas on how to respond/defend myself/ward off the spiritual vampires in the future!)
I guessing... I shouldn't put the description "very low miles" in my dating dating profile/advertisement...
Pardon me, sir, but I think my mileage is excellent.
Now my tires on the otherhand...
(Seriously. I've loved reading everyone's responses and hope y'all will continue! It also give me ideas on how to respond/defend myself/ward off the spiritual vampires in the future!)
N
Well, I actually had first written 'Only One Owner' instead of 'Very Low Miles'....then when I re-read it, I figured it probably wasn't the best joke about the neighbor's cousin's daughter...
So...your tires are bald? Well, your weave looks good at any rate. As long as those pics above of hairy knuckles and nasty diseased nails aren't yours, you're still a winner in my book.
I was pretty much going to say what PopClick said, Kim. If I mentioned Jesus to someone, and they said "oh yes; I've been in church my whole life!", I'd want to make sure they were a believer as well, since some cults don't believe that Jesus is the way to Heaven, but they keep their members in line, especially with church attendance (one could even go to a church with proper theology and not believe it themselves). HOWEVER, the next thing I'd say after their church attendance affirmation would probably be "oh, great! Have you ever accepted Jesus as your Savior?", or "that's neat! How old were you when you realized that Jesus died for your sins?", smiling the whole time. If they affirmed either question, I'd probably just say a sentence or two about how wonderful He is and let them agree, and then if I noticed that said person was tired, I hope I'd let him or her sleep 
.
.
And cue choking in 3, 2, 1...
Nuke, when I get my heathen hands around your neck... (Never mind the hair. And, don't look at my nails if you want to keep your sight intact.)
Why do I suddenly get the feeling that someone (no names, NukePooch... cough, cough) is trying to incite the masses into a huge riot against me!
What if I'm a PEACE-loving pagan, hmm?
Nuke, when I get my heathen hands around your neck... (Never mind the hair. And, don't look at my nails if you want to keep your sight intact.)
Why do I suddenly get the feeling that someone (no names, NukePooch... cough, cough) is trying to incite the masses into a huge riot against me!
What if I'm a PEACE-loving pagan, hmm?
honestly, i find it amazing that folks have ideas of where christians exist or not. the comments about "it's okay, las vegas isn't that bad!" make me smile a bit too. i get it. : )
having lived in vegast i can personally attest to the fact that it is one of the more churched areas in our country. to those who say there is "more trouble to get into" there, i would heartily disagree. we carry the ability to get into more trouble with us.
see, the world isn't what we need to be protected from. we're all walking around, with a sin nature that is constantly at war--what we need to be protected from resides in US. that's why we're called to die to self -- becoming more Christ-like. i made the joke in my post about meeting a christian at a liquor store because that's what happened last year. i make my own vanilla extract, and with a whole pound of juicy ripe vanilla beans ready, i ventured in to the liquor store and it probably looked like i was throwing some wild party. : D but really, no, it was all for different flavors of vanilla extract, no different than the alcohol-rich stuff you buy from the store.
i remember thinking, "hmmm... oh what if i ran into someone i knew while i was buying several bottles of hooch". and i ended up having a rather pleasant convo with a woman who goes to a nice church downtown. : )
i think our biggest issue is failing to recognize that we're not in need of being protected from the places like vegas. we need to be protected from ourselves.
having lived in vegast i can personally attest to the fact that it is one of the more churched areas in our country. to those who say there is "more trouble to get into" there, i would heartily disagree. we carry the ability to get into more trouble with us.
see, the world isn't what we need to be protected from. we're all walking around, with a sin nature that is constantly at war--what we need to be protected from resides in US. that's why we're called to die to self -- becoming more Christ-like. i made the joke in my post about meeting a christian at a liquor store because that's what happened last year. i make my own vanilla extract, and with a whole pound of juicy ripe vanilla beans ready, i ventured in to the liquor store and it probably looked like i was throwing some wild party. : D but really, no, it was all for different flavors of vanilla extract, no different than the alcohol-rich stuff you buy from the store.
i remember thinking, "hmmm... oh what if i ran into someone i knew while i was buying several bottles of hooch". and i ended up having a rather pleasant convo with a woman who goes to a nice church downtown. : )
i think our biggest issue is failing to recognize that we're not in need of being protected from the places like vegas. we need to be protected from ourselves.
