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Remove the blockages and make clear road for the Gospel
by S Mariah What was John intending to say to us, when he said, "Prepare the way for the Lord's coming! Clear the road for him!"..... We are very familiar with this Scripture but are we the one blocking the way, not making the path straight for people to come in and be saved? I have heard some non-believers commenting Christians that we read the same Bible and yes we did, we come from different denominations but somehow we read the same Bible, we supposed to have same knowledge, same understanding of being merciful, forgiving, loving and being gracious to others. And one non-believer used to confront me with this question, why are you all have different opinion about Homosexuality, are you not all reading the same Bible? I was stunned by his sharp and straight forward comments and I could not take that in at that particular time but later on the more I thought of it, the more I started to understand his points, and his struggle in understanding Christianity. Yes, it can be confusing and frustrating others to truly understand what we believe. As we both should be able to say 'yes' to his challenging comment, that though we read the same Bible, we all have different views about Homosexuality, some for and some against, some view it in a passionate and merciful way, some view it in a hatred and murderous way. Some stood up and go against all homosexuals, some did nothing about it, just ignoring the rest and be at peace with themselves, others stood up and felt sorry for those homosexuals and accepted they can never change by God, so they never speak the truth in love for those strugglers. In many other ways, whenever we are not united as one Body of Christ, we fall into Satan's trap, and the Gospel would be hindered, as when we lose the unity, we lose the Gospel. Satan is deceiving peoples worldwide, stopping them from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ through so many ways, through the influence of media, films and advertisements, deceiving the non-believers to believe in themselves or in other gods. When the world looks at us Christians, what do they actually see? Sometimes we blame on them for their hardness of hearts, not believing in God, and we felt like all our efforts have been wasted, but hold on a minute, maybe we should look at the way we behave in the public not just at church. How have we showed the love of Christ to the non-believers? When the bad news of such and such pastors failed God, how did we behave? Have we showed mercy and forgiveness to the pastors who failed God, have we applied what we have learned from the Bible to show them mercy, grace and forgiveness. The world is watching us, how we behave towards our brothers and sisters and how we extend love and forgiveness to others...they are watching us, and they know how we behave!! When we commented about church after Sunday morning in a public coffee shop, the non-believers can hear us and sure they will listen carefully to what we are going to say, have we talked nicely about churches, or have we commented them with harsh words in front of non-believers, are we acting like a gossiper than a worshipper in the public? The world is watching us, if you gossiped your church in the public, what would you think of the non-believers, would they be so impressed by your gossip and join you for Sunday's service?? IMPOSSIBLE!! We need to learn to behave like Jesus to this world, and we need to learn to be a believer of Jesus Christ, we need to have a mission in heart to share love with action to others, to really show them who we believe. The world is watching us.... Do not be the blockage of the Gospel yourself, in Luke 3:5, it continues to say, "The valleys will be filled, and the mountains and hills made level. The curves will be straightened., and the rough places made smooth. And here in verse 6 says, "AND THEN ALL PEOPLE WILL SEE THE SALVATION SENT FROM GOD." And then all people will see the salvation sent from God.....and then all people will see the salvation sent from God......... May we have a heart for the lost, and be an example to them, pointing them to Jesus for salvation. Amen. S. Mariah - passionate about the sexually-broken. Please visit http://Jesusloveslgbt.org for more articles on homosexuality. My e-books, please visit: https://www.amazon.com/She-confused-Wandering-wonderful-imagination-ebook/dp/B08HHLCHR3/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+âsheâ+confused&qid=1599 Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |