(no subject)
I spent the evening in Paradise Bay, owned by a Dutch family. They have two kids around our age. They own all the houses in the surrounding areas in between two small beaches and run a bed and breakfast type of thing. It's really nice! They make all the food and stuff...mm.....I had really good champagne and salmon stuff on crackers and thinly sliced raw ham with goude cheese and something like a pot pie in a pita...mmm....so good! :) On the way home we spent the whole time, the 5 of us in the Rav 4, talking with Stephen about how his life is inconsistent with what he professes as his beliefs. Let's just say he has a very liberal lifestyle but very conservative beliefs.
For example, he thinks everyone who isn't protestant Christian is going to hell. All catholics. All muslims. All buddhists. Everyone. He proudly and adamantly hates homosexuals. He thinks women shouldn't be in glorified positions--anywhere. Stuff like that. He'll argue till he is blue in the face about how the only people who have a right to tell him that what he is doing is wrong are people like his grandfather and his father (although every time his father tells him anything, he doesn't listen).
As far as his lifestyle is concerned, he goes out to night clubs all the time and gets drunk with his friends. He has a girlfriend in New York that he sleeps with and hides this fact from his parents and professes that adulterers are going to hell, yet cheats on her and hooks up with girls in Grenada. He swears all the time.
He'll also argue till he's blue in the face that you can't reach people on that level unless you are with them. That it doesn't matter what his lifestyle is, just as long as he can tell them what he believes and convert them that way and that what he believes is much more important than what he does. He seems to have an impression that you have two alternatives as a Christian: to either live an isolated, monastic life as a hermit away from the world, or to completely immersed in the world. He sees no significance in the incongruity of what he believes and the way he lives his life. He is money hungry and is more than happy to do dirty things (lie, cheat, manipulate, etc) to get ahead in the business world.
I am largely frustrated. It's so hard to fathom that someone can not only practice something so wretched, but be PROUD of something so wretched and defend it in a car full of other strong Christians. He has deceived himself so far that it would take something much larger than life to shake him from it. This is also terribly hard on Reuben and Susan.
This is frustrating for me, as well as a wake up call. The reason we are told in scripture that our example (LIFE) is our strongest witness is so that we can minister to people we DON'T EVEN TALK TO. People we hang out with and have regular contact will actually have a chance to ask us about why we are the way we are...therein lies the opportunities for further witnessing and telling them why we are the way we are and what we're about and what we believe (since our lives and the things we profess to believe will be congruous)...but for much of the world, our only example is in the blink of an eye. So when, for example, my classmates invite me to go drink and dance at the bar with them, I say no thanks. They usually don't ask why. Sometimes, though, they do. I usually say "it's not my thing." They usually ask why. That's all it takes to open up a spiritual conversation.
"It's not like I go and kill people and do drugs"
"It is not up to you to judge me"
"I hate homosexuals"
"you are either going to heaven or you're not"
"I don't judge people"
"Don't tell me that God is a God of love...God is a God of wrath and will judge the heathens"
"It doesn't matter what I do, it's what I believe that's important"
"As long as people are converted, that's all that matters"
"It's because you're all turning liberal that you think homosexuals should be accepted" (and that women should be seen as credible and spiritual leaders)
Inconsistency/hatred/incongruity/confusion/deception/lies/binds
"..an overseer...must be blameless--not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who LOVES WHAT IS GOOD, who is self-controlled, upright, holy, and DISCIPLINED....
There are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers...therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith... in fact, BOTH their minds and consciences are corrupted.
They CLAIM to know God, but BY THEIR ACTIONS THEY DENY HIM. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing ANYTHING good." ~Titus 1:7,10,15,16
For example, he thinks everyone who isn't protestant Christian is going to hell. All catholics. All muslims. All buddhists. Everyone. He proudly and adamantly hates homosexuals. He thinks women shouldn't be in glorified positions--anywhere. Stuff like that. He'll argue till he is blue in the face about how the only people who have a right to tell him that what he is doing is wrong are people like his grandfather and his father (although every time his father tells him anything, he doesn't listen).
As far as his lifestyle is concerned, he goes out to night clubs all the time and gets drunk with his friends. He has a girlfriend in New York that he sleeps with and hides this fact from his parents and professes that adulterers are going to hell, yet cheats on her and hooks up with girls in Grenada. He swears all the time.
He'll also argue till he's blue in the face that you can't reach people on that level unless you are with them. That it doesn't matter what his lifestyle is, just as long as he can tell them what he believes and convert them that way and that what he believes is much more important than what he does. He seems to have an impression that you have two alternatives as a Christian: to either live an isolated, monastic life as a hermit away from the world, or to completely immersed in the world. He sees no significance in the incongruity of what he believes and the way he lives his life. He is money hungry and is more than happy to do dirty things (lie, cheat, manipulate, etc) to get ahead in the business world.
I am largely frustrated. It's so hard to fathom that someone can not only practice something so wretched, but be PROUD of something so wretched and defend it in a car full of other strong Christians. He has deceived himself so far that it would take something much larger than life to shake him from it. This is also terribly hard on Reuben and Susan.
This is frustrating for me, as well as a wake up call. The reason we are told in scripture that our example (LIFE) is our strongest witness is so that we can minister to people we DON'T EVEN TALK TO. People we hang out with and have regular contact will actually have a chance to ask us about why we are the way we are...therein lies the opportunities for further witnessing and telling them why we are the way we are and what we're about and what we believe (since our lives and the things we profess to believe will be congruous)...but for much of the world, our only example is in the blink of an eye. So when, for example, my classmates invite me to go drink and dance at the bar with them, I say no thanks. They usually don't ask why. Sometimes, though, they do. I usually say "it's not my thing." They usually ask why. That's all it takes to open up a spiritual conversation.
"It's not like I go and kill people and do drugs"
"It is not up to you to judge me"
"I hate homosexuals"
"you are either going to heaven or you're not"
"I don't judge people"
"Don't tell me that God is a God of love...God is a God of wrath and will judge the heathens"
"It doesn't matter what I do, it's what I believe that's important"
"As long as people are converted, that's all that matters"
"It's because you're all turning liberal that you think homosexuals should be accepted" (and that women should be seen as credible and spiritual leaders)
Inconsistency/hatred/incongruity/confusion/deception/lies/binds
"..an overseer...must be blameless--not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who LOVES WHAT IS GOOD, who is self-controlled, upright, holy, and DISCIPLINED....
There are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers...therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith... in fact, BOTH their minds and consciences are corrupted.
They CLAIM to know God, but BY THEIR ACTIONS THEY DENY HIM. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing ANYTHING good." ~Titus 1:7,10,15,16