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Response to the Light


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#1 Candice

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Posted 27 March 2018 - 11:01 AM

I am reading a book, "Conversational Evangelism" (Norman Geisler).  There is a section that really grabbed my attention.  I think many of us are questioning the state of the world right now.  Are we in the end times or nearing that time?  What's our part in the Gospel today?  The generation is perverse and, at least in the Western world, evangelism is very difficult.

 

The question begs:  What about those who have never heard the Gospel?

We also hear this question posed by some in arguing a position regarding the GOSPEL: 

“How is it fair for God to condemn someone for not having enough knowledge to save him, but just enough knowledge to condemn him?”

 

Here's where the author answers.....

 

To answer this, we must remember that God is not responsible to give us greater light of who He is when we have not responded to the light we already have. Matthew 13:12 says, “Whoever has will be given more.” Other examples of this in Scripture are the Ethiopian in Acts 8, Cornelius in Acts 10, and God-fearing Greeks in Acts 17. Romans 1 teaches us that all people have some knowledge about God, even if it is not saving knowledge.

 

Consider this illustration that demonstrates how God is still just even if men never come to know anything about Jesus Christ.  (I LOVE THIS):

 

Suppose you are lost in a desert and it’s getting dark. You are hungry, thirsty, and know that if you do not find food and shelter soon, you are probably going to die. Then you see a speck of light on the horizon indicating that there is human life out there. If you move away from the light instead of toward it, whose fault is it if you die? It would be your fault, right? Had you chosen to move toward the light, would not the light have grown brighter, revealing who was there? In a similar way, God is not responsible to give us greater light if we have not responded to the light He has already provided through general revelation. Furthermore, the Bible shows us God’s universal concern for mankind when it tells us that there will be people “from every nation, tribe, people and language” in heaven (Revelation 7: 9), which proves that God is not discriminatory in His love and desires for all to come to know Him (2 Peter 3: 9).

 

?Many matters burden my heart for my family.  They reject the Gospel and I sometimes find myself casting my pearls before swine.  So, for me at least, I find that if they reject, then I need not, nor should not, keep putting other stuff, i.e. response to issues before them either.  If one fails to respond to the light, why bother with the rest?  

 

?Jesus was not political nor a moralist.  Was He?


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#2 Jesus_Lolly

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Posted 27 March 2018 - 11:55 AM

I too have been depressed. I have asked myself, "What is really going on?" I've also wondered

why the Lord no longer places people in my path who are open to the gospel. As a result, I feel

like most of my time is wasted, for what good is anything if people don't find eternal life?

 

God has responded by giving me the Scripture: "But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible" (Mt. 19:26). What God meant for me in this

statement, is that the evil is so pervasive, I'm too small to deal with it. Thus, God

is ready to save and to judge.

 

It appears that my part in this season is to show love as God sends rain on the

just and the unjust. I am also to lay low that I might find truth in God's word, so that the 

pollution of deception can be flushed away.

 

Is this the end? I've asked the Lord. His response seems to be, "Consider the signs."

I think that's a yes, but I don't know what that means in years. I also perceive that God

is not as patient with this world as He was just a few years ago.


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#3 Meema

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Posted 28 March 2018 - 02:43 AM

How timely this conversation is! In so many ways. 

 

I don’t know which is worse - a loved one who outright rejects the gospel or one who knows the lyrics but not the music - who can spout off ‘love’ and ‘God’ words and scripture even as she is abusing and squandering a long list of blessings given to her in the hopes that she would rise up, grow up and multiply the talents. 

 

In the middle of the crisis seeking wisdom and solution, it occurred to me that it is absolutely true that Jesus will take the 999 steps but we are held accountable to take the one. The one step that requires admission that we need fixing, that we are wrong and there is fault in us. We know God can heal and change anyone, regardless how reprobated and non-believing but without that one willingness to humility, that one step, there is no more movement.

 

You know the scripture that says that His sheep know the sound of His voice? That’s a concept that opens up all sorts of wonderings, not to mention a variety of doctrinal belief systems. But what it means to me is that He knows from beginning to end. He has seen the video, He knows every story, every heart, the ending. But we don’t. All we have to do is to listen for His voice and just keep walking toward Him. That's the choice every individual has.

 

As for those who haven’t had the opportunity to hear the gospel I am reminded of someone who was raised Jewish but throughout his adult life rejected all religion until one night, stuck in his hotel during a business trip, he pick up the Gideon Bible and started reading. Something clicked, he read it until dawn. Right there, in the quiet aloneness he found Christ - he heard His voice and answered. He was changed. 

 

I absolutely agree and commiserate (if that is any consolation) that this is the season to lay low, love, pray and, I might add, to discern when to not interfere with good intentioned charity because it might mean God is working on someone through tribulation. 

 

http://bagsallpacked...-and-grace.html


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#4 Candice

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Posted 28 March 2018 - 09:10 AM

Lolly and Meema, it is a time for kind of hunkering down.  Simply pray and love those who present in our lives.  Watch the signs, but not worry.  The worry is not strong in me, but is rather an ever-present kind of mild anxiety...waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I read Psalm 2 today.  This is nothing new...the Kings of the earth plotting.  But, the LORD is still on His throne.  

 

My husband loves travel, but I no longer do.  I want to just submit to his plans this summer to visit Ireland and I just want to say, "I don't want to go".  But, I can't.  He'd be so disappointed.  I feel like something terrible can happen at any time.  I also feel like there's nothing interesting in this world.  To me.  Nothing pure to see or enjoy.  Maybe the mountains where I live offer a kind of solice....like a very ghost of what Eden was and what the new earth shall be.  

 

There is still a hope for the Gospel's reception.  I went to Haiti with medical/dental team of believers this month.  There, I shared the Gospel with many via interpreters and a few received eagerly  I will remember the face of an elderly man, Joseph, as long as I live.  I almost jumped as he said he wanted to receive Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord "right now".  I said, "really"? as I almost couldn't believe it.  Lots of people  in the remote villages we were in were intimidated with death threats and the like by the local voodoo priest who threatened them if they came to the nightly crusades.  I saw a sea of people who are my brothers and sisters -- they are your brothers and sisters too -- eagerly worship and share.  There are still souls out there.  Not the typical western attitude towards the Gospel.

 

Jesus never meant to create a religion. 

Thank you both for being my sisters and your fellowship is such a great pearl to me.

 

Love, Candice


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