I believe in hell fire. I believe there is
a choice...Him or not. I believe the path is narrow and few find it. I
wouldn't say I live and let live. I tend to "tell it like it is" in
certain circumstances. However, I don't get in people's faces and
scream at them about how they're whores and going to hell. I tell them
what I believe Scripture says and why they may be struggling the way
they are. I guess maybe I do take advantage of situations and emotions
at times. I know that doesn't sound good the way it's written. For
instance...one person comes to mind as an example right away.
Cheryl was an atheist and I took her case.
She was leery at first when she first contacted me because she knew I
was a "Christian". She let me know she thought Christians were
hypocrites who basically sucked and she was an atheist. She made it
clear she didn't want to hear any "God stuff" because she thought He
sucked, too. I worked with her for a few months and watched her life go
downhill. Things escalated and she wound up getting into more trouble.
I knew she was going to get a jail sentence, but I did help her beat
one rap. When her trial and stuff was going on, I asked her if maybe
she needed to think about there being "someone else" who could fill her
gaps in her life. Did she think there may be another way? She asked me
if I was going to "give me that Christian crap". I said I wasn't a
preacher, but if she wanted to listen, I could tell her a few things.
She gave me three minutes. Hehehe....I don't remember what I said to
her. She did get sentenced and went to jail. No one wrote her. She
would write me letters and I would answer her...with big envelopes. I'd
send her stuff from the groups, updates, print off portions of a book
she had wanted to read. The first couple of letters, I got a little
"preachy"....she couldn't talk back to me or tell me to shut up! Her
letters were pretty sad....she would rather be dead and jail was awful.
I guess you could say I "played" on her emotional state and told her
about God. There was noone who could pull her out of the dump she was
in, except for God. I gave her my own experience of being in jail (Yes,
TTer's, been there, done that.) I knew what she was going through. I
knew what got me through and what would get her through. I just had to
wait for HER to see it. The next few letters, I began sending her CHICK
tracts and other things I could find. Of course, I sent her the
Messianic articles, too. I'm not an evangelizer, so I get help from
things I find form others who have more talents in that area. Simply
put, I improvise.
Here's a quote from her letter to me dated
8-11-04:
107
days to go, out of 219. I'm learning alot about religion-what it means
to live "God-like"--why it's good. So, I'm becoming educated about
this. I really didn't know anything. I admit that there's a lot to be
said for living in such a manner. It can't be bad, if done correctly
and NON-JUDGMENTALLY. My sister just got religion big-time over the
last year and she got baptized a few months ago. Now she's not worth
talking to! Righteousness out the ying-yang...she wants me to look in
the mirror and take a look into my heart, blah, blah, blah--with regard
to fighting CPS and she couldn't spell tyranny! Sorry-she's smart but
not educated like you and me.
At that point, Cheryl saw her sister
"getting religion" and dumping her off. Yelling and screaming at her,
doing what she would perceive as judging her would not work with her.
She was hurt that her sister had dumped her and didn't understand her.
She blamed God for doing that to her sister. I had shown Cheryl an
example...when she called me in the middle of the night, I talked to
her. I didn't make her feel like crap or disown her. Her letter in
late-October informed me...."I HAVE FOUND GOD!!!!!!! I REALLY
HAVE!!!!!!" Then she gave me the details of her new-found love. Her
whole demeanor was different. Cheryl now had hope. Her letters were now
very different. She was excited, alive, a new person. Cheryl was even
released a few days early...in November. She credited that to God. I've
gotten a few emails from her, and she continues to be very vibrant.
So, do I live and let live? Maybe in a
sense. I let people know I don't agree with their lifestyle and what I
know God says about it. But I'm not the one making the decision of
where they spend eternity. Do I get pushy? No. It didn't work with me,
in fact it caused me to NOT accept Messiah for a longer period of time.
I treat others the way I wanted to be treated, using what worked with
me, with my own "style" tailored into it. I can't change people. People
change themselves by allowing God to do the work in them.
Kay
DAVEH: Hmmmmmmm.........You don't sound like a typical Christian who
believes in hell-fire and damnation stuff, Kay. Does that mean you
live and let live without getting pushy about trying to change people?