Difficult Scripture for Free Willers

The debate between predestination and free will is almost as old as Christianity itself.  It has been debated by Christian theologians for many, many years now, and it will continue to be debated for many, many years to come.  Personally, I have gone back and forth on the debate until I have finally landed somewhere in the middle.  I have developed my own criteria called pre-willers.  But seriously …

As a free will type person, the following scripture has always proven difficult:

Romans 9:10 – 24

¹⁰ This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. ¹¹ But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; ¹² he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” ¹³ In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

¹⁴ Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! ¹⁵ For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

¹⁶ So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

¹⁷ For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” ¹⁸ So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

¹⁹ Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

²⁰ No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” ²¹ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? ²² In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. ²³ He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. ²⁴ And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

**********************

Editing this post:

I had originally added some other thoughts to this post – with slight hesitation.  When I posted, I lost everything after the Scripture.  I’m thinking that is probably best.  So, what you see above is what you get.  The Word can speak for itself.

Go with God,
Donald B

Philippians 4:12-13

Philippians 4:12 – 13
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

OK … so, I’m not sure where this blog is going, but the principle given to us in these 2 verses has been working through my mind for a while now.  The jumbled mess comes with words like contentment, joy, trust, faith, eternity, relax, smile and more.  Trying to piece all this together into a thought has been the difficulty I have been struggling through.

Let’s begin with the verses.  Paul is simply telling the readers that he has discovered the secret on how to be content, and that secret is that he “can do everything through him who gives me strength.”  But how does that work?  How does simply knowing and believe verse 13 help us to be content?  What does it mean to be content?  How does joy, trust, faith, eternity and more connect to contentment?

To be content means to be satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.  So, immediately we can deduce that Paul means he is content with what he has here in the physical realm while living in the flesh on Earth.  For we can easily find scripture (even in this same book) where Paul is longing for heaven, or he is yearning to have more of Christ.  He is never content in his relationship with Christ.  He is always wanting more.  The irony is that it is this lack of contentment in his relationship with Christ which enables him to find contentment regarding the things of the world.

We have to learn to be content with the things we have in life, the position we hold in life, the circumstances we have experienced in life and the outcomes we experience in life.  If we truly believe that God is sovereign over all things, then we must begin to understand that our life (and everything that happens in it) is completely in his control.  And because he is all knowing, all powerful, all present, all loving and EVERYTHING … we should be able to TRUST that God wants the absolute best thing for us.

That paragraph is a hard thing to take in because you can’t just say that and ignore the fact that there are some bad, crappy things that happen to us.  To equate that God controls everything that happens to us, and bad things happen to us … is not a fun conversation.  Then, we start asking why he let it happen.  Why didn’t God spare us from the bad thing?  He spared someone else, why not me?

Those are questions people scream out about God and to God all the time.  And many times, those are questions which an answer will never be provided.  But we can always go back to the book of Job for a tad bit of understanding.  In the end, faith must play the major role.  We MUST trust that God has our best interests in mind.  We MUST begin to realize that our LIFE is so little about this time we have on Earth and is so much more about the eternal life we are going to live after we are dead or after Christ returns.  Everything we experience here is part of our growing in our eternal relationship with Christ.

Maybe – and this is probably a lame example – it can be viewed like a basic training of sorts.  Any military member will tell you how bad basic training was.  No one will ever talk about how much fun it was to have people screaming at you because your folded t-shirt was 1/4 inch off.  But what the will all tell you is how that basic training changed them and prepared them for a life in the military.

I am not sure that I have said much of anything in this post, but I need to close before it gets any longer.  To do that, I would like to discuss the joy aspect of all this.  Joy is NOT happiness!  However, I can find joy as I trust God completely with my life.  At basic training, we knew when the end day was.  We had the hope that the suffering we endured would be over soon.  And knowing this enabled us to continue on through the training.  Well, for Christians, we know we will be in heaven one day.  This thought should provide us with joy because we have hope that goes beyond this physical realm we are currently living in.

I hope you have found this useful.  If you think there was more I could have said, please add it in a comment below.  This is one of those things that needs to be talked out in order to get the best understanding.

Go with God,
Donald B

How to be MORE Secure on the Internet

I have emphasized MORE in the title of this blog because you will NEVER be 100% secure unless you never ever connect your computer to anything ever.  And even then, someone can break in and steal your computer.  So, if you are using a computer, 100% security is a false assumption.

Before I go any further, I normally use my blog for posting spiritual thoughts or devotional type information.  I wanted to take some time with this post to help people become a little more security conscience in this day and age where identity theft, viruses and spyware are so prevalent.

One more disclaimer.  I am not anti-PC, nor am I anti-Mac.  I am not a Microsoft lover, but I use plenty of Microsoft products.  Therefore, what you read in this blog is not trying to bring you over to one side or the other.  It is simply intended to help you be more secure as you use your computers on the Internet.  Most of the advice in this post will be for PC users (as that is what I am), but there is some information that Mac users could benefit from as well.

In the following paragraphs, I will be discussing a few certain things you can do to be more secure on the Internet.  Some of these things, you may already do.  Some, you may never do … even after you read what I have to say.  But they are hear for you to give you more options.

SUGGESTION #1:  Make sure you are updating your computer.  This is a suggestion that should be more of a directive.  If you are not doing this, you are just opening yourself up to major problems.  Do it!  This applies to PC users and Mac users.  Yes, Mac’s do have vulnerabilities that need to be patched from time to time.  For PC users, you will need to use Internet Explorer to get your updates.  Usually, you can find a link in your Start menu that says Windows Updates.  You can set this up to download and install updates automatically if you would like.  If you click the link, and go to the site, you will be given two options.  Express or Custom update and install.  I choose Custom.  The Express only installs the latest critical security updates.  This is good, but it is also good to get any updates for your hardware or software.  These are found in the Custom section.  And you will have to select to have them installed.

Note 1:  Microsoft updates come out the 2nd Tuesday of every month.  Occasionally, there will be an out of cycle update, but not every month.

Note 2: If you install an update or if you have your computer set up to download and install automatically – and your computer starts having problems – try using your computer’s system restore to restore your computer back to the state it was in 3 or 4 days earlier.  This will not erase your data.  It will simply remove any updates or programs that you’ve installed that could have caused your problems.  Then, go back and reinstall each one individually until you find the culprit.  Of course, it could have been a faulty install the first time, and it will work fine the second.

SUGGESTION #2: Ensure your anti-virus software is installed, up to date and running.  Many of you have Norton or McAfee’s software on your computer.  These usually give you anti-virus, spyware protection, firewalls, email scanners, and on and on and on.  Those things are nice and good, but they also make for some VERY LARGE programs on your computer.  If your computer is sluggish, these could be part of the problem.  I am currently using a free anti-virus program called AVG.  It seems to be working great.  Of course, it is only an anti-virus program.  If you would like to give it a try, you can find the free version at here –>  http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition.

SUGGESTION #3: Use a browser that is not Internet Explorer.  This is the part where you need to know I do not hate Microsoft.  And I know my MS friends are not smiling at me for the moment, but I think they will have to SORT of agree with my reasoning.  Microsoft is a BIG and great company.  They are a huge reason why we are where we are today in the world of computers.  They provide great products.  The only problem is that since they are so much bigger than everyone else, all the bad guys out there are designing their attack programs to take advantage of flaws in MS products on PCs.  If any one ever tells you they use a Mac because it can’t get viruses or because it doesn’t have the problems PCs have … just ignore them.  They obviously do not have a clue.  Everything we use is designed by people.  And ALL people make mistakes.  Therefore, EVERYTHING has a flaw.

Before going off and following this suggestion understand that you CANNOT remove Internet Explorer from your system (or you SHOULD not).  The only way to get Microsoft updates is by using Internet Explorer.  While IE 8 (the newest version) is a lot more secure than its previous versions, it is still being heavily attacked by the bad guys.  The browser I use is Firefox.  If you would like to download and install Firefox, you can do so at www.firefox.com.

SUGGESTION #4: Protect your wi-fi.  You are wide open if you are not protecting your wi-fi.  You can do this by going into your wi-fi settings.  If you don’t know how to do this, read the documentation that came with your router or look it up online.  Once you are able to get to the settings, change the username to login, change the password, and then, look for the wireless settings.  Once here, look for something called WPA.  You will want to set this to a really long and confusing password that no one can remember.  Not even you.  Write it down and keep it somewhere in your house.  If you want a REALLY, REALLY secure password made up for you … go to this site and copy and paste the 63 random alpha numeric characters and use that.  https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

SUGGESTION #5: Run a sweep for Spyware at least once a month – maybe more.  A great FREE tool for doing this can be located at www.lavasoft.com.  Get the Ad-Aware Free program and run a complete scan.  This will take a while.  But it will find and remove most spyware.

SUGGESTION #6: STOP INSTALLING those silly tool bars if you are using Internet Explorer.  The tool bars I speak of are the Yahoo search or Google search or weather info or other search bars.  Anything at the top that is not a menu bar or a links bar.  These tool bars come with their on spyware.  So, even after you do a sweep, they simply put the spyware back out there the next time you open the browser.

SUGGESTION #7: NEVER click on a link to go to a site from an email.  If your bank needs you to see something, or some store wants you to check out something, open a browser and type in the address.

SUGGESTION #8: Use common sense.  Don’t be stupid.

As I close, I hope you find this helpful.  If you are a computer tech kind of person and want to correct me or offer more helpful info, please feel free to comment.  I am not the smartest guy in the world, so, I may have said something wrong or left off some important info.  But please understand, if I don’t find your comment helpful, it won’t be added.  Remember, you don’t have to agree with me to be helpful. 

Go with God,
Donald B

Who Cares Who’s The Greatest

Mark 9:33 – 34 (NIV)
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

The disciples of Jesus were actually arguing about who the greatest was among the 12 of them.  Can you imagine having that discussion with a group of your friends?  What would that sound like?  Are we actually capable of having the same stupid kind of argument?  Are there those among us who truly believe they are greater than others?

I think the answer to all these questions is YES!  But the two questions we should be asking today is – what does this look like today in our own lives?  and why?  To help us see this a little better, I’m going to skip a few verses – which we will come back to – and go to verses 38 – 39.

Immediately after Jesus calls the disciples on their silly little argument and gives them the better way, this discussion comes up.

Mark 9:38 – 39 (NIV)
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

This is simply a different way about arguing about who is the greatest.  It’s almost as if they understood Jesus to say they should not have these arguments amongst each other … but at the same time, they still believed they were superior to other people because they were “the disciples.”  The disciples were completely missing out on what Christ was trying to teach them.

We see Christ’s lesson in verses 35 – 37.

Mark 9:35 – 37 (NIV)
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

There are two lessons I think we should take away from this.  One is pretty much obvious.  The other is one of those lessons that is here because of what is not directly said.

1. We should never think of ourselves as better than others because of some talent or skill that we may have and may be really good at.  Ultimately, we must remember that any gift, talent or skill that we have came from Christ.  He chose to bless us with these for the purpose of serving him.  This is the simple lesson.
2. We have no excuse for not following Christ where he wants to lead us.  For some, he is calling you to be missionaries.  For some, he is calling you to start some kind of ministry in your community.  For some, he is calling you to take on some new position.  For some, he is calling you to use your skills for his glory.  And there are many who are not following because they do not think their skills or gifts are what they should be in order to succeed.  Rather than arguing about who is greatest, they would be quick to say, “not only am I not the greatest, but I’m not even good enough to be in this conversation.”  These people are denying Christ’s desire to work in their own lives.

I wish I had more space and time to explain these thoughts better, but I believe if you are reading this, the Holy Spirit can use my inabilities to accomplish his goals.  After all – in successful work that is accomplished through me is only occurring because of Christ working through me.  He’s not calling me to be the best at what I do … he’s calling me to demonstrate my faith by obeying him as fully as I am able to with the skills, gifts and talents he has given me.

Go with God,
Donald B

Gearing Up For 30 Hour Famine

Our youth group is going to be participating in a 30 Hour Famine on Feb 27 and 28.  We will be doing this for the purpose of raising money to send to World Vision and to raise the awareness level of our students and our church regarding starvation in our world.  We want to do what we can to help.

Please help us accomplish this goal by making a donation to World Vision through one of our students.  Below, I am going to post the names of each student who currently has a donation page set up.  Just go to their page and make a donation.  Also, come back to this note occasionally to see if I’ve added any new students!

Thank you!

Bale, Natalie

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-006

Brayman, Vanessa

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-024

Buttram, Emily

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-009

Buttram, IV

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-019

Buttram, Joshua

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-022

Downing, Angelo

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-021

Downing, Jared

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-017

Downing, Jessica

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-018

Downing, Rita

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-010

Ellison, Erik

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-005

Ellison, Morgan

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-008

Feehs, Caleb

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-025

Hough, Andrew

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-007

Hough, Kristopher

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-002

Markle, Tori

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-023

Markle, Zac

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-015

Rotchford, Jenni

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-003

Sanders, Joel

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-014

Schmitz, Matt

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-004

Slocumb, Alex

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-016

Tingstrom, Britney

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-012

Tingstrom, Tyler

http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-011

If you died today, where you going?

How Can I Know?

I just returned from taking our youth group to Winterfest.  We had an awesome time jamming with Skillet, Disciple, Jeremy Camp and others.  But we also go to hear messages presented by Clayton King and David Nasser.  Clayton’s message was Gospel centric.  You’ve got to be saved type of message.  David’s message was directed more to those of us who are already Christians and are still carrying around a lot of baggage that is keeping us from a much better relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

From all this preaching and teaching, the struggle our students seemed to come away with is the struggle all Christians have dealt with as they mature – AM I SAVED???  HOW CAN I KNOW???

So, how can we know we are saved?  The best way I know to answer this question is with Scripture.

1 John 5:13 (NIV)
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Whenever I speak to anyone about assurance of salvation, this is always my first stop.  1 John 5:13 CLEARLY tells us that we can KNOW that we have eternal life.  We can KNOW it!!!  That’s exciting to me.  But that’s not enough for a lot of people.  So there’s a verse that says I can know … but HOW can I know?

ANSWER: Read 1 John 1:1 – 5:12 for starters.  John says I write these things to you … so that … Therefore, we can know by what he wrote before hand.

1 John 1:1 – 4 – John reminds us that he is an EYE WITNESS to Jesus.  He saw the man, touched the man, at with the man and spoke with the man.  John received direct teaching from Jesus himself.

1 John 1:5 – 10 – This section explains that we will at least have a desire to be living as a Christian should – “walking in the light”.  This section also tells us that as Christians, we will recognize the sin in our lives.  Not because we are good enough to know, but because the Holy Spirit within us is convicting us of sin.  ONLY the Holy Spirit can convict us of sin.  Do you desire to “walk in the light”?  Do you recognize the sin in your life?  Maybe you can know now.

1 John 2:1 – 14 – Here we discover that our love for Christ is demonstrated by our willingness to obey His commands.  We also read that our love for our brothers shows that God’s love lives within us.  Are you obeying the commands of Christ?  Do you love your fellow Christians?  Or at least … are you trying?  Our desire to obey and to love can only come from the Holy Spirit living within us.  Maybe you can know now.

1 John 2:15 – 17 – By the “world”, John is basically talking about the average non-Christian person.  This person doesn’t know what peer pressure is because they say yes to everything.  This person thinks mostly about their own desires and their own self rather than thinking about others.  This person may support abortion or homosexuality as a life style.  Are you trying to be different than this person?  Do you desire to follow Jesus even if it means you won’t “fit in” with the people you work with or go to school with?  Maybe you can know now.

1 John 2:18 – 27 – Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?  Have you ever had an “aha” moment when reading the Bible where you learned something new?  You can only learn if the Holy Spirit is teaching.  Maybe you can know now.

I could continue with the rest of the book, but this blog is already long enough.  Here’s an idea – read it for yourself.  Try to determine if you see yourself in those scriptures.  Remember though – we will never be perfect.  So, don’t say “that’s not me because I got mad at so and so yesterday.”

And then, read 1 John 5:13 again and believe what it is telling you.

Go with God,
Donald B

I’m Back …

I will be posting again to this blog beginning today.  Trying to run a youth ministry blog, a youth ministry website and sending out youth ministry emails was just becoming a bit too much.  After all, there is only so much information you can send out.

So, I am going to start using this blog again to simply post up any thoughts I have.  Hopefully, I will be able to provide blogs that will help whoever reads them in some way with their spiritual walk.  I hope that this can serve as an encouragement.

It’s a new year, and already, God is showing me some areas where I need to change … where I need much growth.  And the first is in the realms of prayer.

I was listening to John Piper this morning, and he said something (or at least I heard something that came from something he said) that rang a bell with me.

I’m not sure exactly how to put it, but it goes something like this …

Many of us who have grown past the adolescent stages of legalism have simply stopped praying.  Basically, I want to pray as much as I did when I prayed for legalistic reasons but I want to pray that much out of a deep love and respect for God, and ultimately, to bring Glory to God.

I’m not sure if that makes sense to any of you, but it has sparked some thought for me to grow on.

Father God,
I pray for your strength as we enter this new year.  Open our eyes to what You are doing in us and around us.  Give us the strength and courage to join You in what You are doing and to allow You to make the changes in us that You want to make.

In Jesus’ Name!
Amen

TTFN …

I will not be posting to this blog very much any more! I have taken on a new responsibility which will garner much of my time. So, keeping up with this blog will have to take a back seat for now. If you would like to read more about what I am doing, check out the following links: LCC Student Ministry Web Site LCC Student Ministry Blog Go with God Donald B

Unscarify Evangelism

Evangelism Defined (by me):

Evangelism is what a Christian is supposed to do in order to help non-Christians become Christians. Further defined, it is a lifestyle lived on purpose for the extreme purpose of not only telling people the story of Jesus and explaining the salvation message, but also to demonstrate what a Christian is supposed to be. But defining evangelism is not my goal today. Rather, it is to provide anyone reading this with the encouragement to step out and evangelize … without TOO MUCH fear.

Let me give you some freedom right up front. You are not required to walk up to people cold-turkey and say, “Can I tell you about Jesus?” Don’t get me wrong, if you can do that, and you do do that, continue pushing forward. We would probably discover that you have the gift of evangelism. However, for the most of us that aren’t gifted in evangelism, we need to discover how we can evangelize any way because we want to be obedient to Matthew 28:19 – 20.

Here are a few steps you can take right now to start evangelizing:

1 – Make some non-Christian friends. By this, I mean do more than talk to them. Invite a non-Christian family into your home for the express purpose of getting to know them better. Go out to eat with a non-Christian friend. Join a work softball team (even one of those teams where the actually drink beer after the game). Find ways that you can be around non-Christians without compromising your relationship with Christ. That should be easy enough for most of us.

2 – Ask questions. Further, ask questions without trying to correct the answers once they are given. Also, don’t start debating with them when they say something you believe to be wrong. Just let it be wrong. Here are some sample questions you can ask in normal conversation when you get to where you feel you can and it would be appropriate.

Do you go to church any where?
Do you have any spiritual beliefs?
Do you believe in God?
To you, who is Jesus?
What do you think a Christian is?

Some of these questions come from Bill Fay’s Share Jesus Without Fear, but the questions are open-ended. The important thing is to let them tell you what they think. People like to talk to you about themselves. This will let you see where they stand spiritually, and it will show them that you are a little different than there other friends.

3 – Know your Bible. This is the part that is hard for most of us, but this is the easiest part to fix. Read your Bible. You are a Christian … right? Then, read God’s Word!!! Here are a few scriptures you can get started knowing better:

Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:23: Romans 3:10; Romans 10:9-10; John 3:16; John 3:3; John 14:6; 1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17

These aren’t all about salvation, but they are good verses to know. Pick up a tract and see what verses they use and how they use them.

Know what you believe!

That’s enough steps for now. If we will start with these, we might actually start winning the spiritual battle in America.

Go with God,
Donald B

Don’t Witness … Experience Judgement?????

This scripture has always irritated me.  Not because of what it says, but because of what people make it to say.  What I read in Ezekiel 33 is that God is given Ezekiel an example using the watchman.  If the watchman alerts the people, and they respond … great.  If the watchman alerts the people, and they don’t respond, the blood of the people is on their own head.  If the watchman sees the danger coming and says nothing … then, the blood of the people is on their own head.  God then tells Ezekiel that he – Ezekiel – is God’s watchman for Israel, and he better speak what God is giving him to speak.

What I tire of is what I have heard for a long time about this scripture.  People say … because of this scripture … if we do not witness to someone we fill led to witness to, then, their blood is on our head.  They say we will be held accountable by God for this negligence.  They say we will be judged for failing to obey.  My question is what will this judgement look like?  Is God going to send us to Hell for a short amount of time?  Is he going to just make us stand there and feel really bad about it for a while?  What is that???? That’s crazy!!!

So, what is the answer.  I think I’ve found it.  At least it makes sense to me.

When I have actually shared my faith, I have experienced one of the greatest joys ever … whether the person got saved or not.  Of course, a decision for salvation makes it even better, but just obeying God in evangelism brings a joy that just cannot be explained or experienced.  You have to experience it for your self.

So, in my opinion, our judgement is that we miss out on this extreme joy given by God!  We miss out on a wonderful opportunity to experience God!  We miss out on a chance to grow closer to our God!  Our judgement is immediate.

Go with God,
Donald B