Fellowship

I was reading my Max Lucado book, "When God Whispers Your Name" yesterday as I sat in line waiting for Madison to get out of school. In there, he used an analogy that I thought was awesome and I wanted to share it with you!

He is telling the story of how one time he was in Boston for a conference and he decided to go to a Celtics game. They were playing the San Antonio Spurs, his favorite team. He figured he might just be the only Spurs fan in the crowd and should probably be quiet. But, he couldn't contain himself and by the end of the first quarter he began to cheer for the Spurs every time they would score. Well, of course, people started to turn and stare.

Then, he noticed across the aisle, there was one other person cheering for the Spurs too. He had a partner. He was only a teenager, but that didn't matter. They would give each other a thumbs-up and he says, "We were united by a higher bond of fellowship."

And because he tells it way better than I do, here is the analogy quoted straight from his book:

"That's one reason for the church. All week you cheer for the visiting team. You applaud the success of the One the world opposes. You stand when everyone sits and sit when everyone stands. At some point you need support. You need to be with folks who cheer when you do. You need what the Bible calls fellowship. And you need it every week. After all, you can only go so long before you think about joining the crowd."

Wow!!! Was that brilliant, or what?!! Being a Christian does at times feel a little like you're in a huge crowd of people cheering for the opposite team. Everyone staring at you and wondering why you don't just keep quiet or why you don't take the easy route and just go along with the crowd. It's so true that we need that fellowship so we aren't tempted to join the crowd.

These are the kind of things I read and I get SO excited about! I LOVE to read these kind of analogies that make such perfect sense to me. My favorite line:

"You applaud the success of the One the world opposes."

Before I truly dedicated my life to the Lord, I was so naive. I had no idea there were that many people out there who truly don't believe in God. I had no idea that there are people who not only are atheists, but they actually spend their time trying to convince others to believe what they do to, and they are angry. I don't even think they realize they are working for the enemy.

Just the other day, I had a high school friend post on facebook a quote from Epicurus about how there is no God. Let me tell you, I agonized over how to respond to that quote for two days. I really did. And how did I respond? I didn't. I prayed about it and I just could not find the words. What do you say to someone who has their mind made up that the Bible is not real and that there is no God? I thought that if I quote the Bible, she will write it off. If I tell her about my very real experiences with God, she will just think I'm crazy. If I tell her about faith, she will just think I was "brainwashed" to believe it. I really think that to debate her or try to convince her would have done more harm than good. I think that people who really don't want to believe really have a problem with "religion" and haven't even given God a chance as a result. True Christians aren't concerned with converting people or getting more people into their churches or about showing others they are right so that they can add another tick mark to the list of those they've brought over.........true Christians are concerned about that person because they truly don't want to see them perish. They are concerned about telling people about Jesus because they know what that kind of love can do in a person's life, and more importantly what it can mean for their eternity!

It's not about me being "right" and I'll admit my first instinct was to get on there and "preach it!" and show her how wrong she is. But, that is exactly what the enemy would've loved, right? He knows how much we love to be right. That would've been arrogant of me to approach it in that way though. Because the heart of the matter is that this isn't about me. It's not about being right, it's about caring about her eternity. It really does crush my heart to think about people so confidently proclaiming there is no God, and what that means for them when they die.

I will just keep praying about it and when the time is right, I will talk to her about it. You know how I was talking about burdens the other day and that they are things you may care about that no one else does? Well, these kind of things really do burden me. Before, I wouldn't have cared a thing in the world about that quote. I feel like I have a responsibility though to at least try to show people the choice they are making. I am thinking of that quote about how God equips those he calls and I am waiting for Him to give me the right way to approach these kind of things. I have hope though that at least my friend is thinking about this issue. If she just didn't care at all, I don't think she would've taken the time to try and back up her beliefs with that quote. And just as a side note, would you believe only one Christian spoke up and proclaimed their belief to her? Out of all of our facebook friends that are always posting about how good God is, not one of them except this one guy decided to say a thing. The only other quote she got was from someone who is convinced that religion was "created" to keep people in line. And sadly, the one Christian who responded actually linked up to a guy's blog who said we can't use the Bible as a reason for why we believe what we do. To get into how wrong I think that statement is would take a whole other blog post! I do not believe in any way that you can dismiss God's word and say it is not absolutely proof of why we believe! But, I at least admire this guy's effort to at least say something. That is more than I did.

Anyways, I'm just rambling now! Let me know.....how do you show unbelievers in a loving way the choice they are making? How would you have handled this situation?