Speaking wih an rather “backslidden” catholic what do you say when they ask you “what limitations does you church put on you?”
matthew says:
what do you mean? I don’t understand the question?
Jesse says:
she wanted to know what rules and regulations the Adventist church places upon its people.
Jesse says:
Im thinking, “none its FREEDOM” but, like 10 minutes after the conversation ended.
matthew says:
Who is the she?
Jesse says:
during it I said Ill have to think about it
Jesse says:
she is a neuro monitoring tech I see every now and again in surgery
matthew says:
that is an interesting question. I would agree with your answer to a certain extent. I think that her question would be better stated, “What rules and regulations does Jesus put on you when you become a follower of Him?”
Jesse says:
perhapse, and would the answer be “FOLLOW JESUS”?
matthew says:
If that is the question, then the answer is simply that He calls to do what is right… The Bible talks about this in Romans that there are no laws against doing what is right, only what is wrong. Jesus wants only the best for us. It is not a religion of rules and regulations that constrict/limit us, He delivers us to (as you said) be free from rules and regulations that sin/Satan puts in our life.
Jesse says:
I like the answer, and I think that it woud be good also to make sure she understands that the church wants us to have a relationship with God that transcends the church
Jesse says:
we should have had this conversation in the forum
Ok So, if someone asks what you beleive...what do you say? The main question is “what is the diffrence between what I beleive and what you beleive?”. When I ask someone else that question I’M thinking one of three things
“what would I have to swallow in order to be in your church?”
or
“how far off are you from what I know to be true”
OR and I think this is the best perspective…
“Is what I beleive to be true maybe NOT true, show me your evidence and your logic and maybe I can come to a better understanding of God and his love.”
I don’t really like thinking the first two at all, they are pretty self centered. If I were Jesus I probably would be thinking “I love you, another human, let me help you feel my love as well as Gods love by giving you someone to converse with.”
I guess maybe Jesus wouldn’t ask them what they beleive...WHAT WOULD HE DO?
when someone is interested enough to ask me what I believe, I share the good new’s, That God is here and He’s on our side. Of course the conversation will get more in depth from there.
On the other hand I’ll sometime’s be questioned as to WHY I believe what I beleive. (Third Day Lryic), This is an oppurtunity for me to express how my relationship with Jesus has pushed my religion to the back seat. The only reason I keep the Sabbath, pay tithe, and the other things I do are a direct result of the growth of my friendship, respect, awe, and worship of The Lord.
On the other, other hand (that’s three for you who are counting) I fequently find people who want me to justify my friendship, faith, and religion in Christ. In year’s past I was a great Pharisee and I would enter this debate gleefully armed with chapter and verse and proceed to beat the living spirit (literally) right out of the conversation. Think of a Morman or a Jehovah’s witness knocking on your door and You being more interested in being right than shedding light.
Since my spiriual rebirth the only theoolgy I arm myself with is “That’s what Jesus said or did or how he lived.”
Mind you I really enjoy a good theological wrestling match, but now only with like minded brothers and sisters.
First, remind me to try to shake your hand next Sabbath...if I can figure out which one to shake.
and
I like your points! its great to reinvogor your beleifs in fellowship. And I agree that its no good to thrash someone elses beleifs (definatly)...what about if I have a friend who isnot particularly for or against attending church (Im not actually shure if he would know why someone even goes...but I could be wrong) that I know of. How do i invite him without seeming like a crazy christian dude (I use the word christian as a negative term here)? I want to talk to him but I guess I would have a hard time keeping a neutral attitude. I feel like I would polarize myself into having an alterior motive way of doing the conversation. Jesus would not have acted all excited if some fisherman said sure ill come to church with you Jesus...maybe next week, but the week after I think I may have something going on. Jesus would have been like if you are thirsty, I have water, follow me. Then that guy would have followed him or tried to get him arrested. Man I think Im looking at this all wrong.
I liked Jim Hendersons message. check out his site if you have time
His thing is...Jesus payed atrtention to people and showed them interest. He conversed with them and soon they would be curious about him and their questions would get them answers. The answers would be really sweet answers and they would end up learning.
I too have a hard time inviting people to church.One of my own personnel battles was going back to a building full of people I really had nothing in common with, listening to conversations I had no intrest in, and playing the part.
By Jesus’s gracefull patient’s I was convinced to start going again in hope of connecting with people who loved their Savoir more than their religion. Thank you Jesus for this church family at 24/7.
I still feelrestless in a crowd, I still don’t like hanging out, but the Lord is carefully molding me in to part of his family.
My own focus when it come to Christ, is Christ. Almost everyone I meet has been to church before, apparntley it didn’t stick. Absolutely everyone I mention Jesus to has heard of Him and has mild to strong opinion’s on him. Sorta like everyone know’s President Bush… but don’t really know him. I try to have them meet Jesus through me, (dimmly through a dark glass I know).
I can relate to negative feelings about “CHURCH’, But I feel very enthusiastic to share my relationship to Jesus. People think they know all kind’s of things about Him, facts, stories, lie’s, jokes. I want to introduce them ‘to’ Him.
The Holy Spirit play’s the major role here, before I come into the scene and after I’ve left. Just a bit part for me.
I hope they would express an interest in my Church family, I am just uncomfotable leading with “Hey, I need some one to bring to church with me and I choose you.” I honestly believe when they fall in love with Jesus their desire to get closer to Him will lead them to the family of belivers.
I didnt know that about you Danny! One thing i also observed is that in our own congregation, SO MANY PEOPLE were raised adventist or christian, then drifted from GOD and this is their return, to this church, i havent asked this question to many other churches, but it seems like this is a great place to rejuvinate your realationship with our father. Why, do you suppose, do we think that bringing people to church is the best way to introduce them to God? What if it was through know ing the person...showing them attention and love. Then as we grow closer to them it is natural to share other areas of the things that we are made of.
Imagine a translucent sphere, this represents how well you know someone. Say the sphere is me… the surface of the shpere is a map of everything that makes a person up. You kow that I love God, I go to 24-seven, we know some of the same people...im not sure what else, you may know that Im married. So you have these little spots of opacity on the surface of the sphere, where you know something. Now imagine the same thing for your best friend. they may still have some areas that are translucent but you know a lot more about him or her. Now for me, when I imagine my wife she almost knows EVERYTHING if ther is something she dosent know about me its some detail or story from my childhood, nothing upsetting, nothing great, i have told her as much as I can remember, still sometimes i remember something new and tell her. Anyhow as we grow closer to our friends, we fill them in on what they dont know about us and we begin to have effects on eachothers experiences of life. If you hadnt talked with me in the forums i may have no information or iknowledge of you and, you would have no direct effect on me. This is not a way of thinking about life day to day its too cumbersom, but thinking abou tit this way once sorta puts an understanding in your head of how well you really know people, and how much you should effect them.
Jesse, not only are you an artist with your hands, you also write good mind paintings!
Imangine if you will a whole building full of your “some-one spheres”. Inside each some-one sphere is a sin riddled, aching , hurting heart. This heart also loves Jesus dearly, and is attracted to all this translucent light. Light and love inside each sphere.
These some-one shere’s circle and move and bump into each other, sharing and caring and shedding light. The center of each sphere, and the center of their moving and circling and bumping and sharing and caring is the soucre of all light and love, Jesus. The fogginess(?) on the surface of the spheres is clearer, we gain an inside view, It’s the Lord in there(their).
He love’s you too!
Thanks Jesse, this is a new window in my mind to view the whole church experiance.
MMMMM! I liked the new images you added to the metaphore! And there is benefit in the senario to being close with others! This is fellowship and we can find support and feed off of other’s excitement and points of view in fellowship.
I’ve read the above posts, and felt compelled to respond.
I too, find it hard to communicate with other religions about Adventism.
Perhaps this is because of (of what I’ve read) to be un-genuine, looking for an argument conversations… and I let it slide. Simply because Im not well armed enough, and cant be bothered in a conversation that goes.. round-and-round-and-round with someone who doesnt really care.
On the other hand, the other day I had a conversation with my stricly Catholic teacher, and he did seem genuinly interested.
He asked me what was it the Seventh-day Adventist ‘do’ differently. I tend to keep these conversation light… but I answered that one of the main things was that we go to church on Sabbath, Saturday. He asked me why that was and the conversation rolled from there.
One of the points that he did bring up was that, why was it now days that he saw less ‘Sevy’s’ practising what they preached when it came to the Sabbath, and keeping it holy?
I did not have an answer, and could only say that my Sabbath involved doing different things that honour God. ie; Bushwalking, visiting friends, being out in nature, sharing food with family, and generally doing things that get overlooked during the 6 otherdays of the week.
With the conclusion of our conversations, he mentioned that was one of the reasons why he respected ‘Seventh-Day Adventists, was because they kept asside a whole day to give thanks for what they have… and the desire to live life healthly.
It’s nice to “hear” a female voice on this thread.
Seem’s as if most question’s do deal with what we do differently, I always ask the Lord for wisdom on how to deal with a person’s curiosity about my relationship with him.
Religion, theology,relationship,good works. It always appears to me to be some new ground to cover. Each person is exciting to field questions from. They inspire me to search the Word and ask my own questions of the Lord.
I would guess it is a piece of our spiritual growth.
I wanted to bring up that every human is on a different level relationship with God. If you are a vehement sometimes violent atheist. You are on the non beleiving side of the scale, if you are a strong christian with daily devotional time you are on the other. So lets call it a -10 to 10 scale. At 0 we have a person who is willing to learn about God. My goal is to move people up this scale and I realize that if I let myself in the way of what God would say I could make someone defensive. Having a pleasant conversation with someone even not about religion, brings them closer because they trust you more. That makes consecutive conversations more likley. Consecutive conversations may include topics on religion. If you talk with one person enough you are sure to cover all sorts of stuff, maybe even wether or not God is real. Be kind and give people attention. Why do we want to bring people closer to God?
