Hi all,
For me normally I don't express my struggles in this area, or talk about them as much on here. I wanted to talk about how the struggles you have to deal with, when you are following Christ and you openly show that truth to the world and in the process will be made fun of and hated because of your believes. So first I'll be talking about why we as Christians get our feelings hurt when the world hates us, and treats our God like dirt:
Whether how strong you are or not, we are all still human and when someone hurts your feelings we all deal with the emotional response. Here is a example of what I'm talking about in why humans do this: A 6 year old boy has an invisible friend, his name is Jim. The boy believes in his heart Jim is real, and the boy says Jim is a good friend and watches over him day and night. He says Jim gets a bit upset with him when he makes the wrong decisions time to time, but he says Jim's anger doesn't last long and he's always forgiving and he says Jim always loves him no matter what.
One day the boy brings his invisible friend to school, and tells all the other boys and girls about Jim his invisible friend. He openly says he believes in him and that he is real, and he openly tells them all about Jim and how he is a good forgiving and always loving friend. After all the other kids heard this from the boy with his invisible friend, they shortly started to make fun of the boy and his invisible friend. The boy is called crazy by the other kids and they say mean things to his invisible friend, Jim. "Saying he is a bad friend!" Or some say to the boy "he is not real, and you have been tricked into believing him". The boy is hurt by the other kids at school, but anyway he is hurt he knows some where deep down in his heart, Jim is real and he has always been his best friend and that will never change.
Now in real life we as Christians believe in something better then an invisible friend named Jim, a course. But we are hurt when the world treats our God the same way. In a other way to look at it, on youtube I have a profile and I made up a company and called it iHope Productions. When you look at my pretend company on youtube, you will notices the whole company explains God in a metaphor way.
http://www.youtube.com/v/sM5bEFBU11Y I have chosen when I make videos for youtube, I will always include Jesus because I am not ashamed of Him and He has done so much for me in the darkest times of my life, and that love must be shared with the world.
I have chosen to openly tell this to the world not just on youtube, but in my life with people as well. Now in real life the why I ministry to anyone, is by just being their friend and getting to know them. And IF God opens a door for me to tell them about Christ, well that's when the spirit moves me to have the right words and courage to tell them about God. And to tell ya the truth, I have never been perfect at sharing the good news of Christ. God opened one time when I was on a work and witness trip, and I realized then that I couldn't just say those things alone without God, and not only so I needed not just God but I needed Dad and the support and help of the whole group from our church to keep being a encouragement for the man I witness too. I in fact only planted the seed for my friend on the trip, God used another Christian apart of the group to witness to him. And a course I continued to be his friend any after he made fun of God and what I believed in. But I knew then that he changed sometime during that week, and by the time we got ready to leave the island we were on.
And as well on youtube, I also try to be a friend to other youtubers and share the love of Christ by just being a encouragement and a friend. But to get back to my point here, one of the things I deal with because of my pretend video company is about God, is the comments on my videos. It doesn’t always happen, but once in awhile people will comment on my videos or profile against God. Just this morning a guy commented on one of my videos, and cussed out the name of Jesus. After seeing that comment I was hurt, and it prompted me to make this post.
I had a emotional response to this, and I am partly glad that I can not comment on my own videos on youtube due to some weird bug with my profile. If I could, I would be tempted to reply and God wants us to look the other way and let it be but one of the things I deal with is not speaking my mind. But God has told me, there is a right time for that, and a wrong time for that and a lot times this is a wrong time to speak my mind. And I admit in the past I've picked a bad time to speak my mind about God and not that you shouldn't stand up for what we believe in, but we also don't want the world to see us as Christians that try to argue with them all the time when they disagree with us.
As God says here:
John 13:34-35 (New International Version)
34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Love is our greatest witness to the world, we share the love of Christ and the love his spirit has given us is the greatest effect on people. Not really my video company on youtube, but more of the love I share to people and when we care for those people like Christ did with us. Now again to get back to my point of why we struggle, and deal when the world doesn't in return love us back and in fact hates us and can not understand us because we believe in this God.
To look at this in the Bible where it says:
(This is when Paul is talking to Timothy about suffering for the gospel, and not being ashamed to testify about our Lord.)
2 Timothy 1:12 (New International Version)
12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Or here:
1 Peter 4:16 (King James Version)
16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
We know why we suffer as Christians, because we know who lives in us and we know who we have chosen to put our life's down to and believe. We know who has forgiven us, and we suffer because the world put us down because we are children of God and we follow Jesus Christ. We suffer as Jesus did on the cross for our sins, and as in it says here the spirit we have been given apart from the world:
1 Corinthians 2:12 (King James Version)
12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Now to get to the point of why the world treats us and God like they do:
To get back to the story about the boy and his invisible friend, in that story the other kids make fun of the boy and his invisible friend. They call the boy crazy, they tell him untrue things about his friend being a bad friend or they tell him that Jim is not real, and he has been misguided. To tell ya the truth, I was maybe there just like the other kids at the school..... All my life I grew up in the church, I asked Jesus Christ into my heart maybe around 4 or 5 years old, to long ago to remember much about it. But I was asked to pray the sinners prayer, I did ask Jesus into my heart that young day of my life.
At some point of my young life, I don't remember for some reason praying at all anymore. About 2000 when we moved to Tulsa, OK. I had a hard time fitting in with the teen youth group there, at one point I stopped going to any youth group events because I was very shy and did not feel welcomed. At that area of my life, my closest friends where family and my little tv at home. I felt as my life revolved around my TV, one of my older sisters was not going to church at all and when she got a job that had her work on Sundays....she just slowly but surely fell away from God. My sister for me at that time, was someone to kinda of follow, but I did not follow her all the way though.
I don’t remember God meaning that much to me, and if there was a God did he care about me anyhow. I started to listen to TV and what it had to say, and when I looked at starting something with God….was meaning you had to give up something you liked doing, like TV or video games. To me God was a control freak and I did not want to have anything to do with him. I remembered one Sunday morning my mom was asking me about getting baptized. I told her: “Mom I don't think I'm ready, personally I'm not where I could be with this thing. Its just personal. that's all. And following God or whatever, doesn't it mean you have to give up some stuff??” She replied: “Yes it can.”
I guess if I looked back at it now, I thought I wasn’t worthy enough for God or that doing this Christian thing meant giving up a hobby just because its unholy or this whole thing was a joke. Then something happened, I hit that age where I was interested about girls. And I got into some internet sites that opened me up to sex, and as a boy those sites met my desires, but one day thoughts invaded my mind and I knew the reason was those sites. Those thoughts where about everyone around me, and they were NOTHING I enjoyed!!
They created fearful thoughts that I would carry out something bad like that....to a person, fears came into my life and I thought I was a weirdo. I was afraid to come to my parents, but the thoughts where so active and always there…I was freaking out. Then I thought of only one person I knew that I could go too, that person was God. My prayers looked like this: (Every time I had a bad thought) “God forgive me” “God forgive me” “God forgive me”. When we went to a restaurant, I would come up with any excuse to leave the table and go to the restroom, because I felt like throwing up my food over those thoughts, in the restroom is where I prayed to God.
Later on, finally God gave me the guts to talk to my Dad. God used my Dad to help me during that dark time of my life, and he used my Mom as well. God used many people in my life to help me with my fears, in that time I understood what God was too me. God became my safe place, my hiding place, God became my savior, Jesus became my closest friend….
And I’ve realizes God does what us to give up some stuff, but what God desires the most is for us to give up our self’s to him….You see God forgave us of our mistakes on cross and when we come to him he offers that forgiveness and freedom once for all and we are forgiven for that day and beyond, God is not forcing you to come. Because forcing someone is not love, love is something you need more then you realize…and Jesus is the friend that never stops doing just that, not now and forever. He knows where you are in your life, he knows if you have pain or sadness, or loneness….its just up to you to run to him, know that he does care fore you….more then you imagine.
So I’m saying I was there, just like those kids at the boy’s school. I also did not understand God, or get him…or know him. And that is why the world does what they do, because they do not understand or know God. But it is our job to inform them, and do that just as God did with us….by love not by forcing. We understand according to this part in the bible, this is why the world does what they do:
John 14:16-17 (New International Version)
16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
In Christ,
Dave
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