Tag: witnessing

Don’t Grumble

Woman praying
~ wzippler

Philippians 2:14-15
14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.
HCSB

There are a lot of people that seem to have plenty to grumble about, but what good does it do? Little if any at all. We all have issues, some of us could sell our life story to soap opera writers, I personally have grumbled more than my fair share, and I have had some decent reasons to grumble compared to many. Yet I have it better than a huge portion of the planet.  I used to live in Turkey, a country that touches both Asia and Europe, with Muslim roots. There were people there who did not have access to hot water for a bath, shortages that kept them from being able to use their gas stoves. They actually had a huge population of people who had to dig through garbage to find anything that they could sell or eat. Dirty diapers did not detour them from digging through American trash cans! And we grumble!

All grumbling does is multiply and share our misery! It sucks the energy right out of the room! I have known people who grumble so much that they could make your dream vacation seem like a cancer diagnosis! Dwelling on whatever is bothering them makes them feel worse, and it certainly won’t help you.

When non-Christians see us grumble it makes the Christian life seem miserable, why would  anyone want to be a Christian like you, if you are constantly grumbling?

Instead of grumbling try being grateful for what you do have,  praying, and asking your pastor and other church members for advice and prayer. Looking for solutions will bring more satisfaction than grumbling ever will, and will make you a better witness for Christ.

The link below is to my affiliate Amazon.com A purchase through this link will help support Smart Christian,net. I recommend this book to anyone struggling with depression or purpose.
kingdomtriangle

Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind,
Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power
by J.P, Moreland

Flies around a Picnic

~ wzippler ~ 1 Comment


The lies about the Bible are getting so common nowadays, that they are like flies around a picnic on a hot Southern day. The foods are your favorite, and you are enjoying sharing them with friends. All too soon the flies start coming around, you are enjoying the food and companionship of long lost friends so much, that at first you don’t mind swatting a few flies away, but it seems like every time that you swat a fly, a couple more come to takes it’s place. Pretty soon you are so busy swatting flies, that you don’t have any time to eat for yourself. You may even start to check the food for tell-tale spots. Before long you are tempted to pack up your food, and go home to eat in peace.

Christian case making is a lot like that. The Bread of Life is so fantastic that you want to share it with the world. You know that some of the meal is an acquired taste so you spend a lot of time learning how to make the message as palatable as possible (while remaining within the guidelines of the Bible), but then the lies come. dispelling the lies can be difficult, but you love The Bread of Life so much that you don’t mind. It often seems like every time you dispel one lie, two more take it’s place. Sometimes you are successful in dispelling the lies, other times they appear to spot the food that you have prepared, and you grow tired.
It’s okay to go home and take a nap, but DO NOT STOP making the Christian case.
When you have had a chance to rest a little, it is time for you to do some things, to make your next time witnessing experience more successful .
Write down  the names of the people that you had issues with, and put them on your long term prayer list, and pray for them.
Write down the issues they had with your message, meditate on how it could have gone better.
Spend some time in worship so that you can refuel your spirit.
Find a Christian friend that has been into Christian case making for longer than you, so that you can have a shoulder to cry on, a prayer partner, and an adviser.
Keep reading your Bible.

You may be interested in:  The Lee Strobel 3-Disc Film Collection: The Case for Christ / The Case for Faith / The Case for a Creator  The books were an awesome collection that paved the road for a lot of Christian case makers.

 

 

 

Sin is a cancer

~ wzippler

At first sin can seem harmless, just a little tiny bump in your life. It can’t hurt if no one tells you just how bad it is.
Only it doesn’t stay small it gets larger, and then one day bad symptoms start showing up. A pregnant girlfriend, wife with an STD. Broken families, heart broken kids, who are reaching out for “love” from people who are bad news, before you know it this “harmless” little bump is taken over your entire life and hurt many others in the process.

I am by no means sinless, but I think that everyone should know that sin hurts people. Refusing to judge someone’s sin is doing no one any favors. If a medical doctor did not warn his patient that they have cancer, they would be guilty of malpractice and possibly murder.   We may not be soul doctors, but we are receptionist to the doctor of souls, Jesus Christ. If we refuse to tell people that sin is malignant and will cause them much pain in the end we are guilty of malpractice..

10 Ways of Having a Happy Life – WomenKingdom

~ wzippler

One of my goals this year is to become happier. I know that happiness isn’t the end all be all that some people make it out to be, but it sure would be nice to wear a smile more often.
Grouchy, miserable people make lousy witnesses. If your life doesn’t have enough smiles in it, give the link below a try.

10 Ways of Having a Happy Life – WomenKingdom.

Compassion

~ wzippler

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.
Beecher, Willard

I have often written about judgement sometimes being necessary, but it is something that we must be very careful with.  You can judge someone without being mean. When we judge, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are sinners too! I am made ill by the nasty comments I often see by people claiming to be Christian.
I recently heard a story on the show “Gutsy Christianity” about a man who created a questionable piece of art. Christians from all over the area were protesting, send him death threats and one even came to the place it was being displayed with a tire iron and busted up the glass that protected the piece and ripped it up. Meantime a brand new Christian pastor was being pressured to make some comments about the “art”. Instead of flying off the handle he wrote a polite note to the artist asking him to interpret the piece for him.

It turned out that the piece wasn’t about Christianity in general, it was a statement on the sex scandle of the Catholic Church. This pastor and artist became friends.  The pastor asked the artist if he would create another piece depicting a more respected Jesus for this pastor’s church, and in the process of describing Jesus for the author he also shared the Gospel with the man. This artist hasn’t yet given his life to Christ, but he did present the Church with an awesome piece of art. Because of the kindness this pastor showed this man his outlook on Christianity is a lot more friendly then it was before, and multiple artist in his community are now Christians.

Hate chases people away from Christ. This man wanted nothing to do with a Christ that would endorse the kind of hate that was being aimed at him, by people claiming to be Christ representatives. But when faced with the Christ of compassion he became more compassionate, and so did many others.

Jesus isn’t just the God of love, he is the God of judgement as well. When we interact with the world we must do our best to be like him.
Judging when necessary, but NEVER overlook compassion.