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How successful have you been at opening people's eyes?
hillsbororiver:
Hi Dave,
An excellent post!
Your yolk was light wasn't it? By that I mean just relaxing and being a positive influence, reflecting the love of Christ onto your family, a most powerful witness.
Don't worry, don't plan, don't confront, we are not all called (by God) to be teachers but we are all admonished to live by faith, if and when we are put in a situation where we must defend the source of our hope we have this promise.
Luk 12:11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
Luk 12:12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
Amen!
Peace,
Joe
legoman:
Yes that was a good post Dave. Probably good advice. Maybe I should just plan to go and have a good time. If an opportunity presents itself, then I could drop some hints. I too am in a situation where I don't want to disrupt my Mom's life. She has been a very positive influence on me, and is very caring and compassionate. She is also very strong in her Christian beliefs.
Amrhrasach, when you ask what exactly I wish to bring up to my parents: ideally it would be an intro to the truth, but I know it won't be that easy.
It might go something like this:
"Mom, did you know the word eternal has been mistranslated in the bible, and doesn't mean eternal at all, but is of limited duration."
Ideal response: "Wow that is amazing! That mean's there is no eternal hell and explains God really is the God of love!"
LOL :) We all know that won't happen. Although that's almost how it happened for me :) but I was reading Ray's paper which explained much of the details.
More likely the response would be something like this:
"Did you read that on the internet? You can't believe everything you read on the internet. There are a lot of false prophets and cults out there and you have to be careful what you let into your mind."
Probably a better route would be if I could get her to read one of Ray's articles. What do you think is Ray's best intro article? Maybe the Hagee letter? That's the one I read first.
Anyway, probably the worst case scenario is if we got into a big argument because Mom somehow thought I "lost the faith". It would be difficult. I don't think I would let it get to that. But I can see if my Mom did finally see the truth it would be a core shock to her. All her life she believed one thing, and then to find out it was a lie. It can be devastating, but the realization after is beautiful. She is in her 60s.
Anyone here older than 60? How did you handle the truth knowing your whole life you believed a lie?
Thinking on this more its maybe best I don't bring it up unless an opportunity presents itself.
Thanks for the comments so far, its a nice discussion. It is really just a relief for me to talk about it, as I haven't really said much to anybody about it since I found Ray's site at the beginning of this year.
musicman:
I've taken part in a couple of blogs lately. Generally, I look for blogs with the keywords hell, freewill and eternal. Why do I do this? Simple!! I absolutelly despise the teaching of eternal torment. I mean, I hate it. And I don't care for the people who teach it. In my mind, I feel that I am exposing a devilish contradiction. Perhaps there is pride involved. However, my best pride destroyer is usually in my first or second post. Here's how I bait hell people.
"The Christian hell is an evil hoax. Go to bible-truths.com for explanation." Again, it depends on the title of and article in the blog. As soon as somebody asks me to explain, I politely cut and paste several scriptures prooving that all will be saved. I hate it when they reply with "God gave us a free will to blah, blah, blah". Because then I have to cut and paste about 20 scriptures that proove that we have no free will. That's after I waste time explaining what free will is and why we can't possibly have it. And how many times have people told me that I define free will incorectly? Well, it's alot.
So my pride destroyer is in admiting that I didn't find out all of this on my own. I credit Ray and bible-truths. This actually causes people to mock me even more. But so what. I want to be an instrument of the truth.
It's futile to debate these people. I can only hope that people will run across what I write and come to this web site.
Jackie Lee:
Just today my plan was changed all it took was just one incident that changed everything.
It changed a lot of things for the better and gave me peace once again.
I am always amazed at how plans change, I had a will but a cause changed it all.
This is why I try and not stress knowing God's plan is so much better than mine.
I know God will furnish that person to open eyes in his time.
I no longer worry that I should get people to see, If someone is open to hear I speak otherwise I am mum.
Coming from a Baptist Pentacostal background I would say God has been working in my life. :D
Jody Edwards:
My experience is similiar to yours except in my case, more time has past. The Lord sent me to bible-truths.com about 3 years ago to answer a specific prayer I had prayed three days previously. It took less than 24 hours for me to have my eyes opened to all of the new truths Ray was teaching. My wife believed the same day (praise the Lord!). But since that time, NO ONE that I shared these truths with would believe. I have studied and studied God's word since that time, so much so that I have a high level of confidence in my ability to teach others. And believe me I have tried, but to no avail. No one besides my wife has believed - no friends, no relatives, no past brothers or sisters, NO ONE. When God says it is He who opens eyes, He means it. No amount of logic, scriptural reasoning or hours & hours of explanations are going to give anyone the ability to believe. God has reserved that for Himself to give out as He desires. After nearly three years, I can trully see how precious and rare this great treasure is that the Lord has given us. I am in awe that the Lord chose me and her. We did nothing to deserve this great gift and if the Lord had not made me pray that prayer three years ago, I would still be just like all the other called Christians in Babylon. By the grace of God, He has made me who I am. I am eternally grateful for His mercy upon me and my wife for opening our eyes and giving us this great treasure. I will guard this treasure with my life, protect it and value it. I desperately want to share it with others but it is not mind to share, it is the Lord's and only He decides who will share in it. Don't be discouraged when others reject the truth when you show it to them. Spiritual treasure is only for those with spiritual eyes to see it and value it. Rejoice that you are blessed in the Lord's truth and pray for the Lord to use you in His service. But always remember, the knowledge we have been given is of no value unless we live that truth and produce fruit. Knowledge by itself is good but living out that truth in your own life is better. I encourage you to keep seeking the Lord in all that you do so as to grow and mature into Christ and become a good and faithful servant!
May the Lord continue to bless you!
Jody Edwards
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