Friend Judy, from Indiana,
As Kathy said, that was a good question about how we are to serve and learn to be served if we don't have a local congregation.
I also note that you are comfortable with a person sharing the good works that their church does without it being called bragging. Most people like to help someone who is truly in need and that sharing of knowledge about the group's activities is normal and healthy in my view. There are lots of nice people out there in the world.
My adult daughter works full time and also serves as an ambulance driver volunteer because she has a desire to help people and also a desire to belong to an organization doing good works. They don't have to be "church works" in order to please God and for us to get SPIRITUAL CREDIT in God's Kingdom. My daughter Kathryn also belongs to the local Lions Club and is their secretary for meetings and charitable works in the local community. In our town of Culver, Indiana, pop. 1150, the Lions club collected and will distribute about $12,000.00 during 2009.
As some of the folks may recall (you can read my older letters to the forum) I was attending and preparing Bible studies at a local church fellowship until a year ago when it became just too difficult to continue with these "good" people who were blind to the truth and really didn't want me to teach what they couldn't understand or agree with. My wife Doris, who believes with me much of what BT teaches and explains, had been attending only occasionally but we knew all of the members of this church group for years and they had treated us with love in every way.
It was difficult, but eventually we just had to go our separate ways so that we could learn and grow in the understanding God has given us AND they could go along blinded and happy in their ignorance of the full truth or let me say our imperfect but growing and more correct understanding of Bible Truth. They didn't understand why we don't attend any longer, but we are at peace with the situation and still communicate as friends.
I mention this because we still see these folks every week at the grocery store and other places around town and two of them belong to the Lions Club where my daughter is a member. So, my wife Doris serves one of the ladies, Mrs. K. the church piano player, by driving her to the city and to the doctors office and for test for her diabetes about twice a month. Mrs. K. needs help and Doris provides it because God wants us to love other people. There are no strings attached. We don't have to be in the same church or in any church for that matter. We just have to follow the example of the Samaritan and God knows what we do and whether we love people or not. It is all a matter of attitude. God has blessed us and we do as much as we can to bless others. We do not have to share doctrine or convert other people in order to serve them and to gain treasure in heaven.
Now if anyone asks us the reason for our faith, we are to study to have an answer and to share a LITTLE of that truth with them as circumstances permit, but we need to be very careful to remember that it is God who calls each person. That calling is God's responsibility and the task of our Lord Jesus to work with the people in their own mind and heart and perhaps with our help if that is possible.
Finally, it doesn't take special facilities or lots of money in order to obey God and become a serving, loving person in our local community and our own family. God is not expecting us to do a certain amount of work and convert a certain number of people to follow Jesus and obey the law of love. Our task is to obey God and work on ourselves and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. Getting to know God and His son Jesus; really getting to know Him in a manner that we can speak to God as we would to our best friend. Perhaps to pray fervently for the need of a friend and then to visit that friend and be a close companion and then after months or even years of establishing TRUE friendship, to begin to share the knowledge of God that we have gained and are convicted of in our own hearts. WE have a lot to offer, but only God can remove the blindness from a persons understanding so we need to be patient and discerning in our approach.
I have found that if a person is REALLY interested in knowing more about God, they will be asking more questions than we can answer. We won't be able to get away from them for all the questions and testimonies that they will bring into the conversation. When a person is really called of God we don't have to argue with them; they will be of the same mind as we are, they will agree before the question is even asked.
Hope this helps a little and please, please ask more of others on the forum who have had different or better experiences than I have had. In multiple counsel there is wisdom. Prov 24:6
Warm regards, Bob
I haven't had your type of experiences but I left Catholic school after 8th grade and since I was only 1 of 2 white kids in the classroom of 46 kids and nobody thought about mixing up the races at the time, well, it never happened. I went to school in Mich. and that was back in the early 50's, But I did manage to go to public high school right when rock and roll came on the scene. We danced and drank our way through. Perhaps I used the wrong word (insulting) I wished I would have had more uplifting things to do when I was a teenager, the protestant churches always looked like the kids had a lot to pick from. Guess it wasn't all it appeared. And maybe the girl talking about her church just plain liked it and wasn't being proud or bragging. I don't know. How does one do any good works here as to charity, missions, programs for the poor, etc, when collectively there is no money or anyone to work with? Curious!
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Topic: just how much are they decieved (Read 13661 times)