Good topic Taylor, for growth in Him.
The first time someone asked me at church, “How was your week?” instead of “How are you?”, I learned a lot. Things happen in a week. It is a real invitation to conversation. It conveys the real love and interest we have for our brothers and sisters. Whenever I am moved to say that, I notice a pause before people answer. That causes me to expect something from God and listen for that. If they cannot step up, you can. The question to you then is Did you met God this week? If not, fix that. Start by confessing that right there and then.
If it is alive, if there is life in it, it IS interesting. Talk about what God is doing in your life, conviction, victories, reconciliation. Hungry people will identify and ask you more, feeding people with offer what is alive in their life.
Both believers and unbelievers love fruit. It's hard to resist that offering. For real. In the presence of fruit (here I am talking about the fruit of the Spirit), it just doesn't seem long before real needs, real interests come forward. I remember one long conversation, filled with divine love with an unbeliever. I had a reason to not speak directly about Christ. Slowly they inched toward Him. As my expectation increased, I could only pray and I really wondered how far God was going to go. I gave up when they said, “You know what I really need is a friend that would die for me.” I just had to respond to that. Any believer would.
Dimlyviewed, an interest in theological clarity is important. There are brothers that can discuss this with you particularly if they are more mature than you, without the difficulty you mention. I'm kinda thinking that you have a heart for evangelism. Staying with your own application of Truth that week and the fruit of it, reduces what might end up in vain disputation. I can't quite remember Ravenhill's good point on that (a man with theology verse a man with experience- a living theology). In a sense, the best position to explore with another believer is our real life position. I think that is part of what is meant by the ground is level at the Cross. Wouldn't that be the same with unbelievers?
Even gossip can be redeamed if you gossip about God.
What else. I expect to see God, His Word everywhere because He is. Today, when a new believer said she was caring for an older church member I said how loving and caring she was (she has the gift of helps maybe). She replied she wasn't always like that and recently decided specifically she needed to do more of that. You could hear in her voice that seemed strange to her. In a heart beat we were rejoicing that Phi. 2:13 was alive in her. That was some serious Joy. It helped her understand how new life was, made it less strange I guess. A lot of encouraging is just seeing and pointing God out. Gee, maybe that is all of what encouragement is.
Thank you Taylor for this thought to meditate on.
[u]Joy - the Serious Business of Heaven[/u] is a sermon from Lou Sutera you might enjoy. I have seen it in text as a booklet. I heard it once in 1991 but it must talk about this. Lou is so Philippians: He just jumps into the water and splashes and everyone gets wet. :-)
