Frustrating Christians

The other day I was talking to a man about evangelism. I do some open-air preaching, so we were talking about different ways of doing it. He asked about my approach and I said, "I usually preach from Romans 1." The man's demeanor immediately shifted and became defenses. He proceeded to just say how much God loves everybody and he just tells people that God loves them. As the conversation developed it was apparent that he was inundated with pop-psychology and didn't have a Biblical view of man. He thought man was basically good, but just needed to be told about God's love. The only reason people aren't believers is because they have had a rough background, divorce, etc., so we just need to tell them how God loves them despite these things. I decided not to really respond to any of his ranting, because he sought to corner the discussion immediately. He said, "I just do it like Jesus did it." I wanted to ask where Jesus told anyone he loved them? I wanted to ask where the book of Acts talks about the early church evangelizing by saying God loves someone? Well, he cornered the discussion in such a way that taking issue with him meant taking issue with God's love, so it wasn't worth a debate.Do you guys run into many of these people? I need a tract that recommends "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "Ten Shekels and a Shirt".openairboy

Luke 13: 3-5, and John 3:16 are still in the book. It's not a matter of either or, but both. I personally use the Romans Road in one on one evangelism. Perhaps the messenger has as much to do with effectiveness as the message. I've belonged to churches that won many folks to the Lord using Hell- Fire and brimstone. Under the annointing of the Holy Spirit it worked good. I've also seen other folks, who were not so much on judgement be very effective. I think though;that if the numbers were available, as to which way the greatest number of converts stuck; they'd probably be about equal.The Holy Spirit must deliver the message , and the receiver must be good ground.Clutch ;-)

Clutch.I wholeheartedly agree. Both."Grace to the humble..."I have a couple of dear lady's in my life right now who are seeking after the Lord, an Aunt and my Mother in law. Both are kind and compassionate, wonderful, gentle, humble and broken by events in their lives. I am praying desperately for them both, that the Lord will continue to draw them to Himself.Also, have someone very close that is just tearing me up inside, because of a backslidden state. Who needs someone other than myself to provoke to repentance, my words fall on deaf ears.It seems easy to me which approach is needed in these cases.The Holy Spirit must deliver the message , and the receiver must be good ground.

I have found the best witness for the Lord is the way I live my life.In my opinion, Christians are long a dialog and short on Christian living. I have seen time and again, A Christian rattling off scriptures a mile a minute and spouting off about holiness, then turn around and cheat on their income tax, throw trash from their car window, rent movies with questionable content, and I have even seen a Pentecostal Pastor playing the state lottery games! We as Christians are supposed to be different.There are very few examples of real Christians out there. Paul told Timothy to "be an example of a believer." Don't just talk it, live it. Be a Christian in the home, on the street, at work, in the marketplace and anywhere in between.The world does not give a rip about what you or I say, it's how we live that matters to them. Jesus' style was to do and then teach. Acts 1:1 He did the deed first and then He taught it.When the world see's Christ in the Christian, then they will be receptive to the gospel.Smith Wigglesworth was so full of God that all he had to do was walk into a room and the people would cry out to God for forgiveness, and Wigglesworth had not said a word. It was his mere presence in the room that brought the conviction.God raise up more Christians like Wigglesworth!

Each time I have seen the heading for this thread I have been tempted to add a comment, but don't want it to appear as though I am applying it to the original post-er.Anyway, its all about frustration. People who only speak one language are unfamiliar with certain nuances of feeling well known to speakers of other languages. By way of explanation, the relatively new Hebrew word "frustration" provides an example. This word did not appear in Hebrew until the mid-seventies, and in fact, before it was absorbed into the language, people who spoke only Hebrew were never "frustrated". They may have been "angry" or "disappointed" or they may have experiences a sense of turmoil in certain situations, but the acute feeling of frustration itself was unknown to them until the word for it was translated from the English language. David Grossman see under: LOVEISBN 0 330 31669 9 Published by Picador 1991I read this quite a few years ago but it found its way into my diary with my own comments...this is important with reference to bible translation. Do we need to use the vocabulary of the twentieth century or provide the twentieth century with a vocabulary. e,g, sin, sanctification etc,I spent some time before the Lord just asking Him what frustration was. I received a couple of things which I submit for your consideration. First, frustration is me thinking I know the schedule better than God. It is me saying 'I want it now', which, incidentally is Oswald Chambers' definition of 'lust'.Second: Frustration is always a call to prayer and never to action. If I respond in an action it will be with the spirit of 'well, I'll do it because no one else is'. This is megalomania; 'I, only I am left'. My soul, wait thou only upon God... My times are in His hands.