The sad fact is that there are people out there in the world who are using Christianity as a permission slip to treat any and everybody any and every way that they want to.
That's not following Christ, that's following themselves. They're the NOs (Christians in Name Only) that I talked about in another thread...but they believe that they're doing the right thing by forcing their views and opinions onto the rest of the world. This is my bible, they say, it tells me how to tell you how to live.
But the Christians are out there taking the punishment for this type of behavior. I need Christ in my life now, because I've experienced a huge loss just recently. So in a restaurant, before we went to the morgue, I prayed before we ate. When I opened my eyes, there were people glaring at me in the restaurant. Glaring.
This isn't because of what I did. This is because those people, at some time in their lives, were hurt by NOs. NOs become angry in the Word of God. They scream. Their faces get red if people don't grab a picket sign and join them (rather than Christ).
This poor kid has been chased away from God's love and Christ's salvation by the very people who are declaring that they live by the Word. And if we're chasing away people who might not otherwise chose to believe...then whose works are we performing? God's? Jesus never chased anybody away from God's Word, and neither should we - as Christ's followers. Where's our punishment going to lie in our hour of judgment? It's horrible to think about!
That's why I say I'm believing in my bible as it applies to me. Not as how I can see how it applies to anybody else on the planet. If I live my life by these rules in the good book...it's going to show in my life. People are going to wonder how I got what I have. They're going to want to have a little light of their own around them all the time. And that's when I can tell them of Christ Jesus and salvation and God's love for His children.
By making the bible apply to ME, and not assuming that because I'm a Christian I'm automatically exempt from some rules that I'm reading...it's my chance to gain more followers of Christ - NOT followers for myself.
I hope a Christian (not a NO) gets in contact with this kid and explains to him the difference between a Christian and an NO.
I pray Christ has mercy on those who are out there chasing away potential followers and giving Christianity a bad name for their own name's sake.
