EndTimeZSouljah

To please help me help my cousin get to the Lord. He is an atheist; however, he has always stuck with me. After everyone turned against me..he stayed my friend, hes more of a friend than anyone has ever been to me. And I want him to believe in God and Jesus so much. I told him all the things that have happened to me, all my experiences and he still doesnt believe In the Lord. Please, I ask of you all..please give me some really good advice to get him to believe. I tried to ask him to go to church with me but he wont. Please help

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smellycat

ask him to listen when people talk,he will hear .

CSchultz

I believe that many of us make the mistake of feeling like we can somehow make a person Come to Christ.

When in fact, faith is a gift.

Someone may be going through a difficult situation, and with the very best of intentions I might say..."Have Faith."

As if faith were something they could just pull out of their pocket and have.

Then suddenly, I am the "HERO" .... I "FIXED" everything for them.

The fact is that faith, and understanding, is a gift from God.

We are born with it, however, some of us allow other things to cloud our vision. To hide Jesus from our sight. We violate the 1st commandment, by placing things above God....
Work, Money, Ourselves, Goals, Aspirations...

You name it, someone has given it a higher importance that God.

My advice is, don't worry about getting this person into church.

He has strayed, and is lost and uncertain.

Try to think of him as a sheep in a pasture. To him, he has always found food and substinance there.

But the snow has fallen. The food is gone.

He is afraid of the bright light in the barn, and does not want to go there.

Shepherd him.

Show him that there is no food in the field right now.
Help him to see that the nights are growing colder.

Tell him, where YOU find life giving food, and warmth.

Then... lead him to the church. To the safety of our Lord.

Remember, you cannot chase sheep anywhere. If you try to, they will scatter.

But earn their trust and respect, and they will follow you!
Lead your friend home.

You will have my prayers, and much more, the promise of Jesus Christ to guide you along this journey.

You are an inspiration to me. Because God has given you this difficult task, and that reminds me that he trusts in you to complete it.

Philippians 4:13

And I truly thank you for reminding me of that very passage this evening!

God is very much at work in your life.
You have helped me,..... NOW,... go help your friend.

carolinasteve

Wow. What a post! I don't think there is much more to add to this than more prayer for you and your friend, EndTime. And for you, as well, CShultz!

Kevin

I once heard a guy explain how the shepherds in Israel actually work. One thing that really hit home was the fact that the shepherds walk in front of their sheep and the sheep have such trust that they follow the shepherd.

Atheists are sometimes very hard to witness to because they often do not want to acknowledge that they are responsible to a greater power. I am not saying this is the case for your freind but most atheists fall into this bracket. Atheists can be separated into two distinct groups. There are so called "strong atheists" who absolutely do not believe in any god and there are "weak atheists" who do not believe in a god but accept the possibility of a god.

The atheist belief is a self defeating belief because to have absolute knowledge that God does not exist requires absolute knowledge over all things which in effect would make the atheist God. Never tell this to an atheist, they hate been told thay are incorrect and actually drives them away.

Try and find out from your cousin if he really is an atheist. many people say they are atheists but in effect are not really atheists but are mearly people who dont actually know what to believe so they assume they are atheists.

You have planted seeds in his mind by witnessing to him, let God do the rest. Keep on witnessing to him, let him see the reality of God through you.

Have faith, I think God has put your cousin with you for a purpose.

There is an excellent book which defends modern christianity against many questions raised by atheists, skeptics, gnostics, agnostics and critics about christianity. If you want, I can send you the detail vi a PM.

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Isa 9:6 For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Ikonion

Blaise Pascal's Wager always was a good idea regarding atheism to me. Perhaps it is also a good argument for your friend?

Pascal, B. (1670). Pensées sur la religion et autres sujets

Quote:

If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is.... ..."God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager? According to reason, you can do neither the one thing nor the other; according to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions. Do not, then, reprove for error those who have made a choice; for you know nothing about it. "No, but I blame them for having made, not this choice, but a choice; for again both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault, they are both in the wrong. The true course is not to wager at all." Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked. Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. "That is very fine. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much." Let us see. Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives to gain, you would have to play (since you are under the necessity of playing), and you would be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to chance your life to gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain. But there is an eternity of life and happiness. And this being so, if there were an infinity of chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still be right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being obliged to play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you, if there were an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain. But there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite.

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Psalm 103:1
<< Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! >>

Theophilus

Even with the deepest concern and the best of intentions we often approch others the wrong way.

You can't expect to use the same tactic/ manner/ approch as every one else has and get a differant result. He has already built a defence for that.
Try and discern where your cousin is at with his beliefs/how strong his conviction.
To do that your going to have to do some things the evangelical church does not promote.

First !!!! Put your bible away!!!
That is to say don't try to get him into it just yet. Don't quote from it or try to drag him to it or church.
Second!!! close your mouth and open your ears. let his talk and actions determine what direction and how far you go.Go as far as you hcan without compromizing your faith. Discern just where he's at and what he doesn't or does believe in.
This is the hard part do not pass judgment, either confirm or accept or deny his position. Just hear him out. acknowledge his beliefs or lack of them. Make some sacrifices to be with him something he will knowand appreciate. Like ,miss church a few times to spend the time with him. (The church may not approve and most likely won't appreciate it even if they understood why).
But rest assured he will and so will God. Get to know him and let yourself be known by him. The real you.
Not the version of you that shows up in church every Sunday mornining.
Everybody has their church persona ,so don pretend you don't.
Do not compromize your christian values. But let him know that at least for now you accept him as he is.
Don't make that chritian line in the sand. You want him to be better treat him like he is or at least can be better, You want him to be a christian? treat him like he is one.

Patience, patience, patience
Open the gate for him when ever you get the chance but let him walk through when he's ready .
Once he starts confiding or moving in that direction encourage him but don't push or pull him to a commitment.
Introduce him to some of your christian freinds Get him involved through something he likes with out forcing a commitment
Casualy and slowly start talking more about your feelings tward God. Let him get him used to hearing it.
Take the time, make the effert, and if he comes to christ great if not at least you and God will know you did your best.

Oh yea and pray for him and you and that he comes to a saving knowledge of christ. and pray often.

Sincerely and
ernestly yours
and His, Cliff

Boanerges

My suggestion- be there for him. One day his world will come crashing down and his hollow belief system will fail him. That is when you can offer to pray for him and lead him to Christ. I have seen it before, these vocally anti-God types are in denial of what they really need. God is merciful enough to bring them to the end of thier rope and when you get as low as you can go there is only one thing left to do and that is look up.

dashrendar88

My advice to you is to just let him be. If you really love him as a friend, you'll respect his position and simply trust that he'll find the light. On the other hand, I bet he's hoping the same of you .
Also, I would recommend against pushing him towards Christ, it might annoy the heck out of him and your friendship could end up in jeopardy because of it.

slavetoChrist

pardon me .. but I feel a defensive rise here against some of what is being said of atheists. so I'm going to quiet that down.

I know the Bible says "the fool hath said in his heart there is no God" but I still do not call atheists fools. I was once so. I know there is confidence in faith, but there is room for doubt in the evidence of God. Never label an atheist as someone who "does not want to believe in God" or someone who is "ignorant of the evidence" .. or even someone who "needs to be shown the light" .. look at them as people.. and love them.. pray for them.. they can be changed and renewed by God. do not allow yourself to get in the way.

and yes, there is hope for atheists. I used to be one. I was a malicious atheist. I hated christianity and all it stood for and I would have made no bones about calling you an ignorant fool following a myth designed to control you. if there was hope for me... there is hope for him.

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we know the way!
we speak the truth!
we live the life!
cause He's the Lord!