An adventure last night has been weighing heavy on my heart today....
Last night I went out to eat downtown with several of the ladies from my gym. It is always so much fun when we are able to get together and they have been such an encouragement to me that I treasure the friendships I have made. After dinner we decided to walk around downtown a bit. I haven't been downtown after dark in years, but the vibe has changed quite a bit. It was definitely not the place for a bunch of thirty something "soccer moms" to be headed towards. We walked around for awhile and then decided to head elsewhere where we could just hang out and talk.
Anyways, it started to pour down rain so we decided to seek refuge under the awning of one of the closed stores while we waited for someone to go get the car. While there I was approached by a couple that came up to ME and very loudly told me that I "was going to Hell for what I was doing and that we are all sinners and it will be a privilege for you to be selected by God to be sent there." HUH?? There must have been about 10 people downtown that were yelling at people that they were going to Hell and nobody was listening. I don't think I have ever been told that I was going to Hell in the first place, but especially since I know, pray and try to live my life in a way where I know that is not my destiny. After a lengthy discussion of how I was going to join Hitler in Hell and him reading "scripture" from his "Bible", I had to ask how they thought that yelling at people and telling them they were going to Hell was going to bring ANYONE closer to God. The answer I got was well "we do it the way our God tells us to."
I have never been challenged in my faith in that way before, much less very confident in debating about my faith with those who obviously strongly oppose my beliefs. My prayer is that the lost are not turned off by those in the world who practice attack tactics to scare people into their side of things and can understand and learn the awesomeness of our God!!
Thanks for reading.............
Ten Thoughts on Thursday...
4 days ago
2 comments:
Well, a part of me wants to head down there and see if I am going to hell with you :]
I am glad that we have a God who paid for our sins. Jesus paid our price so we are not going to hell plus God has always spent more time telling us to come back to Him than He ever did threatening us with hell!
Now you get a taste of what I have to fight almost every day on campus! These groups are on the quad every day while I walk to class, they are standing around college hill after football games, and they are now downtown attacking you heathens that go down there. It really makes it hard for the crusade people and I when we are sharing our faith on campus. No wonder we are seeing a big decline in the church when kids hit college age!
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