Good old Eaglewood Dust, I haven't forgotten about u. When I face the reality that I still need English to survive... I am coming back to you. *hearts flying around*
Anyway, on a joyful note, since last month or so I have been into the habit of memorising Bible verses. Now there is a handful of them rooted in my brain... which I can pull out and quote without needing to flip through the Bible like mad when I reali need them.
Still can do better but I am quite happy about it so far. I always had the excuse that I am bad at memory work... and that if the occasional remembering of medical knowledge already proved an extremely unwelcoming chore, I avoided Scripture Memory all together. (Just in case I find it so hard that I would even lose enthusiasm to read the Bible)
But when the Lord touched my heart and I started remembering them... the joy is great. And I even gain sum confidence that---the remembering medical stuff... would not be so TERRIBLE... either.
A beautiful verse these days I always keep to heart is:
But in your heart set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who askes you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15
And the difficult part is: RESPECT. majority won't have a problem with gentleness... after all everyone knows how to pull off a sheepish smile to a degree...
but respect... hum... no respect does not equal politeness.
most evangelism effort that you can see around you involves a smiling and try-hard "sweet and caring" Christian telling of the doctrine with a condescending "love" that we are the absolute TRUTH, and by telling u this we pouring our love out to you.
Well, a good thing to tell the TRUTH. But what about the respect?
If you put a blind person in a beautiful park and tells him/her: this is the most fantastic spot in the world and that even though you can't see, the truth is its beautiful---
Is such a "truth" truth?
without respect.. sometimes even TRUTH can be made foul by human efforts.
How can we say "God is the answer to everything!We know He will work for you!" to someone and expect a response, without even wanting to spend the time, and reali getting to know the person, know the situation?
Its like we want a blind person in the park to admit its beautiful scenery, but are not bothered(or even thought of)sitting down and explaining everything we see to the person so they can figure the whole scene out in the head.
in more atrocious cases we don't even realise that the person is blind at all, but just forcing them to sit there and ENJOY.
Respect... the essential basics in any friendship or relationship... funny how many Christians simply don't have that when it comes to doing the most important job for the Lord...
and a scary thought to think back to my own "efforts"... that not long ago I was in the same league as the ones I have mentioned, without even an awareness that respect has to come in when I do God's work...
May the Lord forgive me.
We Christians are also still learning to see. The more we see the more we can understand and respect.
Do take time to let the Lord prepare you before you do work for Him. And the preparation is daily, always.
