Spike on the Chart of Boredom...
Today was a mildly boring day, except for one interesting event. My mom and I were at Freddy's, and went to buy some Starbucks. We got our Starbucks and sat down at the tables with our lunch. I said grace over the meal and prayed for the evangelists downtown. When we said, "Amen," the girl at the next table said "Amen!" with us! She asked what church we go to and told us her church. We invited her to have lunch with us and so she pulled up a chair at our table.
We talked about stuff; it seemed like she was sort of a friendship evangelist type, or maybe she was just speaking vaguely.
A friend of hers arrived and pulled up a chair. Mom gave him some of our lunch, and he joined the convo. It was pretty neat. Only, I think they need prayer; the guy was not a Christian (my mom witnessed to him), and the girl--Brittany was her name--didn't seem to be being too careful about keeping company with a nonbeliever (especially an attractive single guy, that's pretty dangerous ground). So I just hope that she will be stronger in her faith, and he'll come to the truth.
The rest of the day was blah. Dad went shooting, Lily went to see Prince Caspian, and I bought a new purse. Ho-hum...
Labels: Bible, friends, fun, God, learning, peace, pray, salvation, sushi
posted by emily...♫ @ 5:43 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
That's way cool that someone random said Amen with you two! I've never seen that happen before. That girl really should think about her situations tho, cuz God's clear about the unequally yoking scene, which obviously applies to pre-marriage relationships too. Anyway, you already know all that, and probly more than I do in general about everything, soooo. I wanna go shooting again as well!! So much fun! BOOM! Where does yer dad go shooting at?
Not sure where Daddy goes shooting. But it seems like he always has fun when he goes with other people, so maybe you guys could go shoot some guns sometimes. I'm not sure if I want to learn yet or not. It's a good skill, but it's just so...well DANGEROUS of course.
I'm confused, how is it wrong to be someplace with an unbeliever of the opposite gender? I've gone places, saw a girl I know, and gone up and hanged out with her for a while and she wasn't saved. idk, I wasn't there to evaluate the situation.
Emily you should learn to shoot. My pastor teaches his own shooting classes so people can get concealed weapons permits. I'm going to be taking his class even though I'm not old enough yet.
Again Jeff, I'd be interested in seeing verses about unequally yoked scenes? I agree with being careful about our friendships with unbelievers but don't think we shouldn't have them. I also think that just because someone is of the opposite gender we shouldn't be their friends. We just have to be careful that friendly doesn't become friendlier.
There was a guy I knew who came to the Lord from trying to hit on a young Christian girl. It was because of her friendship with him that he is saved.
1 Corinthians 15:33, "Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God." We shouldn't just completely exclude the unsaved from our lives, but building deep friendships with them can place us in danger of falling away from Christ or sinning when we might not even be aware. Our friendships with unbelievers should just about be limited to sharing God with them.
2 Corinthians 6:14,"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?" Verse 17,"Therefore, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord." Paul's not just saying this to try to illustrate vaguely how our lives should be organized. Being around unbelievers, especially by yourself or with attractive girls, has a negative impact on your testimony. Not to mention, if you think you're above sin and unrighteous actions promoted by Satan by being alone with a girl for example, you're basically setting yourself up to sin in the future. The next step from not fleeing from sin is to only welcome it into your life (I say with a cautioning tone).
James 4:4,"Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend to the world makes himself an enemy of God." I'm not saying you're an adulterer, Caleb. Scripture also says if you are not for God you are against Him solely because you're not for Him. In faith there is no middle ground. So tempting yourself by being in the unbeliever's environment usually hurts the good more than helping the bad. It's kinda like the law of gravity: things go down faster and easier than they go up.
I can't find the verse right now but the Bible talks about being careful what we do since others most undoubtedly watch us even from afar. If people see how a Christian is living and it's not really how they should be, that gives others a false image of God and may help to condemn them. We need to set aside what we just want to do sometimes and consider what the outside world perceives.
I didn't say we shouldn't be friends with the opposite gender - there'd be no reason for that. The girl that Emily was talking about seems to not discern how she may be setting her faith aside to be with that guy. If you're hanging out with unbelievers and not sharing the Gospel with them (or at least trying), then what benefit do you have to being with them other than the fact that you just want to.
Oh, and I'd love to go shooting with your dad! That's the fun part about it right, it's dangerous! .357 mag or a 12 gauge pump always works nicely. I think maybe he should teach me how to fire better, I always end up pointing it at someone mistakenly..... jkjk.
(To your second comment Jeff)
Amen Brotha!!
I agree with you (and the Bible) whole heartily on that. Maybe I misinterpreted what Emily said. With the information given I'm not sure if she was doing anything wrong, I'm not sure how deep the friendship was. They could of been co-workers on lunch break, I don't know.
I agree that a close friendship with an unbeliever can be a dangerous thing. All I know is we were not given enough information to know if what she was doing was wrong or not.
The 2 Corinthians verse, I believe, is talking about marriage. I have friends who aren't saved (thus unequally yoked) and I don't believe that conflicts with this verse.
You mentioned being immune to sin and of course I agree that no one is. One has to know his limits. Being seen with a person of the opposite gender who isn't saved in most cases doesn't destroy your witness, you have to know your boundaries. There have been lots of times that I have sat down and talked to a girl who wasn't saved and God and there was nothing wrong with it.
Let me summarize by a few verses causing me to stand to her defense.
James 5:9:
Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.
Luke 6:37:
Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.
I am not saying that she is in the right, I'm just saying we don't know that she was in the wrong by what Emily posted in the blog.
Yea their situation wasn't described in depth really, but I think that's cuz Emily's blog wasn't about most of our commenting :p The verses you listed are a good reminder, I just kinda jumped to one side of the spectrum.
Sometimes even if we think we know our boundaries it turns out we don't. When I say we I just want you to know that I'm talking about myself too. It's better to think ourselves weak and protect ourselves more than be open in certain areas.
2 Corinthians 6:14 is used to describe marriage, but it also pertains to other relationships as well. Most likely not casual and brief friendships, but it suggests keeping unbelievers at bay and in check regularly in our lives.
The way I think about it, if careful Christian parents Biblically wont let their daughters (speaking generally) hang out one-on-one with a guy, then why should guys want to do that with girls - saved or unsaved.
Oh just one last quick comment (I'm about to leave to the lake for a week and won't have internet).
Jeff in response to what you said, I could agree about not wanting my daughter to hang out one on one with an unsaved guy. But if she was unsaved and there was a good Christian guy (whom I could trust etc...) I would want them to spend some time with each other. It could be a good witness.
Besides that I agree on how it can be bad of one on one, but there also needs to be a level of trust. I should hope that I present a kind of character around girls that their parents wouldn't have a problem if they heard that we were alone doing something because I wouldn't try anything on their daughters. If it is some random guy however, I can see how that would be scary.
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