Cafe Chat - January 17th
As mentioned, I definitely want to expound and do more with the question from last week, but I want to think about it a bit longer. So today’s question was inspired by a Christian radio talk show I was listening to on the radio today.
When it comes to an issue or truth that you believe in, maybe even feel like God revealed that truth to you; how do you respond to another Christian that might have the opposite view from you? Do you feel like the way you respond lines up with how God would want you to respond?
Blessings, and please keep participating in the “Chat” weekly. I look forward to new people joining every week.
Kim
Labels: Cafe Chat, Kim's Articles
posted by Amico Dio @ 2:06 AM
11 Comments:
This is a very good question and one that God has had to bring me a long way on. I used to be very single minded and thought that my way was the right way and no one else was right! Boy was I wrong. We are missionaries in Slovenia and due to the fact that there are very few believers we must fellowship with different denominations. These people truly are our brothers and sisters in Christ! God does not want us to be divided and if an issue is going to cause us to argue then we should avoid it because those issues are most often things that are unclear in the Bible and so why are we arguing about them anyway. My father is a pastor and his church has a mix of different backgrounds but they choose to set aside their differences and maybe even practice certain beliefs in private so as not to offend a brother. Unity is the key to having a healthy relationship as brother and sisters in Christ. By the way I am new to the site and I totally love it. It has helped me in my daily devotional life!
That used to be really difficult for me. I used to think everyone in the body of Christ had to be in agreement or else someone was "wrong". However, in our new church, our pastor has put into place what he calls the "3 circles": the Essential Biblical Truths, Conviction areas (such as homeschooling vs public school or having a glass of wine vs. teetotalling..you know..the things that don't matter to our salvation) and then the outer circle is Preferences (things like praise songs vs. traditional hymns, etc). It has really helped my husband and I to teach our children what is Truth vs what is simply man's doctrine. don't know if that really answers your question but...I do enjoy this weekly chat thing!
Oh I love these questions. I have found that when I speak the truth in love, even those who disagree with me always listen and sometimes think about thier own position. I find this is certainly true with political issues, i.e. economy, war, abortion, education. While I am passionate about my positions ramming my opinions down someone elses throat never works. However when I am respectful and speak with love then people are receptive to what I have to say, that cuts both was as well.
Great question! I put my response in Mr Linky. :-)
Mr Linky isn't showing for me for some reason - weird computers, LOL!
My post is up at http://blogmommas.com
:)
Becki@BlogMommas
WOW! What a great question! I haven't been to the Cafe to chat for awhile. I love that the topics get us going deeper.
My post is up as well.
http://tracyberta.blogspot.com/2009/01/cafe-chatwhat-if-they-dont-think-like.html
Blessings!
Tracy @ Thirsty for Him
Something actually happened that I witnessed a few months back. It was the sign up time for my churchs' Christmas pagent and it was already said that if you were a part of the worship team, you would participate in the pagent.
A woman who has been a part of the team for years all of a sudden said that she had prayed about it and God told her that she didn't have to be a part of the pagent. When told this, the leader of the pagent replied with "God told me something completely opposite, He had a plan for you in this pagent."
To make the story short, the woman didn't participate in the pagent and it ended up not being such a great pagent, so I don't know how God had it planned, but I thought I would show an outsiders view of this sort of an issue.
Bottom line, Christian or non-Christian alike there are times in this life that we simply need to agree to disagree.
Sorry i'm so late...I've been gone all day. I'm not sure that I'll make it around to everyone's answers today, but will try to finish by tomorrow. I can't wait to catch up on everyone's posts!
Blessings!
I have been going to church off and on for the last 50 years. The last 5 years have been a real turning point with my relationship with God. Many changes have taken place in the "church"- both good and bad. One of the best changes in my opinion is the greater acceptance of people and their ideas that don't exactly match our own. Years ago, people with different ideas and interpretations were not ever totally welcomed into some of the churches I attended. I am so thankful that I finally listened to the Lord and opened my eyes to the truth that we are all God's children and as Amanda and Faith so eloquently said - truth is what's important, not man's doctrine on certain unimportant issues. I have asked God to forgive me if I have ever been a stumbling block to a brother or sister trying to get closer to Jesus by "looking down my nose" on certain issues. He came that all may have life and have it more abundantly.
PS. You can teach an old dog(Christian), new tricks!
i was very legalistic for the first 10 years of my walk with Christ. So if someone didn't agree with me, well, they were wrong. Over the past 10 years, God has taught me more about His grace, more about His patience with me than I ever thought possible. He's also impressed upon me the "essentials" of the Christian walk (salvation, Christ, One God, etc.) versus the "non-essentials". Now, before the hair on the back of my neck goes up because someone has felt called to a different path than I would have "expected", I seek God, His Word and pray asking Him to give me discernment about whether or not this issue is an essential. If it's not, I let it go. Life is way too short to nit-pick at my sisters lives - instead I trust the changing up to God...He certainly loves all my sisters more than I do.
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