Jeremiah 20:7-12  O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
⁸ For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
⁹ Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
¹⁰ For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
¹¹ But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
¹² But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.

And Verse 14  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

2 Timothy 4:14-17 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
¹⁵ Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
¹⁶ At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
¹⁷ Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

Two men of God in separate eras, yet suffered very much the same for proclaiming the Word of God and not seeing immediate action from God.

Professors in some institutes love to embarrass the Christians, they will say something and then ask God to punish them – it doesn’t happen, so they ridicule the belief of the Christian telling them there is no God.  Freshmen are the most susceptible because, for the most part, they have not had to confront that kind of hostility.

Often times they don’t know how to address that kind of hostility from a teacher and unfortunately will sometimes believe them.  It is the teacher’s class and they make sure the student is aware of it.  I have been there and gone through it as a relatively new Christian – the teacher was aggressive when I challenged him and I had not real answer for it – however, I did make my point to begin with, I didn’t pass the class though – don’t think he appreciated my input.

But you can imagine what that attitude can do to some Christians.  It doesn’t happen just there, of course, as we go into the real world we are challenged by those that want to prove God doesn’t exist.  As we mature and grow in our knowledge of God we learn to see these encounters for what they are and don’t take them personally.

So how do we witness to such people?  How can we make them realize their attitude, their being aggressive bullies, their admitted desire to destroy the faith of the Christian is wrong?

I have seen, all too often, hostility met with hostility – I have done it myself.  But if we are to change the minds of such people, we must get to know them, have some standing with them.

There are many people that will not let us in, we are not their kind of people – not rich enough, not sophisticated enough, not educated enough, etc. and they want to look down on us.  But most people are not like that – if we are friendly they will be also.

One of the keys to personal witnessing is not just to memorize the steps to salvation, etc. (although knowing these don’t hurt, just using them without some kind of relationship with the person rarely results in true commitment.)  People respond to people that care for them. 

One of the things many of us do is jump in without really knowing who we are talking to; we aren’t taking the time to see the person as an individual.  Most people come to Christ because someone cared enough about them that they took time to listen to them, to understand what their concerns are, what makes them happy.  A relationship is developed and as the person sees we are interested in them, as we share our own thought with them, there are more open to hearing the Words of the Gospel.

We may feel discouraged and disappointed at times when we don’t get an immediate response – especially one that we want – from God.  Some will use that against us and challenge our beliefs and try and use the apparent disparity against us.  Jeremiah, as Job, wished he had never been born he was so discouraged.

But God has a purpose in everything He tells us to do.  If we are true to Him He will use our testimony to strike at the heart of the person we are witnessing to – the Holy Spirit will confirm our witness to them.  Our job is to trust Him, and then let Him do His job. 

There will be times when we stand alone for God.  If we are used to having others of like faith surround us, it can be a very scary situation.  But others have gone through the same kind of trials and God has used them to bring others to Him.  He will do the same with our testimony.

We cannot be discouraged when someone doesn’t make an immediate response to the salvation message.  We do not know where they are at the moment.  We do know that the Holy Spirit will work within them to produce results – but even He may be rejected by the person.

As Christians we have the obligation and the joy of being a child of God.  Part of that obligation is to tell others of His Love. 

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again