Monday, April 27, 2009

weather patterns





I have my "deepest" moments either in my car driving or running. So after my drive back to La Crosse Saturday night I decided to keep those thoughts goin', so I went running at 10:00 at night. It's so peaceful and beautiful at that time, it helps that I live in a beautiful area with bluffs, the Mississippi river, & trees. Then yesterday I went out for a run and 3 miles into it I got caught in a down pour. It was awesome!! The rain was strong & it was windy so it just made me run fast. :)! My running has been awesome the last couple days, it's good to be back! And I'm loving this weather. It was awesome to fall asleep last night listening to the rain and thunder.

My roommate showed me this article yesterday, click HERE to read it. Some of the comments on it really broke my heart. The article is about how a popular clothing chain (Forever 21) prints John 3:16 on every shopping page of theirs. It makes me sick to think that people find that so offensive and even say that won't buy from the company anymore. I want to know why they are so offended by Christianity? How can they continue each day with no hope? Why do the feel the need to advocate their hopeless ideas? This article just made me realize that we are not going to reach these types of people by approaching them and sharing the gospel. Most probably already have heard it before anyways, One lady wrote this comment on the article:
This isn’t just about religion– it’s about our phobia of Christianity. It’s about all of those awful memories of being mobbed by envangelizing nuts on campus, at parks, at the beach, etc. Christians feel the need to bring god into EVERYTHING– I’m simply overloaded… and I’m resentful of feeling so jumpy that even a bible reference on the bottom of a bag sets me off. To all of you Christians out there, BACK OFF! People might be more interested in talking to you if they weren’t constantly mobbed by pro-Jesus crap
.

First off, God is my EVERYTHING is it's a little hard not to bring him into everything. :) But this comment really got me thinking about how we can reach people like this with such negative ideas about Christianity. Jesus is the only one that can change their hearts so we continually need to be praying for them. They may not be responsive to me if I approach them on the street but a more powerful way for them to see Christ is how we live our life. Love them, praise God when we're happy and rejoice in our suffering. Demonstrate the love that Jesus Christ has brought into our life and let in shine through us in every single thing we do. Let them look at us and want the joy that Jesus fills us with. That is how we can reach them without any feelings of condemnation, by simply living Christ like lives. My heart breaks when I think about them seeing Jesus and realizing that they had denied his glorious, amazing love for their entire life on this earth. Eventually every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, I don't want anyone to be too late. I want more brothers and sisters in Christ, so let His love shine through us, let everyone know how God has changed our lives, Share the gospel & rejoice in our suffering This world needs Jesus and everyone needs his word.

Alright, I need to get to class. Here's whats on repeat this week:

2 comments:

Rhonda said...

Alyssa, WOW...you go girl....what a powerful post and so anointed by God!!!! You are so right, we can't change people's hearts only JESUS CAN!!!! LOVE YOU XXXOOOO, MOM

Banta143 said...

So true! You know, a friend of mine is exactly this way. She has been burnt SO badly by Christians "preaching at her" as she puts it, that she almost hates them now. When I tried to tell her about God and things I've leaned from the Bible, she will roll her eyes when she thinks I'm not looking. (ha) So yeah, I've just given her over to God and I pray for her now like u were taking about, and I live the life of a ture Christian. That's the only thing that will reach her, I agree! I still talk about God and answer any questions for her, but forget the overly preachy stuff. Some people just can't take it, and I will respect that.