Last night as my husband and I were getting ready to leave for church, we began to shut our puppies off to the living room area. They do better when we leave them alone in a smaller space. In other words, we come home to much less damage if we keep them confined!
As my husband began to call for my daughter's dog, Daisy, she ran from him. He callled to her again, much more gruffly this time, "Daisy, come here! I know you heard me!" Daisy then ran under the dining room table.
While this fiasco was being played out, I was in the dining room, too looking through my purse for everything I would need (sunglasses, bifocals, pen for taking notes, etc.) for church. My husband then says even more gruffly and a few decibels higher, "Daisy, hiding under that dining room table will not help you now come here!!" I looked down and right beside my leg as far from my husband as she could get sat Daisy. She looked at me as though, "Grammy there is trouble, I need your help!" At that point I told my husband speaking gruffly and yelling at her was not going to get the desired response, he was simply wasting his breath and scaring her in the process. I then looked at Daisy and in a cajoling voice said, "Come on, sweet Daisy, let Grammy put you in the living room." She let me pick her up with no resistance and within seconds she was in the petition happy and content to be with the other dogs.
As I thought about what had happened the Lord spoke to my heart and gave me a wonderful example of soul winning with this experience! So many times when we are young Christians, we tend to be overzealous. We tell people they aren't speaking right things, opening the door to the enemy by doing wrong things, and if they aren't saved they are outright going straight to hell!
Albeit these things are true to some degree BUT, we will never touch anyone for Christ, much less lead them to the Lord, if we CONDEMN them! Jesus isn't even condemning them! He is convicting them of sin and showing them a better way of life here and in the life which is to come!!
The Bible says while we were still sinners Christ died for us! Why? Because of His LOVE for us! He viewed us as, what the Bible calls a "prize that was set before Him" and that is what kept Him on the cross! He could have called ten thousand angels, but instead He kept your face and mine before Him in order to see His death, as tormenting as it was, to the end!
Don't condemn people today. Through the love of God, be an example of what Jesus is! Let us model our behavior after Him in all things. People will listen to love, but they will always turn a deaf ear to condemning words! Let us speak words that bring life, not words that shut doors! Have a blessed day, all day my dear reader!
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