|
Featured Sections Headlines Opinion Obituaries Sports Crime Blotter Happenings Country Cooking Wandering Minds Classifieds Birthdays Off The Wall On The Record Church Listings Archives Featured Columns Pastor Howle Wise Tech Tips Editor's Column Carl Langley Dr. Skip Myers Edgefield Square Registered Sex Offenders for Edgefield County Contact us Contact Info or E-mail the Editor Phone: 803-634-0964 day 803-279-5041 eve 803-279-8943 fax Mail to EdgefieldDaily.com PO Box 972 Edgefield SC 29824 Video & Audio Updates Audio Archive Video Archive School System EC District Office School Board Strom Thurmond Charter Schools Fox Creek Private Schools Wardlaw Academy Public Offices Edgefield County Edgefield Johnston Trenton Political State and Federal Legislative Contacts Local Political Parties Republican Party Democrat Party Chamber of Commerce Edgefield County Chamber Historical Edgefield Genealogical Society News links The Citizen News Aiken Standard North Augusta Star The State Augusta Chronicle Atlanta Journal United Press Associated Press FOX News Reuters CNS News WorldNet Daily Newsmax Drudge Report GoogleNews Yahoo!News New York Times New York Post Los Angeles Times Washington Times Washington Post |
 Religion
Passive Hatred By Pastor Phillip Howle web posted August 18, 2010 RELIGION – My son Cason loves to play pretend. He pretends to be a lineman fixing the power lines, a plumber taking care of pipes, an exterminator killing ants, and various other professions of the great men out here at Antioch. He of course pretends to be a preacher as well, but heading to hospital is not as cool as going up in a bucket truck! Now, today I want us to play pretend as well. Pretend you are in a restaurant and you are a doctor. During your meal you see some one fall out and it appears that they have had a heart attack. The people around the person yell “Is anyone a doctor?” You know you are, but you are having dinner, you don’t want to intrude in their life and business, so you just sit still. You do nothing while a person just dies. You could have helped, but you didn’t. Now pretend you are a firefighter and you have the training and knowledge to put out fires and save lives. One night you get a call that there is a fire and people will die if you don’t come to the rescue. However, you are in the middle of your favorite show and though you know you should turn off the TV you don’t. You have the equipment, the training, and you could help save lives, but you finish your TV show instead. Now this is not a very fun game of pretend is it? Letting people die when you can save them is bad and wrong. In both the above cases we would be appalled and angered at the dereliction of duty by the above individuals. But, if you are a Christian you may be just as guilty of the tremendous neglect of responsibility to save lives. You see, if you never tell others of the necessity and the availability of the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ, then you are just as guilty. You are allowing people to die and spend eternity in hell apart from God, because you are either too lazy or just don’t care enough to lovingly guide them to a relationship to Jesus. Atheist Penn Jillette is one half of Penn and Teller, a comedy duo that has been headlining Vegas shows for years with comedy and the art of illusion. Penn has never been shy about his disbelief in God, often writing about his conviction in articles and best-selling books. Penn shares a story about the time a gracious Christian businessman gave him a Bible as a gift. Here’s the direct quote from his blog: “I’ve always said, you know, that I don’t respect people who do not proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, uh, well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think that people shouldn’t proselytize, [saying] “Just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself”—uh, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize them? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond the shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming to hit you, and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” (Bill White, Paramount, California; source: “Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible,”) Notice, Penn an avowed atheist evens gets the point I am trying to make; that Christians who don’t evangelize must really hate people. This is hard to own up to. I am guilty as well. I am not saying slap non-believers with a study Bible. But you have to share Jesus with them, sooner or later. Preferably sooner, waiting to tell leads to you never telling them. I read one writer this week who wrote “It is said that Satan once called to him the emissaries of hell and said he wanted to send one of them to earth to aid women and men in the ruination of their souls. He asked which one would want to go. One creature came forward and said, "I will go." Satan said, “If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?” He said, “I will tell the children of men that there is no heaven.” Satan said, “They will not believe you, for there is a bit of heaven in every human heart. In the end everyone knows that right and good must have the victory. You may not go.” Then another came forward, darker and fouler than the first. Satan said, “If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?” He said, “I will tell them there is no hell." Satan looked at him and said, "Oh, no; they will not believe you, for in every human heart there's a thing called conscience, an inner voice which testifies to the truth that not only will good be triumphant, but that evil will be defeated. You may not go.” Then one last creature came forward, this one from the darkest place of all. Satan said to him, “And if I send you, what will you say to women and men to aid them in the destruction of their souls?” He said, “I will tell them there is no hurry.” Satan said, “Go!” There must be urgency as each day they move one step closer to hell. You don’t want your friends to go to hell and remember you as forever seeing that dark train of judgment barreling down on them, all the while you are hanging out, fishing, enjoying life and laughing together. Take in account these sobering words of Ezekiel in 33:8 “If I (God) announce that some wicked people are sure to die and you fail to warn them about changing their ways, then they will die in their sins, but I will hold you responsible for their deaths.” You don’t want to make it to heaven and have to explain to God that you loved you friendship and reputation with some one over their need to come to know Jesus. Understand that God loves your friend more than you and God and ordained you as means of praying for and seeing this person come to know Him. Here is great news for you. A recent study by Lifeway showed that 82 percent of the unchurched are at least ‘somewhat likely’ to attend church if they are invited. Let me restate that: More than eight out of ten of the unchurched said they would come to church if they were invited. All studies now show that most folks will come to church if invited. Now, I think it would be great if you could tell your friends about Jesus, some of you will, but if you can’t, feel you don’t know how, or just plain refuse, then at least invite them to church. For crying out loud, you can do that! If you don’t have a church, then come to Antioch and invite all your friends and family too. So, when was the last time you loved someone enough to confront them about the good news of Jesus Christ? Or do you show passive hatred to all people needing Jesus everyday by sinfully remaining silent? Pastor Phillip © Copyright 2010 EdgefieldDaily.com All original
material is property of EdgefieldDaily.com and cannot be reproduced,
rewritten or
redistributed without the expressed written permission of Edgefield Daily.com
|
NOTICE:
We still need recipes for Cooking Section WEBNEWS – Send in your favorite or favorites. There is no limit to the number of recipes you can send in. Help create an exchange of local favorites, home cooking, grilling, sauces, and deserts! Send in your submissions here. |
