Who's Soul Are you Trying to Save?

This morning in my quite time before work I read a verse that has stuck with me throughout the day. It stirred a thought that wasn't my typical 'God is for you and you can make it through today' kind of musing.

Ezekiel 3:18-19 reads, "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

I started to think of some of the very 'in your face' evangelism that I have experienced over the years. Now please don't take this the wrong way, I fully realized that God says in Mark 16:15 to "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.". I am not anti-spreading the gospel. But are our methods really working?

In Ezekiel when God was speaking to the prophet he told him that he was to go and warn the wicked nation of the wickedness they were living in. If Ezekiel did this, then then his conscious could be clear and it would be up to the nation what they did with that information. But if Ezekiel did not tell the wicked nation of their deeds then God would hold Ezekiel accountable.

I believe that some people are using this as a principle to satiate their souls today. As long as they can get through their entire spiel and you are standing there, (regardless of if your dinner is burning on the stove, or you are late for an appointment, or if you have had a rough day and just can't handle having to listen to anything else) then they have done their duty before God. They have informed you as to what a sinner you are, so they are safe.

In their soul winning they have saved their own soul by informing you how rotten and disgusting yours is in the sight of God.

It maters little to them after that point what happens. You can accept God or reject God, but their hands are washed of it! You have been 'soul-winned'!

Maybe... just maybe... this grieves God's heart as much as it does yours.

I'm know there are many verses in the Bible that we can use to club someone over the head with. Do you think that is what would win someone's heart and loyalty to a loving God though? Wouldn't it be better to hear the voice of God calling out, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]" as it says in Matt 11:28 (AMP)?

God not only loves you to the point of death on the cross in which all of your sins are wiped away and so on and so forth blah blah blah... but maybe God actually just likes you. He probably thinks the things you fill your day and have passion and love for are pretty cool too. He did create everything after all!

Maybe next time, rather than trying to drag someone kicking and screaming down yet another Romans road.... you can just stop and look for the thing in them that God already cherishes. And remember, God already loves you too. You don't have to get a giant soul-winning gold sticker from Him in order to be steeped in the all encompassing love of God.

You already are.

God likes you.

Simply my musings though and I am no great scholar. Take the meat if you find any and spit out the bones. Throw some spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks if you like. But give other people the freedom to do the same.

Little Big Steps

Someone once told me that you don't need to be so concerned about where God is going to have you in 5, 10 or even 15 year from now. Just be where you are suppose to be, doing what God wants you to do today and when tomorrow becomes today do it again. Then in 5, 10 or 15 years of you having continued to do this you will be right where God wants you to be.

This weekend my husband and I took a little big step. We bought a car. It was a little step to sign on the dotted line, but a big step to commit to paying off this car for the next six years. When I step back and try to look at the timeline of 6 years and imagine where we will be, or what we will be doing then I am immediately overwhelmed. But, when I look at just the step ahead of me as I place one foot in front of the other I know my footing is secure.

Perhaps one of the most frightening things in life can be time. It is the only true currency we own. Money comes and goes and you gain some and lose some, but when you give your time to something or someone, it is one of the few things that was only and entirely yours and when you give it up, is gone forever.

Now in my early twenties I an starting to feel the treadmill of time slowly growing swifter and swifter. I would like to be able to just stop running and try to make things slow down. I know this will only send me flying off the end of the treadmill and crashing into the wall behind me. Perhaps this is even something that happens occasional on my more rough days. But with that knowledge, every moment that I can run I want to make sure my feet are landing securely.

I want to take sure steps not only in my finances for this car though. I want every relationship I'm in and every goal I set for myself to be something that I can see to be steps down the right path even when I can't see all the way to the end of the road. This may mean waking up early and going for a run in the morning before work. It may mean making sure the phone bill is always paid on time. It may mean finding an extra hour to spend over a cup of tea with an old friend, or taking the time to make a nice dinner to sit down to with my husband each night.

Little big steps can be scary. Sometimes you just need to commit to your decisions and enjoy the walk as you make steps into your future.