thoughts about jesus, travelogs, and anything else i can find swimming around in my head....
i find myself in a position that i havent really been in much before in my life. well not to this extreme anyway. i am in a place that noone really knows me. well at least they dont know me like some people do. like my best friends do. heck - i guess there really isnt anyone on this continent who does. it is a kind of crazy thought. plus to make matters even more strange - it has been so very long since i have really talked to most of my best friends back home. it is just kinda hard to when you are across the world away. you start to depend on different things. i am learning how to really take jesus at his word and lean on him. trusting him. no - i mean really trusting him. it is so easy to read the verses in matthew that say that we should trust him for all our needs but it is so hard to do. i constantly have to remind myself of what jesus promises.
i have been blessed to have met some great friends here. but what is different is that i dont have much - if any christian fellowship. in fact two of my best friends here are atheists. so it is a challenge going about things daily - but i love it. i refuse to get myself stuck in the christian ghetto. not that i dont wish i had more christian family here to bounce things off of and have that support that is much needed - but i just dont buy into the crap that you cant hang out with others who are not christians for fear of getting pulled down. what? getting pulled down? oh yeah - if you could only hear how many times i have heard some 'christian' people say that kind of crap. "hey man - when i became a christian - i stopped doing that kinda stuff - so i dont hang out with people like that anymore." are you freaking kidding me? have you been reading your bible? yeah - that is just what we are supposed to do. stop being friends with people who arent christians just like yourself. oh yeah - and while you are at it - stop going places that they are. yeah - no going to clubs, bars, or anywhere where 'bad' things are going on. people come on. this is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. so yeah - i am loving this part of being somewhere new. meeting people where they are at and loving them. hopefully they see right past my face to the one that matters. they are sons and daughters of christ too. they are in fact made in christ's image. i have to remind myself of this all the time. several times a day.
so yeah - it is hard not having some of the friends here who know me. the friends who know me inside and out. the ones who have been there through everything. those who i can call and i know they will be there in a second for whatever i need. the book of love says that a friend sticks closer than a brother. but i am learning a lot. how to lean more on jesus and how to love more. and this is continuous. i have a long way to go. nowhere near there yet. not sure i ever will be - but jesus is constantly pulling back layers and although it hurts like hell - it is good. the new skin i keep finding is kinda cool.
i have been blessed to have met some great friends here. but what is different is that i dont have much - if any christian fellowship. in fact two of my best friends here are atheists. so it is a challenge going about things daily - but i love it. i refuse to get myself stuck in the christian ghetto. not that i dont wish i had more christian family here to bounce things off of and have that support that is much needed - but i just dont buy into the crap that you cant hang out with others who are not christians for fear of getting pulled down. what? getting pulled down? oh yeah - if you could only hear how many times i have heard some 'christian' people say that kind of crap. "hey man - when i became a christian - i stopped doing that kinda stuff - so i dont hang out with people like that anymore." are you freaking kidding me? have you been reading your bible? yeah - that is just what we are supposed to do. stop being friends with people who arent christians just like yourself. oh yeah - and while you are at it - stop going places that they are. yeah - no going to clubs, bars, or anywhere where 'bad' things are going on. people come on. this is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. so yeah - i am loving this part of being somewhere new. meeting people where they are at and loving them. hopefully they see right past my face to the one that matters. they are sons and daughters of christ too. they are in fact made in christ's image. i have to remind myself of this all the time. several times a day.
so yeah - it is hard not having some of the friends here who know me. the friends who know me inside and out. the ones who have been there through everything. those who i can call and i know they will be there in a second for whatever i need. the book of love says that a friend sticks closer than a brother. but i am learning a lot. how to lean more on jesus and how to love more. and this is continuous. i have a long way to go. nowhere near there yet. not sure i ever will be - but jesus is constantly pulling back layers and although it hurts like hell - it is good. the new skin i keep finding is kinda cool.
6 Responses to “friendships”
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nice blog!
i like the reference to peeling back to "new skin"... sounds like this experience is really teaching you a lot about yourself and those around you -- i'm so happy for you... ;)
thrill...
Keep exposing the truth of your heart. Yes, you will be hurt sometimes but you will also be living life in 3D... just as you are.
I like your words.
How about some okra?
dudehead
question? does that mean that those who are not willing to go into bars, clubs, or where ever "bad" things happen are not acting as a christian should. I do see your point, how can we witness locked up inside our own cages. But on the other hand who are we or us to judge who is a christian. "vengeance is God's" he will grade someone's doings or others that leave things undone as in wrong or right. We have two new commandments: one being love your neighbor including a bigot christian. you need not explain your right doing as in witnessing in a bar... by condemning others doings as wrong simply because they don't go there. Satan is still alive. we should not take him lightly. Here's a shot in the dark lets go everywhere with the same mentality, even church. Our eyes on Him not each other. All other "heroes" are failures. And we've not all been made in Christ's image. We are made in the Father's image. You are not a child of Christ until you accept His death as your punishment. You must be born again, nicodemus. Born of the flesh and Spirit. Child of flesh and Spirit. (Jn 3) there will be those who reject Christ.
preach bro preach! thanks for sharing your heart and passion. it blesses. may father give you all you need from his glorious riches!
thanks for the comment 'fellow believer'. i do appreciate your insight even though i do not agree with you. i choose to live by the fact that all creatures were created in the fathers image - therefore i will go the places that they are to love them. i understand that satan is strong - but a christians place isnt quivering in the corner saying "father, i am scared". my god is far more powerful than that - not that i or others are not vigilant about being aware of snares. i didnt say this in a judging way at all - i just stated the way i feel. do preachers judge from the pulpit? do elders judge when they attempt to give their advice and opinions? i think not - but i am far from always being right. i also never alluded to the fact that i do not think that one does not have to go through christ to be saved. jesus is the only way to eternal life - but while we are here on earth - we are to enjoy it. god made this world and he did call it good. we just have to realize this isnt our eternal home. but that is all the more reason that i am going to get out and try to bring my friends and the rest of gods children with me. thanks again...