Let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for...

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - Charles Spurgeon

This quote has been on my heart over the past week. What a powerful quote it is... I think God placed it on my heart to prepare me for yesterday. Yesterday was a normal day, the kids and I played outside for a couple of hours, we had lunch, we played with the neighbor dog, Piper played peek-a-boo, etc. While our "normal" day was happening, I was involved in a conversation via a facebook status. I knew before I commented I was getting myself into something, but knew I should comment. A little history behind the guy who wrote the status. He was a student at a school I taught at 7 years ago. I teach special ed, but this was NO special ed student. He was honors student. My classroom was by the library and one day he asked if he could come in to do some work/study. We had kind of developed a love/hate relationship (I loved him/he pretended to hate me;). He knew I was a christian and he was a proclaimed atheist. God gave me so many opportunities to really share with him and to be a "different" christian than he was use to. Well yesterday he posted a status update about the Westboro Bapt. Church guys protested the funeral of a service man in our area. This is the church that is protesting military funerals with hate speech, claiming to represent God. It's really sad, which is pretty much what I commented on his status update... it was embarrassing, sad and disrespectful. He commented back "Be proud of your Bible"... and it began. I was very careful to never argue, to never be rude or in your face but to explain, the best I could, my faith. My old student was never really disrespectful, I mean unless you consider calling me psychotic for claiming to have a relationship with an invisible god. But there were others who commented that were. Some of the comments were attacking and inappropriate, to those I did not reply. In the end, I only really replied to direct questions, sometimes I replied to them by "I don't know... there are things I don't understand, none of us do". At the end of the "debate" I left them with Sprugeon's quote from above. I told them, you can call me many things but the reason I've even discussed this with you is because I DO believe there is an eternity and it concerns me that you don't...
Did I accomplish anything? There are a couple of ways to look at it.. do these guys and whoever ends up reading those 75 comments on that status think differently? probably not.... was there anything profound that I said? probably not... Did I skirt my responsibility in this wartime (spiritual) that we live in? NO... Were seeds of doubt planted? I would bet so. Even though I was picked on, verbally attacked, did I get harmed really in anyway? No... just heartsick over the situation. Did this experience grow my faith? YES... Are we called to share Christ with others? ALWAYS!
I would encourage christians to be a "different" christian! Don't be SO judgmental! Don't slandar..... don't send out hate-mail about nonbelievers who happen to be in power... we are turning off so many people. Our duty is to glorify God... PERIOD! How are our judgmental attitudes doing that? It's NOT... it has to stop!