Actually, I’ve found the people of the Boise Synagogues, Ahavath Beth and Chabad Lubavitch to be warm, friendly, open, and seeking after God with an amazing depth. Perhaps you should pay a visit.
Grace

I guess what I’m getting at is that I can’t bring myself to have an “us” and “them” mentality. I can’t get behind that. I AM “them”, save that I know Christ and am pursuing Him. But if I was not “them”, I wouldn’t need saving. So, I am a saint, yes, no longer a sinner, but I can’t forget those who are behind me, especially those who I sense God is moving in the same direction.

I guess, I have a very hard time labeling anyone a strict “unbeliever”, because I cannot see how it ends. I pray for God’s perspective, which is not bound by time, I don’t believe. I do think God knows and can see now those who will choose Him and those who will not. But that viewpoint is purposefully not given to us, so that we would let our love be known to all.

Yes, the Israelites got in much doo-doo by becoming that which repulsed God. But I would challenge you that God’s original intention for Israel was to become what the church is called to become, now. Not like the world, but certainly in (and with) it. And God’s ultimate plan was fulfilled, when the Lion of Judah, the Son of Man, did just that. He did not sin as those around Him did, but He did not separate Himself from them. He certainly spent time alone with God, as we all must in order to know the Father’s will. And, yes, He chose some closer friends who would fellowship with him closely, though one proved to be an “ill” choice, by our standards. That also says something to me — Judas. I don’t know what, but it says something.

All this to say, I don’t do the things my unsaved friends do. I’m not losing what I have to fit in. I’m simply saying, if I can still be in fellowship with them without conforming to their standards (as my current experience is showing), then God is doing something, has some kind of plan. I don’t want to miss that about worrying about my fellowship being “equal”.

All things being equal…but they aren’t. If God had that standard, Abraham wouldn’t have gotten very far. God passed through the blood, Abraham didn’t out of fear, the seed of Israel (and ultimately, humanity) betrayed its Maker, and yet God still carried out His end of the deal.

To be Christ-like? I’d say, it’s not worrying about things being “equal”; rather, it’s listening to the Spirit’s guidance on a case by case basis.

“I have casual acquaintances with many who do not yet have a relationship with Christ, but we can never be equally yoke in our friendship.” – Patrick

I respectfully disagree on this. I actually have a very close friend who is not a believer — and it is BECAUSE I am willing to be there, as a friend, and listen to his deepest struggles, that I believe God will use me to open the door to his heart. At least I’ll be a part of it, I pray.

He has found himself sharing things, then stopping and asking, “Why did I tell you that?” And my response? Not judgment, shock, or anything but a shrug and a chuckle, and then an encouragement to go on.

This friend wants me to tell him what I really think, about all matters. When I find myself backing off and not wanting to offend by talking too much about Christ, HE’S the one to say, “Brandon, you’re fine.”

So, I would disagree with that viewpoint. I think it’s only an uneven yolk if you view yourself as the Savior, which I do not. I am merely a dude that was made that was saved and is being (stress being) changed. I have nothing to hold back from those that want to be my friends. I have no burden to save them, only to be with them and be true, speak when it is time, and be silent and let them figure things out other times.

This will probably stretch some folks’ melons, but this same friend is a Buddhist, and recently, after the friendship took a more “real” tone (I started telling him that Jesus loved him, after he asked me what I thought of him as a person), he said that at an acupuncture appointment, his guide or whatever said that he was receiving a lot of divine guidance.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think religion (note, I don’t believe true Christ followers to be religious, Christ came to end religion, I think) has a piece of truth without knowing it fully, and thereby clouds it with other “understandings”. But I do think there is a piece of truth there. And how interesting that it was after this friendship developed further that this friend tells me about that event.

All I can say is, grace grace grace grace grace. If someone is hurt by my family, I apologize on behalf of my family. No pride, no “but but but”, just humility.

GOD will defend my honor. GOD will take care of my justice. GOD will see to it that what’s right is right, in the end. How much better is it to apologize for something I might not have personal responsibility for, then to find out later how much I WAS responsible?

This is not self-hating. I LOVE myself in Christ. I hate the flesh, but love what God is doing in my heart. I love my faith, love my relationship, have no desire for religion, and have no interest in anything but fighting for ultimate transparency and humility. It’s a long ways yet for me…

I can understand where you and Patrick are coming from. I did feel slightly like I was being pushed into feeling guilty for things I have not done, as well. But the real question for all of us now is not “who should be apologizing or feeling responsible for those things that happened” but “what am I doing or not doing that is contributing to the continuation of this problem?” That’s what God hit me with when I started protesting it wasn’t my fault.

The fact of the matter is, the church in general has failed many, many times – as is to be expected, honestly, from an organization with humans in it. I really think we need to let God reveal to us what we have been doing to support its continued failure – because I think we have been failing (for one example, see my other posts discussing the ’sales pitch’ for winning souls to Christ). For me, I took the JAMES acronym and laid it against myself. What have I personally been doing? Is it really applicable to me? If it is, is it just partially, or am I being convicted by it in its entirety? At first I thought it was only partial, but God kept nudging until I realized that I am judgmental; antagonistic; mean-spirited; exclusive; and self-righteous – not to the level that Tri was talking about as far as the majority of the church goes, but definitely enough to compromise my testimony.

So I am going to change the James in me, and let others worry about their own James. If we all can do that, the church’s image will drastically change – not because we are trying to change it, but because a change of the organization is what automatically follows a change inside the people.

As for your statements about the world hating our message, I think Tri hit the nail on that one. If someone REALLY understands what we’re all about, what God is all about, they won’t have a problem with it (except for the having to just accept grace and not do something to earn it, which is just hard I think for humans to be okay with); but Satan loves the misunderstandings of God. He loves bringing forth the image of the militant ‘no fun ever’ kind of God. I mean, look at how he spoke to Eve: “Did God really say you had to do this? Well, I hate to break it to you, but He just doesn’t want you to be like Him.” I can almost hear the unspoken statement, “He doesn’t want you to know how much fun He’s telling you not to have.”

Who would ever want a religion that prevents you from having ‘fun’? On top of that, there have been the things Christians have messed up on. On top of no ‘fun’, we have an image of JAMES – and unfortunately, that has only been exaggerated by Satan. There are Christians who are not modeling Christ well, to say the least – and those are the ones the media loves to capture on film, because those examples validate others’ refusal to join in. I think Satan jumps on that and introduces thoughts that lead to beliefs that ALL Christians are like that, instead of only a certain group of them are like that. (Forefront in my mind is the group of ‘Christians’ who protested military men’s funerals because God was punishing America for homosexuals.)

We can’t change the faulty ambassadors. But if we make sure that we are working those negative qualities (and I think Satan subtly prods a little here, adds a hurt there, and viola! the start of one of these negative qualities that will hurt the Christian’s influence, which he then proceeds to strengthen inside that Christian) out of ourselves, than we can reach out to the people who have been hurt by the church and be accepted – so long as we remain honest, open, and willing to listen when God and/or others speak into our lives about things that we might be straying from/into.

I think that last paragraph is the whole intention of PFJ. Not just to apologize to the unbelievers who have been hurt by the church, but to give us the ability to recognize those qualities that have turned unbelievers away from God are also a lot of the time something we may not even be aware that we are doing – and once we let God reveal those things to us about ourselves, we can work with Him to fix those things and, as I said before, if enough people change internally the organization will change externally.