{"id":6816,"date":"2012-10-30T13:29:56","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T13:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=6816"},"modified":"2012-10-30T13:55:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T13:55:36","slug":"dont-rock-the-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=6816","title":{"rendered":"Don’t rock the boat?????"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You’ve heard the old saw many times, Don’t rock the boat!! \u00a0When it comes to sharing our faith, it doesn’t apply! \u00a0I’m not suggesting that sharing our witness should agitate people, far from it, I’m saying that when you share something as profound as your experience with Jesus Christ, some people are going to be taken back. \u00a0Our goal should be to love others the way Christ loved them, and in that love, they will want to know more about the Man that sacrificed everything for them!<\/p>\n

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Last year when I worked the Masters Golf Tournament, upon leaving for the day each afternoon I saw a group of committed Christians attempting to witness, I’m afraid it was not effective on 99.9% of those they had hoped to reach. \u00a0Standing on a box a man held a large sign that said REPENT! While the message was true, and the scripture to back it up is certainly something the world needs, the approach was harsh. \u00a0Is it harsh to call mankind sinners? \u00a0No, it’s truth, but it seldom makes someone want to throw down their sin, repent, and ask God for forgiveness. \u00a0I’m sure someone has been saved by such a stark dose of reality, but I believe that what the world is looking for is evidence that being a Christian really does mean we are truly different. That we are not judgmental, but offering a love that goes beyond what the world offers! \u00a0Showing kindness, forgiveness, compassion, concern, and care speaks much more deeply to someone that calling them out for their sin. \u00a0Let’s not white wash the human condition, it’s clear, God has proclaimed t hat we are all sinners, everyone of us, we have “all” fallen way short of what God had planned for \u00a0us.<\/p>\n

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So if we are all sinners what hope do we have? \u00a0Only one, Jesus Christ! \u00a0Our heavenly Father saw the wickedness of man and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might be forgiven and made holy. \u00a0He allowed His only Son to die for us! \u00a0Does that make me want to stand on the corner with a sign that says REPENT? \u00a0It does, but I know a sign that says GOD LOVES YOU has a better chance of making someone consider how great a promise that is! \u00a0Repentence and redemption always follows the recognition of how far we are from God, let’s start by bringing others closer to Him, and then guide them to take the neccesary steps to accept His magnificant gift of forgiveness and eternal life!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve heard the old saw many times, Don’t rock the boat!! \u00a0When it comes to sharing our faith, it doesn’t apply! \u00a0I’m not suggesting that sharing our witness should agitate people, far from it, I’m saying that when you share something as profound as your experience with Jesus Christ, some people are going to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6819,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions\/6819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}