Pondering

How do you lead someone to God? How do you know the right words to say at the right time, to have that life altering, perception changing effect on someone?
The answer is, you don't.

You don't have the right words to say at the right time, ever. Our hearts are likely never in the place where we are doing it for the right reasons....(trying to lead someone to God to store up treasures in heaven, or even because it is what the bible tells us to do, are not the right motives), We don't even fully understand how to "lead someone" to God in the first place, because lets face it, we often times push him so far out of our own lives, that we loose him too.

As much as you may hate to hear it, as a Christian, you CAN NOT lead someone to God...God has began the work in that person LONG before you have ever known them, and will continue guiding them long after you two have seperated paths. God LEADS them to you. God may use you as his vessel...he may speak through you...but YOU didn't do it. All you did was allow God to move.

So often we as Christians make our focus saving the lost...but in order to do this, do we loose track of our own relationship with Christ? As time progresses, we worry more about what people are seeing, (which is important because as followers of God, we are to be examples,) but it coiencides with worrying less about what is really there to begin with. We loose our true relationship because we are trying so hard to make it look attractive to others...

Here is a hint....think about the broom theory...place a broom upside down with the handle in the palm of your hand and the bristles up toward the ceiling, and looking at your hand try to balance the broom...it won't work. That reflects the point in time where we are trying to look at ourselves in our walk with God, trying to have the control. Now, do the same thing, only watch the bristles of the broom...it works! That reflects the times when we are looking solely to God and allowing our hand to move where the top needs it to go to stay balanced. Once we find this point in our walk with God, and after a bit of practice, we begin to lead others. Now, do the same thing, only get it balanced, and then while balancing it, look at the person next to you for 10 seconds....it will either falter or fall. Everytime we take our eyes off of God, things go out of whack...regardless of how quick it was. When we are worrying more about what the person next to us is doing, we pay less attention to what it is that we are supposed to be doing, and become less effective vessels.

God doesn't call us to put on a show to draw people in. How can we attract people to God? By being real. If we are in a valley, proclaim it and praise him, if we are battling with sin, let the world know, because then we have accountability, if we are confused, or scared, or worried, or even doubting, SAY so...that is where we are at...it isn't easy, but it is through true community and honesty that God is able to move and be glorified. If we have a real relationship with God, that is what draws them in, nothing else will do.

Finally, quit being afraid to expect people to change, God does. Are we being true shephards of God's sheep if we allow them to think we don't have to strive for perfection, to be molded into who we were created to be? Lying, or pretending that everything is okay is not how we grow...that is how we fool ourselves into thinking we are perfect, and falter. Expect growth, because if there is none, then you are at risk for being cut off. Don't change who you percieve God to be, or to increase numbers, God is not worried about quantity, if you look at the old testiment, although he loved Isreal, did he not save a "remenant" or a small number of people? If you believe what the bible says about God knowing every day and every word and every thought before it is spoken, do you not think he knows how, and when, and where? He will bring them, not the marque slogan, the music style, or even the sermon topics. So worry less about how to get them there, and more about how to love them once they come in the doors, and more about how to show them the truth about who God is to you.

We hide issues in our churches, claim to have sermons about relevant issues, and make the worship the best it can possible be. But our pastors and leaders then begin to carry a load they cannot bear alone. So many pastors are forced to hide their own sins, or choose to, because they feel that they cannot be flawed if they are leading us....but were the 12 disciples perfect? Did they not battle with jealousy? Did the apostles not kill? Paul openly admitted the thorn in his flesh, and he was respected all the more. How are we to relate to those that we are trying to serve if we cover our own thorns? God calls us to be vulnerable with him, to be intimate with him...if we are trying to show that relationship to those who don't know it, do you not think it will benefit if you are vulnerable with them? God's strength is made PERFECT in weakness...so why are we reflecting a weak God to those who so desperately need strength?