Why are my Christian neighbours not Christian?

[Nordica]

I don't ask people for money or things, I ask God, and if it don't get fixed, then I am out of line somewhere and I need to get some wisdom and correction. Enabling people to stay disobedient is not a good thing.

So, I said to the wife, give her what she ask for.

Later on, My wife's parents come over, and this is how we met this family. My wife's parents run them all over, pay for their things and that is their business. I won't do that.

The family starts calling again, and the Husband said he has not had anything to eat for 2 days, there is no food in the house. No wonder the daughter came down, she was hungry.

We just spent everything to pay bills, and I am about to start a new job, and I have only the food we planned to eat for my own family.
I told the wife to box up the meat, eggs, and lets just give it to them. God will figure out something for us, no problem.

So we filled a big box with our best, and unopened stuff..... (You don't give the Lord left overs or what you don't want, you buy new, or fix it up like new)

We prayed over the food and sent it.
Mike

I like your testimony... Being hospitable and generous during financial difficulties is a great example to show trust in the Lord!

 

[Deborah13]

Reading what else I posted about this, backed with scriptures might help a bit.

I read your post and scriptures closely. What I think is that your questions cannot be answered quite so easily. I think that the unbelivers may be different as individuals, and that each circumstance may be different, as well.
If we are going to be lead into sin by hanging out with certain people then we shouldn't hang out with them. That is just true whether one is a Christian or not. Don't hang out with people you might follow into trouble or might get you into trouble because of what they do. It's just a bad idea for someone who has a drinking problem to hang out in bars with their friends.
But to say that is what will happen is too extreme for all Christians, in all circumstances.
I'll answer your questions in a very general way from what I have experienced for Most of my Christian life.
Do I have to have contact with the unsaved? Yes.
Do I hang out with the unsaved? Yes
Do I have anything in common with the unsaved? Yes
Do I have friends that are not saved? Yes

Have I gotten into trouble because of doing this. Yes and No.
When I was younger and not so strong, yes, there were times when I stumbled, not because of the unbeliever, but because I was somewhere I shouldn't have been at that point in my walk with the Lord. People are not my enemy, they are not the ones who want to steal my soul. We are not battling against people, we are battling against the Tempter.

 

[Brother Mike]

I like your testimony... Being hospitable and generous during financial difficulties is a great example to show trust in the Lord!

Thank you Sister

However, I just listed the food we had, and now, I have no idea where the food is going to come from until we get more money in Monday.
That does not mean financial difficulties, and I was not trying to make it sound like that. Not knowing how something is coming or going to happen does not mean a whole lot to me.

What Jesus say?
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
(Mat 6:25)

Take no thought.
Take no thought.

That is not a suggestion, it's a command. So then that means there can be no financial difficulties, unless one is taking thought and thinks there is.

I was also not being Hospitable. Believers should not be begging others for food, and making man their source. They had some food that they gathered from food pantries that they did not like.

I said Lord, they have no understanding, but they asked, so I am giving this food to You Lord. They still need to eat, and You Lord have helped me so many times, even when I was in the wrong, and my thinking was wrong.

I am not giving the food to them, I am giving it to the Lord out of what he said do. The Lord does not need my Hospitality, I need His.
Mat_25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I am not trying to correct you on anything Nordica. I just want you to understand the thinking and level of faith the body of Christ is operating out. The body of Christ needs to wake up, and start believing what God said.

This World is dying out there, they need God, they need healed, they need financial breakthroughs, they need their kids off drugs, they need their marriages put together.

We offer Jesus tracks and pamphlets, we only give what we don't want, or is used, We put in the offering what we think we can do without, and we tell them about Jesus with no power or faith in the Word to minister to them that would destroy the yoke in their life, and set them free of what they need free of.

So if I give any type of testimony, it's not to be focused on me, my hope is someone will see what I did, what scriptures I believed, and examine their own life according, and to walk in the same things, and seek God about it.

So it should not be, Wow, Mike gave everything, and I did. It should be, How could Mike do that, have no issue with it, and would I do that?

Blessings to you, and your family.

Mike

 

[Edward]

Amen Sister. That is what makes it possible for us to walk in forgiveness. They are not the enemy. This understanding helps a lot.

 

[Brother Mike]

I read your post and scriptures closely. What I think is that your questions cannot be answered quite so easily. I think that the unbelivers may be different as individuals, and that each circumstance may be different, as well.
If we are going to be lead into sin by hanging out with certain people then we shouldn't hang out with them. That is just true whether one is a Christian or not. Don't hang out with people you might follow into trouble or might get you into trouble because of what they do. It's just a bad idea for someone who has a drinking problem to hang out in bars with their friends.
But to say that is what will happen is too extreme for all Christians, in all circumstances.
I'll answer your questions in a very general way from what I have experienced for Most of my Christian life.
Do I have to have contact with the unsaved? Yes.
Do I hang out with the unsaved? Yes
Do I have anything in common with the unsaved? Yes
Do I have friends that are not saved? Yes

Have I gotten into trouble because of doing this. Yes and No.
When I was younger and not so strong, yes, there were times when I stumbled, not because of the unbeliever, but because I was somewhere I shouldn't have been at that point in my walk with the Lord. People are not my enemy, they are not the ones who want to steal my soul. We are not battling against people, we are battling against the Tempter.

Well, we can get in trouble hanging out with the unsaved if we are not strong. I don't have time though, and only go where the Holy Spirit says go. I spend an enormous amount of time in the Word, have my own family to deal with, and I don't waste time just "hanging" out with the unsaved. Even the Apostles said........... "Should it be given to us to wait on tables, and not spend it in prayer and the Word?"

If the Lord said go hang out at the bar and drink beer with someone, I am there, no issues. I don't limit the Lord with religious thinking, but on the other hand, I don't have time, or care to be at a bar.

In fact the Lord did ask me a few years ago to work at a bar, I did. They even played country music, and I would rather listen to grass grow than that garbage. Praise God there was grace to not even notice it while I was there.

I really don't like hanging around people though, which is a good thing at times because if it's impressed on me to go to dinner with them, or go camping with them, then it has to be God, as I sure would not have come up with that on my own. Mind you, I ask the Lord several times before God, double check, and make sure.
When someone ask me to go somewhere, the default answer is NO. What if the Lord would have me do something else that day? I try not to swear to my own hurt, as I never break my word to someone.

Blessings.

 

[iLOVE]

True, but just because we commit certain sins does not mean we should not place those standards on others or no longer recognize them as being sin. BTW I'm not saying that is what you were implying in your post, just pointing it out.

“Do as I say, not as I do.” Got it!

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matthew 7:5 ESV

Lord Jesus Christ says, "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:14 NIV

Please do not take this personally.

 

[By Grace]

Have you ever had neighbours who profess to be believing Christians but are completely reversed when it comes to being like Jesus.

They don't work, they don't have charity, they don't fellowship, they are ruled by sin, but they confess with their mouths that they know the truth and follow Jesus.

So what does a unbeliever do with Christians like these?

Your avatar states that you are not a Christian, so why are you so concerned about neighbors who in your eyes do not follow Jesus? Since you state that you are not a Christian, by definition, you do not know Jesus. So by what criteria can you judge another and state "this neighbor does not follow or is not like Jesus"?

Do you want to be a Christian? If that is the case there are many here who know how to lead you to Jesus.
Do you want to condemn Christians? Despite our many flaws, there is no condemnation for any of us who are Christians.
.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death​

.
All I am doing is asking you why you began such a thread, OK?

 

[jeff77]

“Do as I say, not as I do.” Got it!

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matthew 7:5 ESV

Lord Jesus Christ says, "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:14 NIV

Please do not take this personally.

That's not exactly what I meant. A better way of saying it would be..."do what the Bible says to do, but if you or I mess up (which we all do) then allow for another to learn from our mistake and refer them back to the Bible"

 

[HBEtechnician]

What does a unbeliever know about being a Christian? Why would a unbeliever want anything to do with them in the first place?

I was a christian for 13 years and I have read the bible, I still do.

 

[HBEtechnician]

Some unbelievers know more about being a Christian than many Christians. And why shouldn't an unbeliever want to be friends with his neighbor or be concerned that those professing Christ are not acting in accordance with Scripture? Are unbelievers supposed to ignore Christians and have nothing to do with them?

For me this is true.

 

[HBEtechnician]

Read the Bible and understand who Jesus is and what he expects of his followers. If they truly live the opposite to how followers of Christ are supposed to live, one can always ask why they confess Jesus but live like they don't know him. Or just have little or nothing to do with them. Whatever you do, don't judge Christianity by such people but by what the Bible says.

I have read the bible, I do talk to them about it.

 

[HBEtechnician]

If a unbeliever who does not even value the scriptures knows more about being a Christian than a believer does, something is way off.
I also don't hang out with unbelievers.

I guess anything is possible. in this world.

 

[HBEtechnician]

I know people that have a vast knowledge of the bible and God but they chose to brush it off and classify them self as Christian.

I can only assume that it's the committment. Maybe they don't want to commit to Jesus because they know they would have to change or answer for their sins. Perhaps they think they have more time to make the decisions.

I wouldn't know whats going on inside their heads, all I know is what fruit I'm seeing.

 

[HBEtechnician]

The living world of Lord Jesus Christ tells us by the written word of God, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:24-35 NKJV

If this commandment is missing, "Houston we have a problem!" Are you really saved? Or are you in five out of the seven Churches Lord Jesus Christ talked about in the Book of Revelations?

2 Corinthians 13:5 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
5 Look closely at yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. Don’t you realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Of course, if you fail the test, he is not in you.

The Trinity trademark is LOVE!

Do you want me to tell them what you wrote?

 

[HBEtechnician]

Calls us all hypocrites....

No I'm the one who's a hypocrite for cheating myself out of desire for 41 years.

 

[HBEtechnician]

We are hypocrites, we admit that we cannot keep the Law of God but we rely on the saving Grace of Jesus Christ to take the punishment for our unlawfulness. As a Christian we are called to pass judgement on the Church and not on unbelievers, but even so I cannot pass judgement on these people without knowing them and I cannot tell you their train of thought. What you can do is respond to them like they are any other human because that's what they are even if they claim Christ.

Doesn't the bible say to judge rightly if you judge?

 

[HBEtechnician]

Hello HBEtechnician,

Well you will come to find that, the Bible tells us such people exist and warns us.

TITUS 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate.

1 JOHN 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Some people claim to be Christian for there own sake in the view of the world. Religion is a powerful thing, it says something about an individual but, no matter what you claim it's if they reap the fruits of God or not.

I have known many and it is really sad to be honest. I am still at peace because, when we have more and more false witnesses I know the end times are coming and Jesus will come and claim his true flock.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

How does one measure belief? Is there a standard or do you just believe?

 

[HBEtechnician]

I suppose all that can be said is that humans are never perfect and will always fall short. Don't look to humans for perfection, only God is capable of it.

We do try to provide more education to believers, and we could do better. Honestly, the bar for intelligence and a passable understanding of Scripture in Christianity is set very low currently. But in the end, it's up to individuals to put in the time and educate themselves--we can offer the material and promote it, but we can't force it.
But I'm going off on a tangent here, I guess...having a more academic understanding of Scripture isn't necessary in order to follow it.

If you don't have any expectations you don't have any standards, if you don't have any standards you'll keep ending up with worse and worse people.

 

[HBEtechnician]

I don't try to judge anyone.
I have not walked in their shoes nor have they mine.
Might be reasons why they don't work, etc.
We all sin.

Tell you the truth, I don't care what a non-believer nor a believer thinks of me, for that matter, lol.
Only what God thinks of me, He knows my heart and intentions.

Imho

We all die once we take from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, some don't.

 

[HBEtechnician]

I agree!! That's the way we should be. People in the world will think that we are weird because of our belief in the Lord. I always believed that what others say about me doesn't matter because I know in my heart that I love the Lord and will be in heaven on day!

Not focusing on what others say and do but focus on what your doing and make sure you're doing what's right!

It's more weird to love desire than to follow want.