DISTANT DESPOT OR PERSONALLY PROXIMAL? 078

I did a Bible study with a friend today. The friend didn't necessarily ask to do Bible studies but I sort of suggested. With this I asked myself, was I being overbearing, annoying, or just too much? We are close friends but I was definitely being tempted with the thought that the friend did not want to actually study the Bible. Eventually I chose to ignore the temptation and continue on with the study.

After a rich discussion, I believe my friend was able to see something practical about God and His desire for a close and intimate relationship with mankind. Through our conversation I was able to see how some people think of God. My friend wanted to study and was not feeling like the enemy was tempting me to think they were feeling.

At the end of the discussion I said that it wasn't so much my desire to be overbearing and to shove my belief down anyone's throat as much as I, out of genuine love for a solid friend wanted to give them an opportunity to taste something that has radically changed my life. I emphasized the fact that I wanted my friend to have a opportunity to understand the transforming truth about God; not as this distant despot, but as a proximal and personal God. Jesus is God telling humanity "I want to get as close to you as possible!" I realized at that moment that the Bible study conversation was so easy and I could be so transparent about my intentions simply because 1. I am genuinely persuaded that what I believe has profound implications for the quality of my present and the future life (and can for anyone else's), and 2. simply because we were friends.

Are we persuaded?

Do we have friends that we love?

Why not tell them about Jesus?

Love is the golden chain which binds believing hearts to one another in willing bonds of friendship, tenderness, and faithful constancy, and which binds the soul to God. There is a decided lack of love, compassion, and pitying tenderness among brethren. [Christians] are too cold and heartless. Their hearts are not all aglow with tender compassion and earnest love. The purest and most elevated devotion to God is that which is manifested in the most earnest desires and efforts to win souls to Christ. {3T 187.1}

Lord come closer,

bring us closer,

help us to bring others with us,

please,

IJN,

amen

Photo by Cliford Mervil from Pexels