Should A Christian Use Grace Or Fire?
Should a Christian share his faith with grace or fire?When I was in Law Enforcement and had to deal with people from all walks of life, mostly folks who were at their very worse, a place in life that had brought them down to the lowest part of human existence, some even taking their own life because they couldn't deal with living. For others they committed hennas crimes such as murder, rape, and other offenses that involved innocent people who became victims and their lives changing forever, and not for the good.
So here I am responding to a call while on patrol where "this" person already filled with rage, anger, sadness, suicidal tendencies, etc. had already made up their mind that nobody will tell them what to do, say, or where to go, and God forbid you go into their house to try to make since of what just happened. This is one reason why Cops are killed in these situations.
Even with all this intense pressure and fear of being hurt or killed, I enter into this danger zone to confront someone who doesn't care about life, Jesus Christ, especially me, the guy with the badge, or even their best friend at that moment, and still, I always take the soft hand approach initially which is to approach this person with calmness, gentle voice commands, a smile, and a genuine concern that the person I'm "confronting" will know that I'm there to help and not to destroy his/her already ruined life.
From the soft hand approach, an officer will move up the ‘sliding scale of aggression’ to bring resolve which can turn into a full blown fight to even using deadly force if that officers life is in jeopardy of losing his own life from the hand of an offender who might go from angry words to brandishing a knife or gun. I have to say that many times even using the soft hand approach to diffuse a situation, a lot of times it ended up into a scuffle because of the aggression of that person.
So my personal belief is to always try using the sliding scale to get to a person's heart with the Gospel of Christ. If you're kind and loving and genuine in the beginning, this might be all you need to grab their attention and get something accomplished.
On the other hand, there are many who would rather fight (argue) with you and try to destroy you without even blinking an eye, so you'll have to either be willing to follow through (restraint and patience) with some non physical confrontation, always with their best interest at hand, which would be the Cross of Christ, Repentance, and Salvation, or just do as Jesus told his disciples which was to shake the dust of your sandals and move on to the next city.
Just my thoughts!
Lee Bartlett
President
WOW.FM
posted by WOW.FM
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11:54 PM
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