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Bill

There are two seperate points. One being how do we evangelize to people who need to hear the Gospel and two are we in a position to convict other people and state whether they are godly men or not? That 'friend' example was to emphasize the first point. My second point I had no support other than it is biblically unfounded.

[size=xx-small]Quote:[/size]

[size=xx-small]Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" 22 Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."[/size]

Exactly :-D Amen Chanin.
It's the word of God who convict through the Holy Spirit, let the Holy Spirit do His job and we do our own work as children of the Living God.

I have a few friends who are catholics my housemate and he has checked out this site? He listened to billy graham and liked it? Hopefully I will get him on stronger stuff.
Dont talk about this subject in Ireland you may get shot.

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Dominic Shiells

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Bill

Brother (or sister) Received Text...

Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

Deltadom

You can talk about any subject in Ireland in fact there are more catholics questioing the whole pope thing than you could imagine.

Now talking about it in an English accent? (joke)

Paul

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Paul R Carley

I was born into a catholic family. I went to catholic school. All I knew was catholic. I despised others who would attack my religion. Furthermore, I was always taught that the catholic church was the only one true church of Jesus Christ. I believed in all the things that evangelicals believed in, ....and more. But I never heard that I needed to be born again.

In line with this thread, I want to share what set me free, if I may.

I went in the Air Force the day after high school, in part to escape the "church". But it was not because of bashers. I was empty inside. I needed something I had not yet found. After my service time I got married and compounded my problems and my emptiness. I could not sin enough to keep up with my carnal appetites, and I took my frustrations out on people who loved me.

I was invited to a retreat by a friend. I refused. But it became as a burr underneath my saddle blanket. Somehow I felt this "force" leading me to go. I finally ageed, but with conditions.

I went before God, you know, the guy with the lightening bolts in His hand that only punished. I said, "God, I'll go, but only on one condition. I want you to reveal yourself to me. If you don't, I'll never darken the door of a church again."

We were in a chapel service on Saturday night of the retreat. All of a sudden in the middle of the sermon, the power and glory of God showed up in my soul. Every thing that was evil and empty floated up out of me. Nobody else was affected. It had nothing to do with the sermon. It was God and I knew it. I began to weep profusely and worship. I never knew such worship before. I ran outside into the parking lot and the sky was filled with a zillion stars. They were all worshipping my God.

I was so changed, that on the following Monday morning, when a friend stopped to pick me up for work, before I could climb in his truck, he had an amazed look on his face and asked, "what in the world has happened to you"? How can you explain it? I suppose I did the best I could. Everybody could see it all over me. I was a new creation. The sad part is all I knew to do was to try and be a better catholic.

Within 6-8 months, I was pretty much back like before, except that I knew I was different. A couple years later, I met some charasmatic catholics who invited me to a prayer meeting. I had never heard of such, so I went. I noticed that practically everyone there was carrying a bible. I asked them why. "Soul food", they replied. Ohhhh. So I bought myself a bible and started to read it for myself.

I read myself out of the catholic church. I finally came to a point where I could no longer harmonize the Word of God with the tradition of the church and I chose the Word of God and dropped the other.

So you see, it was not "bashers" or well meaning evangelicals that set me free. It was the Word of God. If we but speak the truth in Love, that is the truth of what the bible teaches, then the Holy Spirit has good seed for a harvest. But if the seed is sewn with sharp stones, it probably won't survive.

We live in an "instant" society. We want bragging rights on instant conversions. God wants us to build relationships based on His love working through us. Love is patient, love is kind. But wait, it's more than that. It's really charity. Charity implies a benevolent activity with the "love". It means that we must give of ourselves to the others in love. Love will reach deeper into a heart than cold hard facts and statistics. We may be correct in our so called "facts", but the right way is charity. Why? Because it's God's way.