22 October, 2013

WWJD

A friend of mine (Dan Hunt) made the following post on his Facebook page this morning: 
"And whoever will not receive and accept and welcome you nor listen to your message, as you leave that house or town, shake the dust (of it) from your feet." (Matthew 10:14)

(This is) For anyone who thinks it's un-Christian to delete someone off their Facebook friends list because they are doing things that are not pleasing to God. Just doing what Jesus says to do. Shaking the dust off. Learn from the Word."

I can so relate. Dan, I've been attacked for deleting and/or blocking people from Facebook. "How can he call himself a man of God when he turns his back on people by blocking them?" they say.  I've just not argued prior to this, but your post stirred this up in me this morning. You know, the question I have is this, "If you are not going to come to my church... you are not going to follow my advice or teaching... then why do you want to be on my friends list anyway?"  I have a sneaking suspicion that it is just so you can be nosy and stir things up! Right?

But I want to take Dan's post a step further. These Words of Jesus, while they certainly apply to Facebook (as Dan has pointed out), but these should apply to our lives in general!
If you've witnessed and tried to minister to people, often times for years... I believe Jesus says that it's time to move on to someone who will receive your message! There are people who have spoken ill of me because I stopped visiting and/or calling people who seem to have forgotten their way to the church, except for when they are in crisis or in need. 

Here's my argument: If I've shared the Gospel with them, again and again, reached out to them again and again, but they are not listening and choose to go their own way, then if I read the Words of Jesus correctly, it's time for me to move on and take this Gospel to someone else who will hear it, will act on it and follow Christ. That's not being mean or heartless... it's being a good steward! The Bible speaks very clearly to this in more than one passage. In fact, Jesus himself speaks to it in parables. When he speaks of casting your pearls before swine, he is referencing the times when we give the words and actions of Christ to someone, but they, like a pig, do not recognize the value of a pearl and they eat what they should be treasuring, because all they want is their flesh fed, not their souls. Jesus is saying, "Stop giving this treasure to those who will not recognize it, but rather use you and the church for their selfish desires and then continue living unchanged." Harsh? Those are the words of Christ! Jesus also told the parable of the tree that was not producing fruit. Note, the caretaker did not just give up on the tree without trying, but when he had done all that he could, he cut that tree down and started with a new one. The point is, when you've done what you can do, there comes a time to cut down and tear up the roots and be done there. (Shake the dust from your feet.) If you leave a diseased and unproductive tree in the midst of a grove of apple trees, it will draw resources and nourishment away from those who are producing fruit, causing their yield of fruit to diminish. So the tree that is not producing is cut down and removed so as not to hinder the rest. This is a VALUABLE lesson to the Church and Christians that is too often ignored.

In short... bad mouth me if you want... but I'm just living out WWJD.

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