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ROM 8:14 "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." God only is the guide as to when to witness. No one has the right to tell another when those times are. They barely know for themselves. A lot of so called witnessing is useless because so much of it is not led of the Spirit and with the wrong message.
JN 21:21-22 "Peter seeing him [John] says to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? you follow Me."
God does look to us to live for and point others to Christ so that their salvation comes sooner but no one goes to Hell based on whether you witnessed to them or not. Does God put the finale outcome of a soul in any one man's hand? I think not or even your own soul would have been like a crap shoot and any other came of chance. So relax, if you missed a viable opportunity as all have, God has more plans for that soul then you realize. As Paul said, "Forgetting those things which are past [sins, mistakes, and lost opportunities] I move forward."
It works great. The love of my life is somewhat atheist but he doesn't doubt my experiences he just acknowledges that he hasn't experienced them and that's okay.
This is a spin-off of a thread in the Atheism-Agnosticism sub-forum started by Alpha. The link is posted above^.
The question is, do any of you Christians have non-Christian friends or more specifically, do you have atheist friends. If so, how does that relationship panout in your life? Do you talk about your faith? Do you try to convert them? I will copy/paste my answer from the other thread...
For me, I only have a hand few of people that I consider to be my friends. I enjoy many acquaintances, but true friendship is another story. Of my friends, I can only think of one that I believe to be agnostic. We talk of both religion and lack there of. We have respect for each other and would never judge the other based on something other than the person's heart. Christ commanded us to love one another, not to judge one another.
I am sure that this is going too far OT, but I was also wondering how the Christian handles homosexual friends if they have any? I think that the same would apply. I know that I have a few. Their life style is not one that I would choose, but they are some of the greatest people I know and I do not judge them. They also do not judge me for being hetero.
Thanks for your answers.
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Yes I have plenty of Non-Christian friends.
We talk about our different faiths all the time.
We get along fine.
I do not attempt to convert them because disbelief is not a sin.
I do urge them to be the best they can be to do good and be open minded.
I have a few Atheists friends and get along with them too.
I might have a friend who is a closet gay, but if this person ever comes out it will not change our friendship.
Being a true friend with atheists/agnostics is extremely hard emotionally. If you value them as a friend you will witness to them because eternity without God is forever. Once you have tried to the point where they rebuke you and your friendship is at stake the stress sets in and you must pull back or risk ruining the friendship. I have a few co- workers- a couple gay and a couple atheist whom I no longer consider to be my "friends" so that might not qualify. We speak but would never hang pout together after work or socialize with in any form.
When you take the time to cultivate a relationship and salvation comes in between the two of you, you will be at odds until one of you changes. As a Christian it's a very painful thing to invest in other people who refuse to believe in God just to see it come crashing down. As I grow older I find myself no longer seeking a personal relationship with them. Being a Christian in this case means finding a way to deal with their eternity, much as one would with an unsaved mother or father or other family member.
I love witnessing to them but with very few positive results (especially on this web site) I find my time can best be served in other endeavors. It's a hard thing to have to harden your heart against the heart-break of getting emotionally involved with agnostics/atheists. They will not (for the most part) separate faith from science and will not yield to God. It can be soul crushing at times when you can see their future and they refuse to. We can take hope knowing that we tried to help them and God will reward us for that in the great beyond. He will take away the heart ache we got for all our witnessing and replace it with unimaginable joy.
Everyone makes up their own mind about God; we can only try to do what we can and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.
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