Friday, September 01, 2006
Desiring Christ (2)
Following on from earlier, I was thinking about how hard it is to portray Christ as desirable to others around us who don't know him. A girl at camp told me she has no desire for God (which I didn't believe but that's another story!). It was clear that nothing I could say would give her a desire for God. It really needed the Spirit to move in her and point her to the desirableness of Jesus. It was obvious on camp that we couldn't make any of these young people desire Christ in our own strength - we can only pray that God will use our words and open their eyes.
Then today at work, I just didn't know where to start with a colleague. First, she used the name of Christ as a swear word, which she does frequently. This always pierces through me but did even more so after being at camp with a wonderful godly team who really loved Jesus. I didn't say anything (I never do) but it made the hymn come to mind "How Sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear" and also the song which says, "Your name is like honey on my lips". Even the name of Jesus should be so precious to a Christian - to hear his name is lovely - except when used as a swear word. I wished I had said something. I always wish I'd said something.
Later on this same colleague was talking about some friends of hers who have gone through a lot of suffering. She was wondering how they could possibly deserve it all, how the world is so cruel, and that's why she doesn't think she could ever have faith in a god - he must be such a cruel god to pick on a family like them. My mind just started to race and fumble around for something to say. This colleague can be scary and I am quite intimidated by her. We've had a few conversations about God, but I've never shared the gospel with her. It's hard to get anywhere with her because she's very strong with her views. I started to mumble something, asking God for some major help(!) when her mobile went and she walked off! Part of me felt like I'd been saved by the bell(!), but at the same time I was disappointed that the opportunity had gone.
I've been thinking about what I would have said if her phone hadn't rung. I think it would have been a really tough conversation. I can see where she was coming from, what made her think that way. When my Dad died I thought it was wonderful to know God and was able to trust in His plan etc etc. But how could I make Christ seem desirable to someone like my colleague, who just thinks if God exists he must be cruel and picks on people? It's making me see even more how much we need God to open people's eyes. There's so much I could have said, but it probably would have wound her up in all honesty. She needs to hear about Jesus and have a desire for him. I think when we witness we need to constantly point people to Christ. I don't know how I could ever make this particular colleague believe in God, and I don't know how I could ever answer all her questions. It IS so hard when it seems one family cops more than the rest of us. So I'd like to be able to just tell her about Christ. I'm not diminishing her questions - I do believe it is important for people to question and explore and I believe that for many people answers to questions is what they require. But no amount of answered questions will ever help them if they don't also have a desire to know Jesus. So I think I might change the way I pray for my colleagues and friends, as well as for myself - that they too would desire Christ, and that somehow, if I am to get in to conversation with some of them, that God will help me to point them to him.
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6 comments:
I love these posts! I love that you are seeing some of the things that I am also learning for the first time at the moment. I have been reading a book (Finding God - Larry Crabb) which says that until our desire for Christ is greater than our desire for any other thing, we will not be able to go through life in the way that God intended. Our relationship with him will suffer and our understanding of suffering will be lessened. It was so good that I think I'm going to read it again 0 I still feel that the great things it is teaching me, these things that are overwhelming me, are still just beyond my grasp and I need to read it again. Thankyou for reminding me of these things.
xx
Hey Jo, a lot of what you wrote about kind of gives an indirect answer to my latest blog entry. If we are desiring God then, as you said, all the other stuff should come naturally, rather than striving for perfection, should we be striving for closeness with God, and allowing perfection to be a result of that? Maybe its a mix, maybe by desiring God more, we become closer to Him, leading to a bigger desire to obey Him. Maybe we then have to actually work at making the desire become a reality.
Sound like you had a great time. I love it when God really blows you away with a new concept (or a reminder of an old one!).
I am now going to start praying for a greater desire for God each day.
Kirst xxx
Hey Rach and Kirst!
Wow it is very exciting to see how God is teaching us all the same sorts of things. And on such a wonderful subject too. I was reading something the other night which is very relevant to this and to your last blog entry especially Kirsty. But don't know why I bothered saying that now as really can't be bothered to go and find it! Bed is calling. Just remind me about it that's all. I wish I had more time to write on this thing!
Take care
xx
Oh Jo I do hope you find time to blog about what you were reading . . . I can't wait to find out what it was. I'm on tenterhooks . . . . (the origins of THAT phrase are interesting!!)
xx
I thought it was tenderhooks! Is that wrong? Do you know the origins of that phrase, now I'm on tenter/tender hooks!
I do know the origins of that phrase! But you are also right - either spelling is ok. This is from a Q&A site:
"It’s been so long since anyone has seen either a tenter, or the hooks on one, that the word and the idea behind it are now quite mysterious, so much so that it sometimes appears as on tenderhooks, which sounds as though it ought to make more sense. But at one time, the phrase on tenterhooks would have evoked an image that was immediately understandable.
It comes from one of the processes of making woollen cloth. After it had been woven, the cloth still contained oil from the fleece, mixed with dirt. It was cleaned in a fulling mill, but then it had to be dried carefully or it would shrink and crease. So the lengths of wet cloth were stretched on wooden frames, and left out in the open for some time. This allowed them to dry and straightened their weave. These frames were the tenters, and the tenter hooks were the metal hooks used to fix the cloth to the frame. At one time, it would have been common in manufacturing areas to see fields full of these frames (older English maps sometimes marked an area as a tenter-field). So it was not a huge leap of the imagination to think of somebody on tenterhooks as being in an state of anxious suspense, stretched like the cloth on the tenter. The tenters have gone, but the meaning has survived.
Tenter comes from the Latin tendere, to stretch, via a French intermediate. The word has been in the language since the fourteenth century, and on tenters soon after became a phrase meaning painful anxiety. The exact phrase on tenterhooks seems first to have been used by Tobias Smollett in Roderick Random in 1748."
So there you go!!
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