Many years
ago we had a little, brown Chevette, a great car that put up with a lot of
driving, at least one trip through the Rockies including
a road up a mountain for four wheel drive only, and travel back and forth to
work for years. Then one day it gave up
the ghost (too much to fix).
Anyway, we
decided to try and find another like it since it was such a great car. We went to a dealer with a supposed good
reputation who was also a supposed Christian, and we believed what he told us
about the car. A few months later, the engine blew and we could not afford to
fix it, but we figured out a solution.
We learned a
lesson or two after that. Many people
subscribe to the quote ‘buyer beware’ thinking it’s okay to scam buyers because
they are supposed to examine the item with due diligence, whether it be
electronics, cars, houses or anything else.
(Personally, I think the seller should just be honest and not try to
cheat people, lie, or cover up damage etc.)
In the end, buyers get burned, lose out in time and/or money, lose faith
in people, or end up afraid to make any big purchases again.
Sometimes I think some real Christians are just as bad
(unintentionally of course).
We want
people to be saved and go to Heaven, so we tell them how wonderful the Savior
and the Father are, how great it is to belong to a body of believers and how
God will meet our needs, but we neglect to tell them the other side. Like how you may lose some friends, or will
still go through troubles that God may not deliver you out of, that sickness may
still kill and finances still crumble, how people at church may not even say hi,
may make you feel left out and not everyone is nice…
This leaves new
Christians reaching a crisis (and sometimes they don’t even have someone to
help them through it) all because they were led to believe only the positive
side of salvation instead of the complete truth. Mind you, we don’t have to tell them
everything because that would take too long, but we should at least mention
some of it, shouldn’t we?
I just wanted
to put my thinking out there… What if
instead of only the good stuff we say before their final decision something
like: life’s still going to be difficult
sometimes and believers will still make mistakes, but we have someone to go
through the troubles with us who will never leave us or forsake us and who
keeps working on all His children their whole lives… Maybe then their first crisis won’t feel so
bad, they won’t lose faith or be afraid of what’s coming next… maybe.
For I did not keep back from declaring to you all the
counsel of God.
Ac. 20:27