Originally posted by ScottEmerson:
This question was posed first by Edwin McManus:
Would you be willing to lay down your life for a cross-dressing homosexual to come to Christ?
If so, what are you doing now, then, to help him come to Christ?
If not, why not?
I had always said "yes" to questions like that. I thought that I would be ready to give myself up for someone else's life. It sounded so noble and "Christian" to say "yes." It wasn't until I specifically understood what Paul was talking about when he said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. I wish that I myself were accursed for the sake of my brothers," in Romans 9:2-3.
My church and another church held our own youth camp this year. We had about 130 students or so there. One of the girls in 7th grade came. She was raised Catholic, but was not saved. She had been asking questions to some of the other girls, and they told me about it. On Thursday, I sat down with her for about forty-five minutes and shared the gospel with her. She knew what she needed to do, but there was something holding her back. She knew what would happen (or believed she did) when she got home.
For the rest of the night, God was working on her, and me as well. It continued through the day. She spent a lot of time quiet, sitting by herself, contemplating the decision to abandon everything and follow Christ. She knew that salvation isn't about a specific prayer - it is about a surrendering of everything to place Christ as Lord of her life. My heart was burdened for her all day.
That night, the students were together and the adults were together, and I was just burdened to lead the adults in prayer. It was at that time that the Spirit of God just began working, and I began weeping and praying as I had never done before. It was right at that time that I understood exactly what Paul meant when he wrote what he did in Romans 9.
God is awesome in what he does. In what can only be seen as a miracle, at the same time I was praying, and unbeknownst to me, she was praying with a friend of hers to accept Christ. She came in a few minutes later with tears of joy in her eyes, came and gave me a big hug, told me what happened, and we just stood there crying.
That feeling comes and goes every now and then with lost people who don't know Christ, but not as often as I think it should. The feeling happened again when an eighth grader began talking to me about salvation and wanting to know what it took to be a Christian a few weeks ago. I felt the pain of the realization that this person, if she didn't make a decision to follow Christ, would spend eternity apart from me.
That said, and as embarrassed as I am to say, my answer would be "no." So far, I haven't felt like Paul did around strangers or anyone with whom I haven't built a relationship. I love my students in my ministry so much that it hurts sometime when I realize that some of them are not saved. That is the kind of love that I want to develop for all people, no matter who they are, what they have done - because that is the way Christ felt for people. That is the way he felt for me.
People can run circles around the question, and dodge it as much as possible, but when it comes down to it, I see so often on this board that there is more hatred and disdain for people because of what they have done or who they are than there is unconditional love. That is so against what we have been taught. The only people that Jesus pointed fingers at and yelled about their specific sins were the Pharisees - the religious leaders of their day. I wonder why we've lost that and aare consumed with preaching AGAINST sin instead of preaching WITH love to an undying world who grows alienated from a religion that does more telling them how bad they are instead of how awesome Jesus Christ is.
Bonhoeffer, in "Cost of Discipleship," wrote, "When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die."
