Witnessing to Others

[Kooks]

I am not entirely sure why I feel that I need to post this. I would not presume to say that God has told me to, and I do not wish to cause offence to anyone within these boards, but I feel that these things need to be said. All the ideas contained within the following post came to me in a flood, suddenly and without warning, and I feel that they need to be shared. So here goes...The Christian church constantly reminds us that God is watching our every move, that our every move is pre-ordained by Him and that those very actions that we commit will in turn be judged by Him when we die and face the divine judgement. For those of us who are not quite lucky enough to be born into a truly religious family with the ideas of faith ingrained in us, these ideas are both difficult to grasp and terrifying.I will not pretend to understand them. I will not attempt to explain them as I am truly unable to. I have no relationship with the God that resides in Heaven and lives a life separate to us, the God of the Old Testament. I have a relationship with the God of the New Testament, His Son and the Holy Spirit. I am not a religious expert, in fact I am the complete opposite. I have never been a true member of a physical church, I love my Sunday morning lie-ins way too much, but I have entered into the spiritual church of Christ. Although I have fallen off the path of righteousness, many times, I have picked myself up and returned to the Lord crying and begging forgiveness for my sins and failures. In this manner I have learned that the presence of God is always there, He always allows me to return to Him, opening His arms and soothing my pain. He has not sent down plagues upon me for disobeying His Word, although He has allowed me to be tested in the fires of life and sorely burned, but as I was not His Daughter at that time how can I hold Him responsible? He gave unto us free choice and I used that gift. It is my fault and entirely my fault if I made mistakes and was burned. But when I turned to Him, in my most suicidal days, He picked me up within His arms and set me upon his Knee, comforting my troubled soul and damaged heart. He sent angels down to me, to guide me and be with me, leading me away from the darkness and into the light. He watched me as I slept and as I walked among the crowds of people, comforting me and whispering words of peace and love within my ear. Slowly, and it was a slow and painful battle with the darkness, I returned to my former self all with the help of the Lord. He was not an abstract figure then, and He will never be again, unless I choose to isolate myself from His love. Which, having done so before, I will never choose again.The point of this message is this: by emphasising the anger of God and His destructive nature as witnessed within the Old Testament, we do not bring people to Him but drive them away. By preaching at them, hassling them and arguing with them, we do not turn them towards the Lord but rather harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit. Do not argue your faith, do not force your faith upon others but rather show them through how you live what you faith is and then, with the help of the Holy Spirit, they will turn to God and be soothed. Just as I was.