Monday, December 04, 2006

"Evangelicals scare the _____ out of me"

Ok, talk about grace...

Why is it that I, being a redeemed child of the light, with the Living God dwelling in me, sin so often. And yet, I can be so critical of the unregenerate person living in darkness who sins?

All it takes is some time around judged people who are scared of you when you say you are a Christian to get you out of your "splinter in other person's eye" state of mind.

I was chatting with a girl at the language school who in all honesty didn't really look much like a girl (I had already made some judgments about her based on that). I was trying to get to know her because I am the "good missionary." She seemed closed off and timid around me. She had already heard that I was a missionary.

Then she asks why I am here, to which I tell her that I work with evangelical churches in the US and here in Guatemala, to which she says "so, tell me about your religion".

WHAT? HAS ANY PAGAN EVER ASKED YOU THAT QUESTION?? What a great question. That gave me an opportunity to tell her the entire gospel...not the legalistic get your life "good" to be acceptable to God crap of her past, but the true gospel of freedom and life and blessing in the fold of God.

She told me that evangelicals scared the F*** out of her (sorry for the language, that is what she said) because they are the ones who abuse her and protest her very existence. That is when her lesbian friend joined her and chimed in with a hearty agreement. My heart broke.

Their problem is NOT their attraction to other females. It isn't any promiscuity that they exhibit or the blatent sexual undertones to their daily lives.

Their problem is that they don't know Jesus the Savior and Redeemer. They don't know the freedom that they can have from themselves in a life of submission to Christ. Geez!

Well, I told them truth. The Spirit of God spoke to their hearts (and I don't say that lightly) and they opened up to me. They lost the fear of me when they knew that I wasn't there to bring condemnation, but good news.

They did not repent of their unbelief or their homosexuality, but they now know at least one evangelical Christian that is not protesting them, but loving them.

Grace at it's core is letting people be. Not being the world's personal Holy Spirit and letting God do the convicting and us the loving.

6 comments:

Ian said...

Good job, Jenny.

I think the church in general has done very, very little to help those who struggle with that sin. Finally - somebody being showing them the God's love instead of institutuional shame. I'm proud of you - I really am.

stephanie said...

what a wonderful story, jenny!

stephanie said...

there was supposed to be more to that last comment but it somehow got erased....

anyway thank you for telling that story

Schweers' Mom said...

I used this story in my TEAM class this morning. What a perfect example of law and grace! I did it to illustrate religion vs. relationship. Wow - thanks for sharing it! I'll be praying for you.

Mike Messerli said...

great story. I agree with Lori...a great story of grace...I'll be praying for these girls.

Anonymous said...

Burn in hell, you Evangelical heretics! What, you decide to convert away from Catholicism what, because you don't have enough faith in Christ to worship him the right way! I bet somebody in your family (unless you are a total Evangelical WASP, which, hell you might be) came to this country to worship freely. Martyrs. And you WASPs ridiculed them. Now Evangelicals, who I don't even consider Protestants damn the Catholics to hell. I got news for you damn pagans! Catholicism was the original Christianity, and if you don't like it , you just must not be a Christian, which I have no problem with, just don't pretend you are! And another thing. Get the hell out of Guatemala! Guatemala is a Catholic, or shall I say Christian country. Those people are far too religious to adopt your bastardized version of the Messiah! You homophobe conservative Evangelicals are ruining this country.