Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ARIEL" data-source="post: 1469891" data-attributes="member: 217668">My friend is a Christian. She&#039;s been a Christian as long as I&#039;ve known her. It&#039;s a big deal to her. There are crosses all over her house, she goes to church frequently, and so on. Anyway, she calls me, and the calls sometimes involve hateful gossiping about people. The subject matter is usually people she knows who are having premarital sex, getting &quot;knocked up&quot; at 16, drinking, and doing drugs. She goes on to talk about how glad she is that she&#039;s so much better than this. &quot;I&#039;ve never drank, I&#039;m still a virgin, and I would never live how these people are living. They&#039;re on drugs and their lives are horrible; I&#039;m so glad I&#039;m not like that,&quot; is how she wraps up the majority of these conversations. This didn&#039;t used to bother me as much when I was an atheist. But after reading the Bible lately, I immediately think of the story of the self-righteous Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14 who says, &quot;God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.&quot; Then a tax collector prays and says, &quot;God be merciful to me a sinner.&quot; Jesus says the tax collector is justified.Well, as she was gossiping again today, this passage was going through my mind. I thought, &quot;Should I mention it, or should I pull the plank out of my own eye first?&quot; She went on and on, and I&#039;d try to cut it off with &quot;Yeah, well, you know. . .&quot; to get the subject moving along. She insisted on beating it into the ground, so I said, &quot;Hey, there&#039;s this Bible verse I want you to read.&quot; She then said that she had to let me go, and would call me right back. She never called back.Every time I mention the Bible, she gets silent. Every time I mention God, she looks the other way and won&#039;t listen to me. I went through a period of atheism and am now coming to believe in Christ. Could this be the reason? Maybe she doesn&#039;t trust me. But I&#039;ve noticed a pattern. When I try to talk to my Christian friends and family about what the Bible says, I get silence and people &quot;have to go.&quot;What&#039;s going on? How can I point things out without condescending? Should I just shut up? Because the Bible says that it&#039;s good for correction, guidance, etc. What do you think?I realize that posting this is ironic, considering I&#039;m sort of gossiping about a gossip. But I really am looking for opinions. And sorry for making it a mile long, too.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ARIEL, post: 1469891, member: 217668"] My friend is a Christian. She's been a Christian as long as I've known her. It's a big deal to her. There are crosses all over her house, she goes to church frequently, and so on. Anyway, she calls me, and the calls sometimes involve hateful gossiping about people. The subject matter is usually people she knows who are having premarital sex, getting "knocked up" at 16, drinking, and doing drugs. She goes on to talk about how glad she is that she's so much better than this. "I've never drank, I'm still a virgin, and I would never live how these people are living. They're on drugs and their lives are horrible; I'm so glad I'm not like that," is how she wraps up the majority of these conversations. This didn't used to bother me as much when I was an atheist. But after reading the Bible lately, I immediately think of the story of the self-righteous Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14 who says, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." Then a tax collector prays and says, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus says the tax collector is justified. Well, as she was gossiping again today, this passage was going through my mind. I thought, "Should I mention it, or should I pull the plank out of my own eye first?" She went on and on, and I'd try to cut it off with "Yeah, well, you know. . ." to get the subject moving along. She insisted on beating it into the ground, so I said, "Hey, there's this Bible verse I want you to read." She then said that she had to let me go, and would call me right back. She never called back. Every time I mention the Bible, she gets silent. Every time I mention God, she looks the other way and won't listen to me. I went through a period of atheism and am now coming to believe in Christ. Could this be the reason? Maybe she doesn't trust me. But I've noticed a pattern. When I try to talk to my Christian friends and family about what the Bible says, I get silence and people "have to go." What's going on? How can I point things out without condescending? Should I just shut up? Because the Bible says that it's good for correction, guidance, etc. What do you think? I realize that posting this is ironic, considering I'm sort of gossiping about a gossip. But I really am looking for opinions. And sorry for making it a mile long, too. [/QUOTE]

Name

Verification

Loading…