Comments on: I’m not copping out http://www.linuslive.com/2003/09/im-not-copping-out/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=im-not-copping-out everybody has a story...mine starts here Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:35:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: sohmc http://www.linuslive.com/2003/09/im-not-copping-out/#comment-8 sohmc Thu, 11 Sep 2003 17:30:38 +0000 http://www.linuslive.com/?p=188#comment-8 Wow, it sounds like you had a very challenging class! In my experience, I have found that most people are tolerant of people from other races but as soon as you proclaim that you have the truth or proclaim that there is one way to live, you are scorned, exiled and punished. It's amazing to hear that you stood confident in your faith, Jessica. I will further encourage you that by not retaliating or even arguing for your faith, you did more to defend Christ than you would have if you were to argue. I refer you to Jesus' teaching about giving pearls to pigs (Matt 7:6). This is the verse that I remember whenever I'm in a class where people are attacking the faith. You see, most people will argue with the intent of winning a conversation. Our stake in Christ calls us to love these people, even if they don't know the truth. However, many of these people are not in a place to hear <b>truth</b>. Many will argue against any point you make, unwilling to hear you. Their hearts are already hardened. The prayer that I pray is that God softens their hearts so they will be in a place later on in their life to see the <i>true freedom</i> the love of Christ provides. A wise man once said that sometimes the most loving thing you can do is to leave a conversation. Food for thought. :-) Wow, it sounds like you had a very challenging class! In my experience, I have found that most people are tolerant of people from other races but as soon as you proclaim that you have the truth or proclaim that there is one way to live, you are scorned, exiled and punished.

It’s amazing to hear that you stood confident in your faith, Jessica. I will further encourage you that by not retaliating or even arguing for your faith, you did more to defend Christ than you would have if you were to argue. I refer you to Jesus’ teaching about giving pearls to pigs (Matt 7:6). This is the verse that I remember whenever I’m in a class where people are attacking the faith. You see, most people will argue with the intent of winning a conversation. Our stake in Christ calls us to love these people, even if they don’t know the truth. However, many of these people are not in a place to hear truth. Many will argue against any point you make, unwilling to hear you. Their hearts are already hardened.

The prayer that I pray is that God softens their hearts so they will be in a place later on in their life to see the true freedom the love of Christ provides.

A wise man once said that sometimes the most loving thing you can do is to leave a conversation.

Food for thought. :-)

]]> By: planetgal471 http://www.linuslive.com/2003/09/im-not-copping-out/#comment-7 planetgal471 Wed, 10 Sep 2003 16:53:29 +0000 http://www.linuslive.com/?p=188#comment-7 This kind of hits home with a struggle I have (praise God) come through recently. Both last semester and this semester in my 300-level English classes the professors were anti-Christian to the point of making fun of Christians and saying we are gullible and deceiving ourselves. Last semester, I kind of hid my Christianity and generally laid low so as not to get picked on. This semester I was so enraged by the professor's first comments, I took a different route, I prayed about it, and I felt embolded by the fact that God is on my side, the same God that the author of the main book we were reading is a believer in. I realized, as a believer I might get more out of the book than the rest of the scholars in that class, and that I was in a special place God had put me for growth, and so now I go proudly as a Christian. I wore a Christian t-shirt to class one day. A cross another. I want everyone to know where I stand right-off, because I stand there firmly and completely. I don't get into arguments in class about it or anything, I let them have their opinions, but I am also expressing mine, which are God's. And when I leave that class now I usually feel like I could soar, like there's nothing I couldn't do through God, and like He cares about me so much to be watching out for me in a class where the professor is attempting to insert doubt into my head. But all my previous trials have left very little room for doubting God, and now God is crowding out the last bit of empty space in which doubt could sit. The devil puts lies in the mouths of those I have been trained to respect, professors, in order to try and get to me. And good professors who generlly earn my respect otherwise. Tricksy indeed... This kind of hits home with a struggle I have (praise God) come through recently. Both last semester and this semester in my 300-level English classes the professors were anti-Christian to the point of making fun of Christians and saying we are gullible and deceiving ourselves. Last semester, I kind of hid my Christianity and generally laid low so as not to get picked on. This semester I was so enraged by the professor’s first comments, I took a different route, I prayed about it, and I felt embolded by the fact that God is on my side, the same God that the author of the main book we were reading is a believer in. I realized, as a believer I might get more out of the book than the rest of the scholars in that class, and that I was in a special place God had put me for growth, and so now I go proudly as a Christian. I wore a Christian t-shirt to class one day. A cross another. I want everyone to know where I stand right-off, because I stand there firmly and completely. I don’t get into arguments in class about it or anything, I let them have their opinions, but I am also expressing mine, which are God’s. And when I leave that class now I usually feel like I could soar, like there’s nothing I couldn’t do through God, and like He cares about me so much to be watching out for me in a class where the professor is attempting to insert doubt into my head. But all my previous trials have left very little room for doubting God, and now God is crowding out the last bit of empty space in which doubt could sit. The devil puts lies in the mouths of those I have been trained to respect, professors, in order to try and get to me. And good professors who generlly earn my respect otherwise. Tricksy indeed…

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