Notice how some people will focus on our delivery, which wasn't bad but they will say so, rather than the message we bring. It is easier to say I don't like you than it is to say I don't like God.
There are people these days who will accuse us of not saying something the right way as the reason for rejecting our message.
Silly isn't it, when the message is good and I agree with it then I hardly notice how it was said. And the same thing is true of those who claim it was about our message. They know their complaint had little to do with the way something was said, it was the content they didn't like but they lie and say it was our delivery.
When we bring the principles of God and His Word to support it, we are often met with anger. The excuse that is used for rejecting the message is our delivery. It distracts from the message. If the hearer can make us feel bad about HOW we said something they can feel better about not accepting what they know is true.
People who are easily offended are often if not always self focused and resistant to truth. They remain prideful, if they were not prideful they would simply disagree with the message explaining their disagreement or go to prayer to see if they could be wrong.
Those who are prideful and resistant to correction will always turn a discussion into a personal attack. Their hope and aim is to embarrass us into slinking away in shame for approaching the subject with them.
When we become strong in telling the truth we no longer fear the reaction of the hearer. Eventually we get to a place where the attacks roll off of us like butter on a hot knife.
Sometimes it actually becomes amusing to watch the "same old, same old" in terms of the nonsense responses to truth. These people use exactly the same words in nearly every encounter, they might sound like this;
"don't judge me", "you said it mean", "you think your better", "you don't know my heart."
I love that "you don't know my heart" thing, it is suppose to make us timid about continuing in the discussion. But in fact it declares loudly that the person using the phrase does not understand that we cannot do in actions or attitudes something different from what is in our hearts. The attitudes and actions are the proof of what's in our hearts.
Only someone who has murder in their heart can carry out a murder.
Only someone who is a liar at heart can tell a lie.
Only someone who has lust in their heart can commit fornication or adultery.
Only someone who has jealousy in their heart can gossip and lie against others.
Only someone who loves idols in their heart can place anything above God in importance in their lives.
It's all there in the ten commandments, sin is in the heart first before any actions are taken. In fact sin can be in the heart without any actions taken at all. It can lie there dormant wishing it could be acted upon. Sins of the heart do come out in subtle forms without us realizing it. It is impossible to hide what is in the heart, but eventually it will begin to seep out in subtle and nearly undetectable ways unless the viewer is discerning.
Giving gifts to manipulate others without any love attached to it is one way it seeps out through the pores.
Telling half truths that cause others to believe things that are not true is one form of lying without actually telling a whole lie. But let me inform you that a half truth is a whole lie.
Remember the condition of the heart fleshes out in our actions.
In recent years I was in a discussion with a group of Christian youth who were angry that I confronted them about their clothing at the beach. The girls were wearing bikinis that were much smaller than the ones that came out in the 70's.
In that discussion the youth leader argued that I didn't know what was in the hearts of these girls, that they really loved the Lord.
My response was that I did know what was in their heart by the way they were dressed. Not only by the way they were dressed but also the way the acted that gave ample evidence that they had lust and exhibitionism in their hearts.
These young ladies were showing pictures of themselves in their bikinis, climbing on top of the young men at the beach to form a pyramid. Can you imagine what that looked like,as these young ladies climbed the backs of the young men. When they fell they fell all over one another.
Now my question....."And this was alright with the youth leader?" REALLY!!!!!! What kind of youth leader endorse this conduct for those she is suppose to mentor?
The infamous lines they used frequently in the discussion were these; "your judging" and "you don't know their heart."
Once again....we know a person's heart by their conduct, its that simple.
1 John 3:18 "18 Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. "
We knew these young women didn't love the young men or they would have attempted to protect the men from lust. We knew those young men didn't love those women because they enjoyed that attention and lust. No one was protecting anyone else not even the youth leaders.
God clearly states that we are not to do anything that will cause our brothers or sisters to fall.
Matthew 18:9
"If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell."
Matthew 18:7
"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!"
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