I want to thank each and every one of you who prayed for me and for my unsaved friends. The conversation didn't last too long, and after a few questions were asked that I answered, the people questioning "went silent" so to speak. No more questions were asked and I didn't offer up any more information. I do believe at this point, pushing Christ on these folk will only harden their hearts even more.
However, I was able to give my testimony of how I became a Christian, why I believe Christianity is correct over Islam/Buddhism/Hinduism, and that Allah and Yahweh aren't the same God. Someone asked if I thought I was a Christian because I grew up in the West or because I had Christian parents. Basically, the question was -- if I'd grown up in a religious "vacuum", would I still have chosen Christianity? While my parents claim to be Christian, I wasn't given a Christian upbringing, other than the fact I knew who Jesus was and that's about it. My mom would get MAD if I EVER said God's name in vain. And that's all the religion we had, really. So I didn't find God through them.
I told them that although it's easier for one to find Christianity in the West than say Islam or Buddism, that God knows who belong to Him, and He most likely would have found me regardless. No one continued asking me questions after that.
Either they have too much respect for my husband to say anything negative (which is possible, they're all closer to my hubby than to me), they didn't want to go any further down that rabbit hole (which sounds very plausible), or they might have heard a bit of the Holy Spirit and decided to back off. Maybe all three options.
I DID, however, stress that God doesn't want religion, He wants relationship. (As outlined in the "Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven" example.) Of course, I said this after my hubby's best friend mentioned that he still believes everything he's ever believed, but that he and God are no longer "friends". He's had a very hard life, growing up in poverty with parents who didn't love him enough to raise him, and he's lost FOUR unborn children to stillbirths (He has three beautiful living children) -- so he's very bitter at his circumstances. He went silent as well after that. I might have offended him a bit, maybe he stopped reading after that.
But I just hope someone out there got some conviction. Whenever these folks come over to hang out with my hubby, they say polite "hi's" to me and yak about mundane stuff, maybe make small talk, or avoid me altogether. :P I've never been holier-than-thou with them, and I've been nothing but sweet and kind. But perhaps there's some conviction there, that when they look at me, they see Him, and they don't like what's reflected back within themselves, so they avoid it.
But it's SO HARD, however, because we just had a Christmas party last night with all our friends over, having a great time, and all I could think about was when some of these people die, they're going to Hell. God told me to stop worrying, that it's HIS problem to deal with, but it's just painful that people you care about will NOT see the way.
All I can do now is be an example of Christ for them. It's the Good Lord's job to plant and cultivate any seeds He might have spread around through me. At least I can stand before the Throne and not have their blood on my hands. I witnessed to them several times and tried my best to live holy. If they don't accept Christ, it won't be because I failed to tell them about His saving Grace.
~~Becka