How about we remove the word "OFFENDED" from our Christian vocabulary. That way, we who are brothers in Christ can say what's on our hearts. Those who hear it would know that we are loved and what is being said is just their observation or opinion and we should examine it from their point of view.
If we are to be Christ like then we need to love our enemy...pray for them, maybe even listen to what's being said, as it may be something the Lord wants you to hear. So let’s not get offended when we hear something we don’t like! Check out 2nd Cor. 13:5. Christ wasn't offended when His own disciples denied Him, abandoned Him, and didn’t trust in Him, did He get offended…NO! And when at His trial He was falsely accused, stripped naked, brutally beaten, and then nailed to the cross, was He offended… NO, he stated, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!”
Jesus was teaching us that some of us are blind, which means they can’t see. Some of us have a deficiency in our hearing. So I ask you, would you get mad a blind man who bumps into you? If someone were deaf would you get offended because you had to repeat yourself several times to be understood? I hope not, I hope you would have compassion for them.
Here’s one example where one might get offended. I got a forwarded email from a good friend who attends worship, Bible studies and is very involved with going on retreats with other Christians. The email contained a video.
In this video a man throws a glass bottle out his front door and it hits a skateboarder, knocking him off his board. The skate board hits another teen, who had a basketball and it knocks him out. You then see a woman being dragged through the streets by her dog, who is chasing the basketball. An old man with a hearing problem continues to ring a house bell because he couldn’t hear it, which distracts another person who is about to shoot a bow and arrow. The archer completely misses his target and hits the first man (who threw the bottle) in the arm. The man staggers into the street in pain from the arrow, where in a nano-second you see him smashed by a passing semi. Caption at the end,
So I ask you, if you have any Christian friends who will admit that they voted for Obama, or claim to be a Democrat, do you think that this video would offend them?
Here’s another example.
I went to help a friend and his family move his household goods that were in storage in to his rental truck.. After a few times of him speaking to me he asked me if I had my hearing aids on and I said no. He stated that I should have because he was finding difficult getting across what he wanted to say.
I agreed that I should have, but explained that because he was moving all his stuff I didn’t want to take the chance of getting them dirty. I then mentioned that this would be a good time for him to learn how to communicate with someone who has a hearing problem. From my experience many people who need them are not wearing them. Maybe we should get out of our comfort zone and adjust our volume and make sure we face them when we speak.
Paul states in Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;"
So I hope you can see from this example we each could have been offended…Am I right? He could have gotten frustrated and asked me to leave or I could have been hurt by his comment and left..
But as this man and I claim Christ as Lord of our lives, we know that speaking what we believe to one another should not be offensive. Being able to say what we think gives us the freedom to be honest.
Prov. 24: 26, "Honesty is like a kiss on the Lips" (NIV)
So would you agree that those of us who claim Christ as Lord, and truly understand what He went through to save a wretched soul like you and I, that we cannot and will not be offended by another brother or sister who has been genuinely adopted into His Glorious Kingdom for eternity! What we should do is as Paul reminded us in 2Cor. 13:5, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?"
In other words if there is something that the Lord wants me to hear from a fellow believer, I should humble myself and listen. I heard this years ago from my Pastor, Darryl DelHousaye, “Remember don’t shoot the messenger, listen to the message.”
Now for those we encounter who are, lost, who think they are righteous... you meet some of them in church. Remember we are either lost or saved, there is no in between! We need to treat them as if they are blind, which they are. I don’t think you would get offended if a blind man bumped into you, would you? So the same should apply to them as well. We would need to ask for forgiveness if they were offended, oh and by the way, that group (the lost) will be offended, that’s all they know.
But we, having the Grace of God bestowed upon us by the Holy Spirit should recognize that and pray for them. But please, never, never minimize the whole truth of the Gospel. They need to hear how they have violated a Holy God by breaking His Commandments; you only need to go through 4 to get the point across. Once they realize that they can’t save themselves by doing good works, or by saying the so -called sinners prayer, then they should be ready to repent. They would turn away from that life style, be “Born Again “, and then place their trust in Jesus Christ alone.
So now that I've said it... isn't it great that I don't have to state,
This next part is amazing! Chuck Johnson, a good freind of mine, wrote the following poem after he read the above. I hope you read it, and comment about it.