SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8hpGCenRDY
2022年6月29日 warningthepeople
昨天我收到一封邮件，问我是否能讲一讲关于如何对待世人。她的意思是说，有时候觉得说“不”很难。举个例子说，他们有属于世界的孩子会把你的孩子也带坏，但是他们想请你照料一下他们的孩子，这时候很难对他们说不。因为你要对人表现出耶稣的善良。
我们确实需要熟练地在该说是的时候说是，在该说不的时候说不。
我想跟你分享一个具体的例子。我和妻子曾经在一对印第安夫妻经营的酒店工作。当时有一个印第安家庭住在酒店里。他们常常做印第安食物。他们也给我和妻子做了许多好吃的。但是过了一段时间，我们注意到他们会把食物拿去祭祀他们的偶像，他们一直都在后面拜偶像。我们对他们拿去祭祀偶像后又拿来给我们吃的这些食物感到不平安。我们想为耶稣基督做见证，所以有一天这位叫Harsha的女士带了亲手制作的食物给我的妻子，我们也知道她们已经拿去祭祀过她的偶像了，我的妻子必须对他们说不。这对我的妻子来说有些尴尬，并不是为真理感到尴尬，而是因为Harsha是一位朋友，但我们需要为耶稣站出来。对她说“不”是一件很难的事情。但是我们不想吃已经祭献过偶像的食物，假装我们也敬拜他们的偶像。我的妻子想让她知道这个，于是告诉她， 她带给我们的食物是非常棒的，但是我们敬拜的是不同的神。我们跟随的是耶稣基督，我们不想要吃你这些已经祭献过偶像的食物。几年后也有同样的事情发生。当时另外一对印第安夫妻正在搬家，他们想让我帮忙搬走他们在卧室里面敬拜的偶像。我已经认识他们好多年了，他们也给予我们家庭很多的帮助。这时候要对他们说不确实有些尴尬，说我不能碰你们的偶像，作为耶稣的门徒，我也不能用拖车把你们的偶像运过去。以前也发生过同样的事情，那时候有人想让我帮忙搬家，他们请我帮忙搬走他们的一个大平板电视机。我告诉他们说不行，我不能这样做，虽然我想帮你们，但是因为我跟随耶稣，我不会碰别人的电视机，因为电视是偶像崇拜。我这样回答之后他们都会非常难过。
但是作为基督徒，我们必须要学会说是就是，不就是不。我们要为真理挺身而出，我们要有反对偶像崇拜和邪曲的事情的风骨。虽然这会引起尴尬或人们的感情受到伤害，但我们要学会有骨气当我们需要说是的时候说是，需要说不的时候要大声说出不，要一直为耶稣的真理站出。虽然这样会引起社交方面的尴尬，但是我们在耶稣里的信心更为重要。
所以不管是社交尴尬还是让人们感到不安，我们需要学会与耶稣站在一起。因为在末日，让我们可以得救的是耶稣基督和他的救恩，而不是在这个世界混的八面玲珑。我们确实会与这世界格格不入，人们会觉得我们非常奇怪，他们不会喜欢我们，而且有时当我们选择耶稣的真理时，他们会对我们恨之入骨。
但是是耶稣基督能够拯救我们，而不是这个世界或属世界的人。我们要学会一直为公义的事挺身而出。
我希望这些可以帮助到一些人，让他们得到鼓励，可以勇敢地为真理站稳，成为世界的光，鼓励其他的人，你的邻居那些你周围的人真正的进入真理，跟随耶稣基督，因为他是我们的救主，他是那位真正爱我们的，而他也是唯一可以给我们永生的。所以我们不需要为自己行在耶稣的真理里感到羞愧。
愿耶稣的恩典与你同在。
Being too Kind to Worldly People is Compromise I got an email yesterday from someone asking if I could make a message on the problem of being too nice to worldly people, and what she meant by this is, not being able to say “NO” to someone when you know that, say for example they have worldly children that may corrupt your children, but they want you to baby sit them, and it’s hard to say no to them, because you are trying to show the kindness of Jesus to them. We have to really get good at letting our yes be yes and our no be no. I want to share with you a certain example: When my wife and I worked at the hotel, it was owned by an Indian couple, and there was an Indian family was living at the hotel. And they often made Indian food there, and they did a lot of really nice things for my wife and for me. But we noticed after a while that they were offering the food to their idols. They would always be worshiping their idols in the back, and we didn’t feel comfortable with this food that was offered to the idols and then brought to us to eat. And we wanted to be a good testimony to them about Jesus Christ. So one day, this Indian lady, whose name was Harsha brought food to my wife, that she had homemade, but we knew that in the back she had offered it to her idols, and my wife had to hell her “no”. And it was kind of embarrassing (socially awkward), not because she is embarrassed of the truth, but because as a friend of Harsha, and because obviously we want to stand up for Jesus, it was a hard thing to tell her no. But we don’t want to eat food that has been offered to idols or pretend we worship those idols also. So, my wife had to learn to let her no be no and tell her that, that’s a nice thing you are doing to offer us food, but we worship a different God, we follow Jesus and we don’t feel comfortable eating your food that’s been offered to an idol. Likewise, at a different time a few years later, a different couple that was Indian, they were moving and they wanted me to help them move the gods that they would worship in their living room. And I knew the people for many years, and they had done many things for my family, and it was awkward for me to tell them; “No I can’t touch your gods…” But at the same time as a disciple of Jesus, I’m not going to help trailer someone’s Indian gods around, when I follow Jesus Christ. This same thing has happened to me also when someone has wanted to move and they have asked me if I will help move their TV, help them move their big flat screen, I just tell them no, I don’t… you know I want to be helpful to you, but I don’t touch people’s TV’s because I follow Jesus and TV is idolatry. So, this can make people REALLY UPSET guys. But we have to, as Christians learn to let our YES be YES and our NO be No, and we need to learn to stand up for the truth and we have to have a backbone, standing up against idolatry and things that we know are crooked. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be awkward or people’s feelings aren’t going to be hurt, but we absolutory have to learn to have a backbone to say YES when we need to say YES and say NO when we need to say NO. And stand UP for the truth of Jesus ALL THE TIME. A lot of times this will make things socially awkward of course, but our faith in Jesus is MUCH more important. So, I hope that we learn to really take a stand with Jesus Christ, no matter if it is socially awkward or if it’s going to make people upset, because at the end of the day, it is JESUS CHRIST and HIS salvation that is going to save us, not if we don’t miss a beat in the world. We’re going to miss a beat in the world guys, people are going to think that we are awkward, they aren’t going to like us, they’re going to downright hate us sometimes for being in the truth with Jesus. BUT it is JESUS CHRIST who saves us, not the world, not worldly people, and we have to learn to just STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT ALL THE TIME. I hope this helps someone out there to be encouraged to stand up for the truth and to be a light to the world, to your neighbors, whoever is around you, to really come into the truth and follow Jesus Christ, because HE is our savior, He is the one who loves us and He is the ONLY one who can offer us everlasting life. So, we shouldn’t be ashamed to stand in the truth with HIM! May the grace of Jesus be with you.
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