Seems like There's a Wall

Airflight69

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I've been growing more spiritually and walking closer with God by reading the word. I'm very interested about the metaphysical, philosophy, God's will, how to walk in the spirit and make the best of each day and situation. You know what I mean when you're walking by faith?

I see people who aren't there especially at work and they are always complaining and they seem happy, but when I walk in they get quiet. They don't really speak to me or ask questions to get to know me. I've learned that people like to talk about themselves but if they don't think much of you then they don't interact.

I keep quiet because I know this deep thinking or spiritual insight isn't what most people worry about so I keep to myself. Whenever I speak to a customer and it gets deep, I can see them eavesdropping or trying to pay attention .

I know that followers of Christ will be persecuted and go through tribulations and I'm okay with it, not everybody is meant to walk this walk (I'm 22). Why do you think this happens?
 
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I've been growing more spiritually and walking closer with God by reading the word. I'm very interested about the metaphysical, philosophy, God's will, how to walk in the spirit and make the best of each day and situation. You know what I mean when you're walking by faith?

I see people who aren't there especially at work and they are always complaining and they seem happy, but when I walk in they get quiet. They don't really speak to me or ask questions to get to know me. I've learned that people like to talk about themselves but if they don't think much of you then they don't interact.

I keep quiet because I know this deep thinking or spiritual insight isn't what most people worry about so I keep to myself. Whenever I speak to a customer and it gets deep, I can see them eavesdropping or trying to pay attention .

I know that followers of Christ will be persecuted and go through tribulations and I'm okay with it, not everybody is meant to walk this walk (I'm 22). Why do you think this happens?

Part of it may be that they might not know how to talk with you because they don't know much about the faith. I wouldn't hang around if they spend a lot of time complaining because you wouldn't want to be associated with that. Maybe focus on building your relationships in the church (or here if local community is not available).
 
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FutureAndAHope

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The bible tells us,

"We battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers". If you are experiencing a wall it may well be that the devil is using the people around you to make you feel isolated. The bible tells us that people that don't know God, are under the power of Satan, i.e. open to his suggestions. It does not mean they are bad people, just that their emotions, feelings, and thoughts, may come under the influence of the devil. That is why you may be feeling persecuted. However the best way to deal with it is to pray that God changes the spiritual atmosphere around your work place. That he opens up hearts toward you.
 
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Kit Sigmon

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I've been growing more spiritually and walking closer with God by reading the word. I'm very interested about the metaphysical, philosophy, God's will, how to walk in the spirit and make the best of each day and situation. You know what I mean when you're walking by faith?

I see people who aren't there especially at work and they are always complaining and they seem happy, but when I walk in they get quiet. They don't really speak to me or ask questions to get to know me. I've learned that people like to talk about themselves but if they don't think much of you then they don't interact.

I keep quiet because I know this deep thinking or spiritual insight isn't what most people worry about so I keep to myself. Whenever I speak to a customer and it gets deep, I can see them eavesdropping or trying to pay attention .

I know that followers of Christ will be persecuted and go through tribulations and I'm okay with it, not everybody is meant to walk this walk (I'm 22). Why do you think this happens?

What do you mean by metaphysical?
 
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GodsGrace101

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Great replies.
I just want to say that you should associate with persons you feel comfortable with and forget about the others and those that don't seem interested.

Be friendly to everyone and in a pleasant mood. That's all you're required to do. It's not so much persecution but people notice there might be something a little different about you.

As you get older, you'll like the fact that you're "different" more and more!
 
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Airflight69

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Great replies.
I just want to say that you should associate with persons you feel comfortable with and forget about the others and those that don't seem interested.

Be friendly to everyone and in a pleasant mood. That's all you're required to do. It's not so much persecution but people notice there might be something a little different about you.

As you get older, you'll like the fact that you're "different" more and more!
I love being different! Its lonely especially in my age bracket when everyone else is partying, drinking and all that. But god constantly reminds me that I'm an anamoly to the rule and one of his children and that it's all okay :)
 
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Greg J.

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I've been growing more spiritually and walking closer with God by reading the word. I'm very interested about the metaphysical, philosophy, God's will, how to walk in the spirit and make the best of each day and situation. You know what I mean when you're walking by faith?

I see people who aren't there especially at work and they are always complaining and they seem happy, but when I walk in they get quiet. They don't really speak to me or ask questions to get to know me. I've learned that people like to talk about themselves but if they don't think much of you then they don't interact.

I keep quiet because I know this deep thinking or spiritual insight isn't what most people worry about so I keep to myself. Whenever I speak to a customer and it gets deep, I can see them eavesdropping or trying to pay attention .

I know that followers of Christ will be persecuted and go through tribulations and I'm okay with it, not everybody is meant to walk this walk (I'm 22). Why do you think this happens?
In general it happens because people associate Christians with judgmentalism. They "have" to stop swearing, talking about sex, drugs, alcohol, funny scenes in Hollywood movies, etc. That's the result of the legacy of people who call themselves Christians being self-righteous and telling unbelievers that they are wrong and what they need to do instead. It's based on how people perceive Christians, whatever that is, and assuming it is that way for individuals (aka, prejudice).

Christians have God's authority to tell unbelievers about Jesus in all the earth—and make them Jesus' disciples, and to love them as they want to be loved. Christians themselves are to act in accordance to the will of Christ (which includes influencing culture), but expecting individual non-Christians to behave like Christians is actually contrary to what God does to those that do not know Him. There is a big difference between believing in a god and rejecting him and not believing in a god. He is going to judge people by their own standards, not according to what the right and wrong revealed in His nature (revealed in the Law) (Romans 2:12-15, esp. v. 12).
 
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I love being different! Its lonely especially in my age bracket when everyone else is partying, drinking and all that. But god constantly reminds me that I'm an anamoly to the rule and one of his children and that it's all okay :)
It is possible that they may be observing your conduct and behaviour which might not, in their view, be consistent with what you are trying to tell them. People read us before they will read the Bible. Many times is not so much what you say is what you do - especially when under stress. You can be totally correct in your Christian views when talking to them, but if things go wrong and you lose your temper, or someone rubs you up the wrong way and you show resentment in what you do and say, everything you say will fall on deaf ears.
 
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It is possible that they may be observing your conduct and behaviour which might not, in their view, be consistent with what you are trying to tell them. People read us before they will read the Bible. Many times is not so much what you say is what you do - especially when under stress. You can be totally correct in your Christian views when talking to them, but if things go wrong and you lose your temper, or someone rubs you up the wrong way and you show resentment in what you do and say, everything you say will fall on deaf ears.
That's the thing, I'm very patient and long-tempered under stress. Like at work they obviously dont want to be there, but I'm happy to be there and work until my shift is over. They sometimes do what I do and I'm a month in. One guy also is like what are you better than me or you doing my job/training now? I feel like it's the case of you have something that I dont have imo. Most times they like to point out the mistakes I make and let my good works go unmentioned and keep silent type of thing.
 
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Airflight69

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In general it happens because people associate Christians with judgmentalism. They "have" to stop swearing, talking about sex, drugs, alcohol, funny scenes in Hollywood movies, etc. That's the result of the legacy of people who call themselves Christians being self-righteous and telling unbelievers that they are wrong and what they need to do instead. It's based on how people perceive Christians, whatever that is, and assuming it is that way for individuals (aka, prejudice).

Christians have God's authority to tell unbelievers about Jesus in all the earth—and make them Jesus' disciples, and to love them as they want to be loved. Christians themselves are to act in accordance to the will of Christ (which includes influencing culture), but expecting individual non-Christians to behave like Christians is actually contrary to what God does to those that do not know Him. There is a big difference between believing in a god and rejecting him and not believing in a god. He is going to judge people by their own standards, not according to what the right and wrong revealed in His nature (revealed in the Law) (Romans 2:12-15, esp. v. 12).
Yes, the self-righteous this is easy to slip into. I try my best to remind myself that its okay if they dont walk this way. There's 8 billion people here and they have free will to do as they please. To those that will listen, then we can definitely dive in deep in the word:)
 
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That's the thing, I'm very patient and long-tempered under stress. Like at work they obviously dont want to be there, but I'm happy to be there and work until my shift is over. They sometimes do what I do and I'm a month in. One guy also is like what are you better than me or you doing my job/training now? I feel like it's the case of you have something that I dont have imo. Most times they like to point out the mistakes I make and let my good works go unmentioned and keep silent type of thing.
When a believer is walking in the Spirit, people around them get convicted. They may not know that it is conviction, but they can either be drawn to you to find out what you have that they don't, or they become resentful of you and don't like being around you. Conviction is like that. People were pricked in their hearts on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached and they came to Christ. Others were pricked in their hearts because of Stephen's preaching and they stoned him to death. It was the same gospel in either case, and the same conviction of the Spirit, but the reactions were opposite. But it is the silent majority who are observing you and storing up what they see and hear in their hearts. This is because you are sowing a seed, and it may be that others will reap where you have sown.
 
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Airflight69

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When a believer is walking in the Spirit, people around them get convicted. They may not know that it is conviction, but they can either be drawn to you to find out what you have that they don't, or they become resentful of you and don't like being around you. Conviction is like that. People were pricked in their hearts on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached and they came to Christ. Others were pricked in their hearts because of Stephen's preaching and they stoned him to death. It was the same gospel in either case, and the same conviction of the Spirit, but the reactions were opposite. But it is the silent majority who are observing you and storing up what they see and hear in their hearts. This is because you are sowing a seed, and it may be that others will reap where you have sown.
That's interesting, can you explain a little bit further about the storing of what they see and them reaping what I'm showing? I know that's a possible outcome but I would like to dive in deeper if you dont mind.
 
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That's interesting, can you explain a little bit further about the storing of what they see and them reaping what I'm showing? I know that's a possible outcome but I would like to dive in deeper if you dont mind.
Bearing fruit involves sowing a seed, letting it grow into a plant, which in the right season, the fruit appears. If you get an apple tree from the plant shop and plant it in your section, it doesn't bear fruit right away. You have to water it, prune it, and let it grow. That might take a year or more before you start to get apples from it. And the quality of the apples depends on how you prune the tree. I have a neighbor who has an apple tree (rented property) which has never been pruned in the 22 years we have been living next door. So the apples are small and sour - not worth picking and eating.

So you have been planted in your work place. You have to grow in grace, and let your good works be seen of those around you. You may have to undergo a bit of pruning to get bits of your conduct and behaviour cut away from you so that the life goes into the fruit and not into the extra branches and leaves. Jesus cursed a fig tree because all He saw were leaves but no fruit. Perhaps it was planted but never pruned.

My lemon tree grew quite big and I wasn't impressed with the quality of the lemons on it. They were mishapen and large. So I cut it right down almost to head height. The next crop of lemons were consistently yellow and the right shape.

In a commercial apple orchard, you have the planters, and then those employed to prune and look after the trees, spraying them to keep the bugs away. But when it comes to harvest time, you might have a team of over 30 apple pickers (depending on the size of the orchard), then you have the graders and packers. These may not be the same people as did the maintenance of the trees. Actually, it is usually the orchardist and a worker or two who does that.

So that's what I mean by sowing, nurturing and reaping. It takes a lot of patience.
 
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Bearing fruit involves sowing a seed, letting it grow into a plant, which in the right season, the fruit appears. If you get an apple tree from the plant shop and plant it in your section, it doesn't bear fruit right away. You have to water it, prune it, and let it grow. That might take a year or more before you start to get apples from it. And the quality of the apples depends on how you prune the tree. I have a neighbor who has an apple tree (rented property) which has never been pruned in the 22 years we have been living next door. So the apples are small and sour - not worth picking and eating.

So you have been planted in your work place. You have to grow in grace, and let your good works be seen of those around you. You may have to undergo a bit of pruning to get bits of your conduct and behaviour cut away from you so that the life goes into the fruit and not into the extra branches and leaves. Jesus cursed a fig tree because all He saw were leaves but no fruit. Perhaps it was planted but never pruned.

My lemon tree grew quite big and I wasn't impressed with the quality of the lemons on it. They were mishapen and large. So I cut it right down almost to head height. The next crop of lemons were consistently yellow and the right shape.

In a commercial apple orchard, you have the planters, and then those employed to prune and look after the trees, spraying them to keep the bugs away. But when it comes to harvest time, you might have a team of over 30 apple pickers (depending on the size of the orchard), then you have the graders and packers. These may not be the same people as did the maintenance of the trees. Actually, it is usually the orchardist and a worker or two who does that.

So that's what I mean by sowing, nurturing and reaping. It takes a lot of patience.

Thanks for this. I've always wanted to know more about pruning.
 
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Thanks for this. I've always wanted to know more about pruning.
1 and 2 Peter are quite interesting about suffering. He talks about the difference between suffering for righteousness sake and suffering through our own fault. He says that when believers live right before God, they will suffer (persecution), because their style of life is vastly different to the unbelievers.

He draws a distinction between suffering through criminal acts and that running foul of the law is the natural consequence of it.

In my younger days, a friend announced quite loudly to us that he had been fired from his job because of his Christian testimony. But I knew that he was a "preachy" type of believer, and I suspect that he got fired because he spent more time Bible banging his co-workers than getting on with his job. If that is so, I would say that this was not persecution but the consequences of his own unwise conduct at work.

The Scripture says that we should be quiet, mind our own business, do our jobs well, and glorify Christ by the life we live before the unbelievers. If a believer is an example of good conduct, a problem-solver instead of a problem-creator, and is the best employee, then he is providing a more eloquent testimony to Christ than anything he or she could say. If a believer is persecuted for that, then Christ will give him or her a crown of glory.

Jesus said that we should "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what are God's". What this means in relation to employment is that if our employer is paying for our time at work, then we should render to our employer that time because it is his. If we take paid time to do personal stuff (even witnessing for Christ) then we are stealing time from our employer and God cannot bless what we do. But doing the job extra well, helping and supporting our workmates, doing extra tasks when your own work has been completed, working overtime when asked, never criticising your boss or workmates, and being content with your pay, will show that Christ is in you. They will either love you or hate you, but your testimony will receive God's blessing.
 
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Airflight69

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1 and 2 Peter are quite interesting about suffering. He talks about the difference between suffering for righteousness sake and suffering through our own fault. He says that when believers live right before God, they will suffer (persecution), because their style of life is vastly different to the unbelievers.

He draws a distinction between suffering through criminal acts and that running foul of the law is the natural consequence of it.

In my younger days, a friend announced quite loudly to us that he had been fired from his job because of his Christian testimony. But I knew that he was a "preachy" type of believer, and I suspect that he got fired because he spent more time Bible banging his co-workers than getting on with his job. If that is so, I would say that this was not persecution but the consequences of his own unwise conduct at work.

The Scripture says that we should be quiet, mind our own business, do our jobs well, and glorify Christ by the life we live before the unbelievers. If a believer is an example of good conduct, a problem-solver instead of a problem-creator, and is the best employee, then he is providing a more eloquent testimony to Christ than anything he or she could say. If a believer is persecuted for that, then Christ will give him or her a crown of glory.

Jesus said that we should "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what are God's". What this means in relation to employment is that if our employer is paying for our time at work, then we should render to our employer that time because it is his. If we take paid time to do personal stuff (even witnessing for Christ) then we are stealing time from our employer and God cannot bless what we do. But doing the job extra well, helping and supporting our workmates, doing extra tasks when your own work has been completed, working overtime when asked, never criticising your boss or workmates, and being content with your pay, will show that Christ is in you. They will either love you or hate you, but your testimony will receive God's blessing.
What a day at work I had today.
Corporate came in and everybody was on high alert. I'm still new to the job (about a month in) and planned on staying in my shipping department where I was comfortable at. Then my manager told me to just greet everybody at the door and send them their way. I understood the reasoning for corporate and wanting to be efficient. However what I got from it was I dont have faith in you to not mess up and I want you to so this simple task.

That disheartened me very much so, and i do everything how you mentioned we should in the work place besides a learning curve.

I felt the resentment for no reason and when i continued to remain quiet then they all of a sudden want to ask what's wrong and talk.

Prayers please family and we are gonna be alright.
 
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What a day at work I had today.
Corporate came in and everybody was on high alert. I'm still new to the job (about a month in) and planned on staying in my shipping department where I was comfortable at. Then my manager told me to just greet everybody at the door and send them their way. I understood the reasoning for corporate and wanting to be efficient. However what I got from it was I dont have faith in you to not mess up and I want you to so this simple task.

That disheartened me very much so, and i do everything how you mentioned we should in the work place besides a learning curve.

I felt the resentment for no reason and when i continued to remain quiet then they all of a sudden want to ask what's wrong and talk.

Prayers please family and we are gonna be alright.
Remember what Jesus said: If you take the lowly place, there will be a time when someone will say to you, "Come up higher."

Actually, greeting people as they come in is an important function because you are the first contact for those people as they enter your premises. They will get their first impression of the company from you and your conduct toward them. Therefore, as a Christian believer, demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in your conduct, is something very positive and important for your company, even if your manager doesn't fully realise it. Have you considered that because of what he has observed of your demeanour and conduct that he decided that you were the best person to greet people at the door? Do you think that God might have deliberately organised it so that those godless folk coming in would encounter a Christian believer?
 
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Remember what Jesus said: If you take the lowly place, there will be a time when someone will say to you, "Come up higher."

Actually, greeting people as they come in is an important function because you are the first contact for those people as they enter your premises. They will get their first impression of the company from you and your conduct toward them. Therefore, as a Christian believer, demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in your conduct, is something very positive and important for your company, even if your manager doesn't fully realise it. Have you considered that because of what he has observed of your demeanour and conduct that he decided that you were the best person to greet people at the door? Do you think that God might have deliberately organised it so that those godless folk coming in would encounter a Christian believer?
Possibly however I do not think that is how it went down in this circumstance.

He was prepping everyone up before corporate and then before they came he assigned me to greet (which I have no problem doing). Then he was like after they leave, you can go back to doing what you were doing. When they left, he was like wait ten minutes then you can come back. Then he proceeded to send me on lunch and said I could get back into it when I clock back in.

On my lunch break, he walked out and saw me outside watching the rain and being in gods presence and he turned around and dapped me up.

I think it was more of I dont want you to mess anything up and are we cool scenario.
 
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