Showing Non-Christians The Lord

Well for starters have you been praying for the Lord to call them to Him, give them faith to believe, unstop their ears, take the veil off their eyes soften their hearts and open their minds to be able to accept Jesus? That is where I strongly recommend you start.
Next have you asked them why they would feel guilty if they went with you? It may be the Lord is already working on them and are convicting them.

I remember when I first got saved I was praying for the Lord to call my husband to Himself. I always prayed in private never in front of my husband.

One day he came home from work in a rage! He threw his lunch box against the wall and was swearing and yelling at me that I BETTER stop praying for him and I BETTER do it now! He wouldn't even speak to me for a week. After the shock and fear wore off I realized the Lord had been convicting him and he "knew" I was the cause.

KEEP praying, you may well be seeing the fruits of your prayers by them saying they would feel guilty.

Maremma said:

I remember when I first got saved I was praying for the Lord to call my husband to Himself. I always prayed in private never in front of my husband. One day he came home from work in a rage! He threw his lunch box against the wall and was swearing and yelling at me that I BETTER stop praying for him and I BETTER do it now! He wouldn't even speak to me for a week. After the shock and fear wore off I realized the Lord had been convicting him and he "knew" I was the cause.

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WOW! I'm sorry to go off topic here, but that is simply amazing. Where are you two at now Maremma? Is your husband a believer or is he still trying to run away from God?

God never condemns anybody, only convicts.

I might not be the best to bring people to God but I do know, the love that I have inside of me is the best way people can see His love for man kind. How does one do this? It's not really something you learn, it's a lifestyle you choose to have. Having a lifestyle that people can look up to you and see that there is something different inside of you and most of the time they want what you have because most people are looking to fill a void inside their hearts. Where they will look day after day to find it, once they see what you have they will know that is the only thing that will fill it. That is why the devil tries to lure them away; --anyway possible. So don't give up and just be a friend to them and they will see a light inside of you! That is what being a Christian is all about, loving people.

~kkthxbai

DaLeKo said:

WOW! I'm sorry to go off topic here, but that is simply amazing. Where are you two at now Maremma? Is your husband a believer or is he still trying to run away from God?

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+1.

Actually Youth groups are alot of fun. I still talk about the ones I went to in the 70's.

The Sad part, is many of the party hardy smokers and drinkers, I knew have died in their late
40's and early 50's.

Youth will be Youth.

IF they will not go, have fun with the one's who do.

FTNtravis said:

Hey everyone,

I have been having trouble with some friends. A majority of them are not saved and don't make any effort to want to learn about the Lord. I try week after week to get them to come to the youth group study my church has on Friday nights, but they never want to go. Their reason being, "I know if I go, I am just going to feel guilty." I don't know how I should approach the situation, I know that you don't need to go to church to believe in God, but I know that fellowship is a great way to learn and share about the Lord. If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to know that I will see all my friend's again once in Heaven.

Thanks!

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I think it is important not to be too pushy. They know you want them to go to youth group with you, so my suggestion is not to bring it up anymore; let them be next to bring up going to youth group. Second, work on trust building with them. Let them know that there is nothing they can do or say that will ever offend you or cause you to break off the friendship. In an environment of trust and safety, where you emulate the Lord, they will take the initiative and begin talking to you about your faith. Show them the kind of love and compassion that Jesus showed others. And don't be overly religious or you might scare them off.

When I was young the party life appealed to me too. Then I got sick with mental illness and was in the hospital many times. One time I was meeting a guy there who always spoke about party and smoking pot and chilling. Somehow it made me sick to hear this and now I prefer parties in christian style, with joy and singing and only a little bit of alcohol and sometimes even without it. Remember that Jesus isn't against partying, only without dirt like fornication or getting stupid drunk or high. But what your friends said, that they would feel guilty when going to church, that's got deeper reasons than just the partying. Some of that is a very real obstacle to the church's mission, that people stay away from Christ out of fear. It was a real problem for me too for some time, and even now as a baptized christian I sometimes have this impulse not to go to church because I am sometimes scared of holiness. But I learned that God's holiness has a lot do with faithfulness. It says so in the prophets, that God stays in our midst because He says He is Holy and so He must stay. So in order to help your friends find God, always say to them God bless you and when they get ill tell them you pray for them and visit them with a pizza or something. I have a friend who even dabbled with philosophical satanism for a while and I hated this but I knew from his stories that he had bad history with his christian mom who didn't help him when his dead beat him up as a kid. So I knew my friend was deceived and misguided, but it was not all his fault. And I know God sees this too. So I am just trying to be a gentle influence, and you know what recently we talked and I said God bless you, and he laughed so free and said thank you my friend, God bless you too.

We christians need a certain restraint sometimes. I also know this from myself. I had just gotten baptized but then went to hospital because of mental illness. I met a chaplain there and asked him for help and had this thirst for Jesus. But instead of telling me things about Jesus he told me deep christian teachings about the Holy Spirit, but I could not stomach him yet. I wanted to hear about Jesus as a friend of man and of how Jesus helped people. But when the chaplain told me these complex things I felt like I can't be a christian. Now I know when I wnated to just hear about Jesus as friend of man I was having real faith. Later I could stomach hearing the other things, but for that point of time, it was too much.

So maybe you would do well by telling your friends about God who bears no ill will towards men, who wants to know everyone that He isn't hating us and isn't wanting us to feel depressed about him. This way people learn to accept God, and then God draws them away from sin on His own and you don't need to do that.

Pray and ask God for more creativity in telling people about him. Maybe pick up playing guitar or singing and make your own songs about God you can play at campfire parties and such. Or learn really good christian songs and spirituals. Try to be a REAL christian, full of new things because you are a new creation in Christ. Sinners and unbelievers will still annoy you, but if they fall into suffering they will remember.

Don't force things and be gentle.

FTNtravis said:

Hey everyone,

I have been having trouble with some friends. A majority of them are not saved and don't make any effort to want to learn about the Lord. I try week after week to get them to come to the youth group study my church has on Friday nights, but they never want to go. Their reason being, "I know if I go, I am just going to feel guilty." I don't know how I should approach the situation, I know that you don't need to go to church to believe in God, but I know that fellowship is a great way to learn and share about the Lord. If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to know that I will see all my friend's again once in Heaven.

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A few years ago, before I became a Christian, I used to get phone call every couple of weeks from a local church about attending a "Men's Breakfast" on a Saturday morning - no thanks was my reply. I didn't want anything to do with it, praising the Lord, singing, pouring your heart out to other men and oh no, that gay-like group hugging stuff!

Well that was my perception of church stuff involving men, slightly effeminate. Yeah well a few years later (and wiser), I know different - they are regular guys with average families. Having only started going to church in recent months, I haven't had chance to go to a men's meeting of any sort yet but will gladly go and bet I won't be hugged

As they say, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" - so try lead them but don't try and force it, people find their way to the Lord of their own accord generally.

If your youth group gets involved with projects helping the community then invite them to come help you with those tasks instead of attending youth group sessions, people are more willing to lend help in those situations than go to church orientated events. That way your friends mingle with the youth group and possibly form some ties with them.

You won't be able to save everyone, that's just something you have to get use to.

FTNtravis said:

Hey everyone,

I have been having trouble with some friends. A majority of them are not saved and don't make any effort to want to learn about the Lord. I try week after week to get them to come to the youth group study my church has on Friday nights, but they never want to go. Their reason being, "I know if I go, I am just going to feel guilty." I don't know how I should approach the situation, I know that you don't need to go to church to believe in God, but I know that fellowship is a great way to learn and share about the Lord. If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to know that I will see all my friend's again once in Heaven.

Thanks!

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Tell them that guilt isn't a bad thing if they use it to become right with God.

Dear FTNtravis. You are doing fine, keep on being a sign-post to the Lord. In Matthew, chapter 22, verses 35-40, Jesus tells a Lawyer: " the first and great Commandment is: Love thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like it: Love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." God wants our Love, freely given and no conditions asked. Keep showing your love/kindness to all you know and meet, treat everybody as you would love to be treated, and God will see and approve. Jesus will give you His Love and Joy to share with eachother, and the Holy Spirit will empower you with His Love. Jesus told us: " ask and ye will receive," and God`s blessings will follow you whereever you go. I say this with love, and send greetings. Emmy, your sister in Christ.

FTNtravis said:

Thank you, I appreciate your help. I have prayed for them, and asked why they feel guilty. I know the reasons why they would, these are people that go out and party every weekend, something I once did. I still go out with my friends, trying to show them that you can still have fun at parties without drinking, or doing drugs. I always get compliments on how I don't drink which is really cool to me, so I'm hoping it's making an impact. I will continue to pray about my friends and others that I am surrounded by. I know I will eventually get through to them, I just don't want to come at them the wrong way, and scare them away.

Thank you again for the help!

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if you keep on doing what you are doing and living your Christian life out in front of them, they WILL notice. the thing is to show them by your actions that a Christian life can be more fun than all the hard partying that they are doing.
Christians can be good to be around because they support each other, they learn from each other, and they help each other in times of trouble or trials.

your friends may think they are having fun, but maybe they are beginning to realize that their fun has a price tag attached.

Why not take them out with your Christian friends to a fun event. or take them with you when your group ministers to others at a soup kitchen, or another event where you serve others as a group. then you can explain why you are doing this in a meaningful way, because they will be able to see the results of this service first hand. they will find out that doing things to help others can be both fun and rewarding, and that Christianity is not just gloom and doom.

Eventually your friends will be curious and ask questions about your life as a Christian, and that's when you tell them what motivates you. Be open with them and encourage them that it is possible for everyone to have this kind of full life in Jesus, rather than the empty life they are leading now.

When they get out of school life will be very different for them, and they won't have the kind of fellowship with other students that they have come to rely upon. they'll most likely be on their own working, and the let down from the organized college life where you are told what to do, to real life where you make the decisions on your own, can be a big one.

Hopefully you will have the time to reach them before this happens, but in any case, be sure to give them a way to get in touch with you after graduation.

And keep on sowing those seeds--who knows, they all may grow and you will have a huge harvest!

FTNtravis said:

Hey everyone,

I have been having trouble with some friends. A majority of them are not saved and don't make any effort to want to learn about the Lord. I try week after week to get them to come to the youth group study my church has on Friday nights, but they never want to go. Their reason being, "I know if I go, I am just going to feel guilty." I don't know how I should approach the situation, I know that you don't need to go to church to believe in God, but I know that fellowship is a great way to learn and share about the Lord. If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to know that I will see all my friend's again once in Heaven.

Thanks!

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I didn't read over everyone's answers so i'm sorry if i repeat anything.

I have some friends like that too though, i don't mention too much about God when i'm around them yet. But, I've been praying for them, for 1 friend in particular, that God would open his heart and maybe start to ask questions which hasn't happened yet but, maybe one day it will if i continue praying for him.

Have you tried to pray for your friends asking the holy spirit to move in their hearts and their lives where they will feel a "Need" for something more, a need for God in their lives.

Can i offer you a suggestion?? Instead of first inviting your friends to youth group bible study (which they may feel really awkward going to), if your youth group does activities/events, invite your friends first to a few events or activities, so, they can Have Fun and get to know some of the other kids and/or leaders within your youth group. Most people in general would feel more comfortable going to an event/activity first w/ someone they know, something that is fun instead of going to a bible study where they don't know anyone and learn about something that they are unsure about. But, sometimes activities/events will attract them at first, then, they may be willing to go to youth group to see more/and make more friends. But, it may take them some time to be willing to attend youth group even after you invite them to some activities and/or events, but, Don't give up on them. Continue praying for them, and inviting them to different events headed up by your church.

Does your church do any volunteer work? Like habitat for humanity or anything like that? because if they do, invite your friends to that to. Because 1. they'll meet new people, 2. they'll be helping people in need 3. They might hear stories of people who are hurting and what God has done to change their lives in positive ways

one other suggestion -- have u ever tried inviting them to a christian concert or music festival?? The music festivals are amazing -- they usually have on site camping and all different groups perform from worship to heavy metal. I personally believe christian music festivals are the best place to bring non christian friends and introduce them to christianity and to show them that following Jesus isn't boring -- that you can have fun, play games and listen to awesome music all at the same time

FTNtravis said:

Hey everyone,

I have been having trouble with some friends. A majority of them are not saved and don't make any effort to want to learn about the Lord. I try week after week to get them to come to the youth group study my church has on Friday nights, but they never want to go. Their reason being, "I know if I go, I am just going to feel guilty." I don't know how I should approach the situation, I know that you don't need to go to church to believe in God, but I know that fellowship is a great way to learn and share about the Lord. If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to know that I will see all my friend's again once in Heaven.

Thanks!

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the only way is by showing love and being an example and waiting on the Holy Spirit to guide you. Don't try and push it on them it can sometimes do the opposite. You will be surprised how your friends come to know Christ by you just being there for them and showing the fruits of the Spirit. when I let go, is when my friends will say 'hey you never did this, and i respected that, tell me more' etc. or my friend gave me such comfort and i felt comfort around her which is what led me to Jesus as well. sometimes the Holy Spirit will give you a word of knowledge that is particular for that person and they will say 'wow how did you know that? maybe God really does know me/love me?'

I believe there are certain situations God gives us that we sometimes may not understand to witness to specif people, or to run into other christians.