The Accidental Pastor's Wife

I love getting to dialogue with the cults. As I've mentioned, they seem to find me. Well, I was at the park today talking to an acquaintance of mine. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: So was that your mother-in-law [a devout Jehovah's Witness] I saw with you earlier?

Her: Yes.

Me: I think she's come to my door before to talk to me about stuff.

Her: Really? She'll actually talk to you?

Me: Yeah. She was very, very nice. I kinda like when they come to the door. I dated a JW in high school and he tried to convert me.

Her: Yes. She talks about it to me every chance she gets. I'll say something about some conflict I'm having and she'll pipe up and comment on how that was in the latest issue of the JW magazine. They have all this stuff they have to do. They get little rewards for completing so many door knocking presentations and stuff.

Me: You know, that's the difference between the cults like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism. Those religions are about what you do, but Christianity is about what Jesus has done, saving us by grace alone. And we're not weird if someone leaves our church. We've had a few people leave for various reasons, mostly because they didn't agree with some teachings, but I don't act weird with them. I'm still nice, our kids still play.

Her: But doesn't that offend you, when they leave?

Me: No. I mean, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.I can't force someone to see things my way.

It's true. If someone has not come to know Christ as Lord, to see him as beautiful and precious, I won't help them along in their journey of faith with my own witness if I'm a jerk to them if they disagree with me. I can speak the truth in love, that Jesus is our only hope for salvation by grace through faith so no one can boast. And then I can pray that the Holy Spirit will lift the veil from their eyes. That's it.

So this gal was brought up in church, but doesn't go anymore. She married a JW who isn't very active in the JW congregation. So I invited her to our Seeking Him study. It appears that it will coincide with her schedule, so I pray that she'll come.

Once the conversation moves toward religious things, it's easy for me to chat. It's getting it there that's hard.