I love the name of the seminar, The Art of Neighboring, that I was not able to attend last Sunday. I really wanted to go, but it was not going to happen that day. I have recently felt a renewed conviction to reach out to our neighbors to share Jesus Christ with them. We live in a small culdesac of 6 houses so it is pretty much impossible to hide. In our cudesac, we have one Hindu family, one new Jewish family and possibly 4 Christian families including ourselves. I have been somewhat intimidated to share my faith with the diversity of our neighborhood, but have tried my best over the years to let them know that we are believers in Jesus Christ. They have been respectful we have been a happy culdesac.
Yesterday, I invited my Jewish neighbor to go on a walk and prayed for an opportunity to ask her what her story is. She jumped right in with both feet to tell me her personal beliefs. She was very forthcoming as she shared her desire to "live a good life like God wants us to". She told me that Jewish people are awaiting the Messiah's return when everyone will live happily. She told me that Jewish people don't really believe in heaven or hell and that people who die before his return are in limbo somewhere. She seemed to think that Judaism and Christianity are basically the same which I agreed there are many similarities with one huge difference, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit gave me the words to tell her that I could not be "good" enough but God loved me so much that He gave His son Jesus who did live a perfect life. He died to take my place so that I can have a relationship with him. She told me that sounded great! We continued our conversation and I told her I was thinking about starting a Women's Bible Study in our culdesac. She thinks it would be a great idea to have a study and all the religions represented in our culdesac could have their view point! They are after all the same. This was the point when I would have loved for a Pastor to join me and take over the conversation or even freeze the conversation to give me time to research how to respond.
You can see we have a ways to go. I'm still praying about if to start, where to start, what to study, etc. I do know that God has put me in my culdesac to love my neighbors and tell them that Jesus Christ loves them too. Maybe it's one at a time. Then there's the time issue as I do not see a spare moment in my schedule to lead a Bible Study. God did part the Red Sea for the Israelites, this can't be as hard as that! We shall see.
"equip me with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in me what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever." Hebrews 13:21
