What Would God Do?
Part 2

In our last blog we discussed the challenge and the debate of spending time with non-Christian people.  I can remember as a young disciple my only human contact was pretty much Christian.  At that time it probably was for the best.  I had just left the world and the kingdom of the world for a new Kingdom and didn't need to be enticed.  I needed, like bootcamp, to be trained and channeled in the right direction.  However, even the more mature were still taking that posture and preaching it as the right way to live.  We were told to not even enter a restaurant if they served alcohol and we didn't. Our only contact with the outside world was mostly if they came to church. On the other hand I have known some in the ministry who have gone to bars, drank until drunk and danced provocatively.  They said it was for evangelistic purposes.  In the end, they were the ones we seemed converted.  So what is the balance here?  What Would God Do?  It seems that the key is in the heart motivation. If a person is truly trying to love all and fellowship all while maintaining a heart of imitation the Lord, they should be fine.  However, if within the heart of the Christian there is this hidden appetite for "worldly things like lust, gold, greed and a need to be thought cool", that can be a trap.   Heart motivation is always the central thing with the Lord.  The problem is that most of the time the participant is the only one who knows his own heart.

A friend of mine is a missionary and works in different parts of the world.  He went to this one Nation where drinking "shots" of local whiskey was a normal part of their culture.  At first he was not embraced by the community because he was known as a Christian missionary and they were a Moslem country.  After a while and after he was observed closely he was invited to social functions like weddings.  There he was offered "shots" and he took them.  He kept himself in check and did this within that that would be considered very limited participation.  He graciously declined to smoke with them.  After a while in a group at a social event one of the men asked my friend, "why don't you get drunk with us?  We see you will take a shot but you don't get drunk and you don't smoke.  Why?"
This is an "AHA!" moment.  He was not preaching he was answering a question they had asked.  He had been living a life that he felt Jesus would live among them.  Now they have seen him not as aloof and judgmental of them but one who is among them but living a disciplined life.  A different but not alienated life.  He was "in the world but not of the world."  Here was his answer.  He said, as Christian we believe our body is the temple of God.  God lives in us and not in temples or buildings.  Therefore I am taught to honor my body as the temple of God.  It made sense to them an after that the village opened their hearts to the Gospel and Jesus.

Certainly this subject makes a lot of people nervous.  Even as I try to walk this walk that is much different than my original walk, I try to be very careful.  In every conversation I have to be careful what I say and even when I laugh.  You see, I'm not primarily living like me, I'm living like and representing Jesus.  If you are a new believer then I would suggest that before you venture too far out in these waters that you talk with your pastor or a mature leader to make sure you are not putting yourself in harms way too soon.  What I am talking about is really a realm of warfare. We must be careful, but to win souls we must be wise while willing to get involved in the lives of men.