Nephi and Galatians

Tomorrow morning the missionaries (I lovingly refer to them as 'the sisters'), myself and my neighbor will meet.  I agreed to continue reading 1 Nephi (the first book of the B of Mormon) if they would agree to reading the book of Galatians.  I just picked a short book of the Bible because I wanted to get them in the New Testament and read something in its entirety and not just cherry-picked verses.  Then I smiled to myself when I began to read Galatians last week:

Chapter 1

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

¹⁰ For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Be praying for me Friday morning!  I need all the help the Spirit can give :)

Woman on a mission

Today was my fifth meeting with the missionaries.  They always bring one other person from the neighborhood so lately they've been bringing my neighbor and best friend.  Last week I would have said they have sucked the life blood out of me.  I was done.  I was frustrated with the way they cherry pick Bible verses and use them however they like--usually out of context.

Since then I've had a trip to Washington and had some wisdom given to me from many friends.  One mentioned if I start looking like a cartoon character  sucked dry from a mosquito (reference: Far Side), stop meeting with them.  Or if Trent sees that I am losing too much energy from this endeavor he needs to tell me to stop.  It was freeing to hear that . . . even if this is my mission right now, I don't have to adhere to their schedule or any schedule at all.

I'd kind of felt like a failure last week because I couldn't address each of their cherry-picked verses they use to verify they are the only true church.  So I thought I would meet one more time with a bit different approach and see how it went.
It went much better.

Today instead of focusing on what I was going to say, I just prayed.  My time I spend to solely read the Bible I spent praying in between each chapter I read.  I read one chapter of New Testament, two of Old Testament (histories or prophets), one of Psalms and one of Proverbs.  But my focus was prayer and if I didn't finish my Bible reading that was OK (I didn't).  The kids woke up before I completed the task but I felt prayed up.  I had friends praying in WA too.  I gave myself a lot more grace (because that's what Jesus did already) to not have to answer every question.  My goal was to encourage them to read their Bibles with the eyes of a child, like they've never read it before.  I agreed to read some of the Book of Mormon and in return we are ALL reading the book of Galatians.  Fantastic.  Mission accomplished.  If we can point them to the Bible and have them see it is the perfect living and breathing Word of God, we are doing well.

AND, for the best news: I met another born again Christian right here in Iona.  She goes to Bible Study Fellowship with me!  She came out of the LDS religion so we are going to have lunch together next week.  I felt like God just dropped someone straight down from the heavens in front of me.  She is the crosswalk guard at Evan's school.  Hallelujah!  God is good.

And I'll leave you with 2 Timothy 4:1-5

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Quote

How many Bible verses can you come up with that refute this quote from the Book of Mormon?  Trent and I figured you could probably find something from each book of the Bible that would contradict this.  This quote is a featured page from the 'Plan of Salvation' booklet the missionaries gave me to study.  Quite unbelievable.

A knock at the door

Finally!  Missionaries at the door.  And the truth is they only really wanted to visit our house so they could come inside and see it.  But that's ok . . . . if our house is the draw for me to talk to them about Jesus and the gospel of grace, I'll take it.

They came yesterday evening for the first time and then invited themselves back and they were already here this morning.  I made it very clear that these conversations would not end in baptism of me into the LDS church.  They were fine with that and acted interested in what we believe.

They started this morning with their booklet 'The Plan of Salvation' which starts with pre-earth life.  So, it took us one hour to go over two paragraphs of their booklet because I had lots of questions and then just wanted to direct it to the salvation plan.  The classes we go to from Share the Son ministries instructs to keep it to the main point.   Disregard polygamy, all the weird rules, temple garments, etc.  Keep it to salvation and how you remove the stain of sin.  Because really, that is the main point.  I pray that a seed was planted before they left--I was very clear what I believed and didn't want there to be any question that I agreed with them--because I don't.  LDS are very commandment driven and their salvation depends on it.    I gave them the example of the criminal being crucified beside Christ.  He didn't have any opportunity to obey any commandments but he did go to heaven.  Jesus said he will see him in Paradise on that day.  So how could he possibly go to heaven without keeping commandments?  I got blank stares back from them.  I'm in a bit of a quandary now because I'm meeting with them again and need to study up a little before I do but am going through Grudem's systematic theology course (without quizzes and tests at the end) and would rather study it instead.  My time is limited . . . but God is faithful.

Here is one of the sister's illustration of salvation.  Notice the stair steps to get out of the pit of sin to God.  If you don't complete the stair steps, no enchilada.

Next week we will meet again.  I invited my neighbor to participate.  I have had a hard time finding a decent way to share my faith with her while still pointing out flaws in hers.  And keeping a friendship that is dear to me.  Next week will be an opportunity to do each of those things, for both of us.  I'm sure the feeling is mutual for her.