Dear Christian, a question: What are we doing? Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL peoples to Myself.”( John 12:32 NKJV) Then, on the day of Pentecost, Jesus poured out His Spirit on ALL flesh (see: Acts 2:17) Now, if this is so (and I hope you believe it is), what are we doing reaching out to those who have already rejected their God and then, take it a step further and, come to you “in the name” of the empty vanity (if I may be redundant) of atheism for the SPECIFIC purposes of shooting holes in your faith? Aren’t we supposed to grow? Aren’t we supposed to mature? God is reaching out to those unbelieving souls, you can be sure of it. Their regular, and rather loud, appearances declaring the idiocy of faith in Jesus is 100% PROOF (IMO) that Jesus is calling to them. That is WHY they have this burning need to, basically, waste what is (according to their own claims) the thing of GREATEST value in all the Universe – their irretrievable TIME. As soon as they spend ONE SECOND of that precious commodity evangelizing/refuting YOU, you KNOW it is NOT you but Jesus Himself, they have been struggling with for a long time already.
We ALL struggle with these issues. John the Baptist, who said, “Behold! the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”, also asked, “Are you the One?”. Life’s hard. God knows. And He will not rest until they have been given every chance to break. And then, He will give them endless more opportunities to respond. He’s a good God, and a patient. So why not simply live being aware of how long He suffered your poor manners until you broke & follow the SPIRIT if He wants you to reach out to an obstinate “goad kicker”?
In the meantime, ask yourself this: when did Paul ever continue on at “a dry hole” when it was clear he was not appreciated? My recollection has it he shook the dust off his feet & went down the road to the next group of possibilities. Loving people does not require casting your precious gems before pearl stompers. We need each other & each other’s encouragement. Jesus will make it clear when He wants you to knock on that brick wall. Until then, rest in His perfect love for you, and let THAT be your witness.
The F.R.E.E. J. 
Amen absolute great point that you made
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Judith! And thank you, as always, for reading & your input.
LikeLike
So, you’re telling us to relax, huh!?? 😆 It is God who does the evangelizing!? Yes and amen, I totally agree, and am thankful that I have entered the ‘promised rest,’ where I can sit back and relax, knowing He does all the work. It’s an INTERNAL, personal, state of rest which produces in me the “work of faith” as HE and He alone prepares work for me to walk in. . . .What am amazing, exciting life!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I AMEN! your Amen, and raise you 2 Amens! ; )
LikeLiked by 2 people
PS: this was a really intriguing point you made: “Their regular, and rather loud, appearances declaring the idiocy of faith in Jesus is 100% PROOF (IMO) that Jesus is calling to them.” . . . Another fact that can help us to ‘rest and relax’! So, thanks for that.
Mark, you were an atheist before coming to Christ, right? Would you say that their main issue is ANGER at the God they misunderstand? As opposed to a denial that He exists? They just seem like a hostile, angry group of people. That’s how it looks to me. Not that I know that much about the atheist community (I only lasted three months as an atheist.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
//Would you say that their main issue is ANGER at the God they misunderstand? As opposed to a denial that He exists?// I was never a part of any “community” but I can attest to the fact that, like ALL groups, there are many subdivisions of Atheism. Sadly, however, the “branch” I was a part of seems to be, at least, stifled by if not being full out murdered by the modern day, and very emotion based, ‘new atheists’. I was exposed to a wide variety of non-believers from Ayn Rand to Frank Zappa and, to this day, miss their thoughtful insights on the subject.
So yes, I would agree most visible atheists of our time (see: Hitchens, Dawkins, etc.) are practitioners of the “There is no god & I hate him!” UN-theology. For my part, ultimately, as thoughtful as I would prefer to think I was, the cliche’ Christians use to discount atheists did in fact apply to me: “No god (‘rule maker’) makes me ‘god’ of my life.” And yes, that leads to utter failure & misery BUT, I was probably a bit nicer & kinder as an atheist than my more recent incarnation as a religious sort. Now, however, I’m completely unbearable to be around or even tolerate the presence of. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person