[niteowl1611]

I thought I would pass on a conversation I had a few days ago. A man at my job whom I asked about a year ago, if I could talk to him about Jesus and his need to accept Him so he wouldn't be eternally seperated from God. At that time he wanted nothing to do with me talking about Christ. I told him that I would pray that he would be open in the near future. Well anyway, a whole year passed until this past Monday when, he asked if we could talk about something. (We never really said more than hi in passing at the nursing home where we work.) I said sure and he preceeded to tell me a story that saddened me, made me angry, finally depressed me. You see,for this whole past year he had been watching me. Seeing how I handled patients who were difficult, their families etc,. he listened to me talk to other co-workers even asked some how I talked in the break room. Watched to see if I really did our assigned work like daily vital signs or did I make up a blood pressure and write it down. Things like that. With me being unaware. He told me it was based on my actions and behavior that he wanted to explore becoming a Christian. He went to a few churches, observed the strife, bickering, and jealousy among the members. Next were the pastors talking about other denominations and saying things like "if they didn't teach such and such in their doctrines and hold fast to this and that they weren't a true church". Finally he heard the pastor at the third church he attended say "if you don't use the KJV your not saved and all other translations are perverted and corrupt". All the while, he started listening to Christian radio and basically hearing varying qualifications for salvation on the same radio station, sometimes with the show proceeding! Than he ran into John MacArthur's book The Gospel According To Jesus. Where MacArthur defends Lordship salvation and denounces those who don't agree, i.e. Charles Ryrie. So my point in this is this: He came up to me and told me all he had experienced and said there is no way I can become a Christian. You all can't decide which bible is the inspired word of God. You can't decide who is and who really isn't saved based on numerous doctrinal disputes. I have come to the conclusion that you need to stop striving amoungest yourselves and that these so called "today's modern thinkers" need to humble themselves and stop patting each on the backs telling each other how smart they are and go to the streets instead of having these ego seminar conventions and workshops seeing who can come up with some theological word no one understands, let alone pronounce. He said that we need to come to common doctrinal ground where the lost don't use us as the reason not to be saved. He said the church should not expose the lost to all the disputes where it keeps them from wanting to leave the darkness to the Light. I can't say I blame him.