How to Talk to Believers

A very important issue is how to talk to believers or those who consider themselves believers in general.

In general, of course, it is better to avoid such conversations, but if you are nevertheless provoked into this conversation, then you must speak very kindly, very affectionately.

Remember that these topics are extremely painful for them, extremely difficult and that they easily get into a state of strong hysteria, therefore it is better to remove matches, it is better to remove all sharp, heavy objects and really demonstrate patience, kindness and goodwill.

And you don’t have to bother with all sorts of stupid talk about some kind of god - this is an empty topic, and any believer, if he is asked to prove the existence of a god, after 3-4 minutes begins to feel like an idiot, and then he can fall into that same frenzy. You don't have to do this.

It is always better to invite the believer to prove that he is really a believer.

The fact is that collecting icons or other pictures, crosses, some small dried buns, participating in simple performances with or without eating the meat of a god, some kind of trips, appropriate phraseology, appropriate outfits - this is not proof of the so-called faith , this is just proof that a person is playing some kind of role-playing game.

Their faith just demands from them, quite severely demands, many hardships, many infringements of themselves. And it is always necessary to offer this believer, the so-called believer, to prove that he is a believer directly in the gospel sense of the word.

Find out to whom he gave an apartment from the homeless, to whom he gave a sheepskin coat, to whom he signed a car from the beggars, how many lepers he kissed on the lips, whether he is going to go, let's say, somewhere to Sudan or to the shores of Lake Chad and preach there Christianity, as they are commanded. Usually such things baffle believers.

But, you see, they proclaim themselves to be believers and, like the Donkey from the famous book about Winnie the Pooh, they begin to pout their lips in an offended way and say: “You know, we are so special, you can’t say the word ball in front of us.”

But so that with you, as with Eeyore, it would be impossible to say the word ball, prove that you are also Eeyore.

Prove that you are somehow special, otherwise you are only declaring this about yourself.

And here, as a rule, some kind of incident happens to them. It is very difficult for them to prove that they are believers. Leave them alone with these thoughts.

And you can be sure that some seeds of doubt have been sown, some seeds of understanding that everything is not as declarative, not as simple as it is drawn in synodal magazines, things are in this world with the so-called faith.

And do not insist on any point of view of yours, invite them to comment on a few facts of completely outright lies. What is the outright lie?

The church says it preaches faith in some kind of god, right?

Okay, let's take the church's point of view, but as it turns out, the church does not preach faith in God, but faith in one of the gods.

The impudence of all the priests is not enough to erase from the history of mankind all the other gods that mankind has known since the time of Sumer and Babylon. There are about three hundred or four hundred such gods.

And why, if one can believe in one of the gods, in the so-called Jesus, why is belief in Zeus, belief in Osiris or Quetzalcoatl, from their point of view, an absurdity? Or why is one god better and why is another god worse?

Here, for them, too, there comes a moment of certain doubts and reflections. Then, naturally, the question arises about Russia and Russian self-identification and about the connection with Orthodoxy, but here it is also better to ask them to comment: how exactly that ideology, exactly that Orthodox ideological system, which was kept ... By the way, all this spirituality, it was kept exclusively on fourteen articles of the Criminal Code, on many by-laws, on the fear of hard labor, on the fear of deprivation of the state, exile to Siberia, on very many unpleasant things.

And this was just at the time when Orthodoxy was considered a folk religion. How exactly did this ideological system lead to the complete collapse of the state in 1917?

Ask them to comment on the thesis that Orthodoxy is already a validated voucher, and trying to ride this voucher a second time in the “tram of history” is at least naive.

As if we have a historical medical fact: the collapse of the state, which for seven hundred years had nothing but this ideology. Nothing at all. And nothing was allowed. And how many articles of the Criminal Code are needed: twenty-eight, fifty, sixty? What punitive measures and means are needed to ensure all this spirituality…

It is clear that Orthodoxy can only hold on to bayonets, that without the appropriate help from the state authorities it immediately turns into, breaks up into many small sects and turns into, let's say, one of these sects.

Here it is possible and necessary to offer to comment, and here, again, we will leave the so-called believer alone with his thoughts.

After all, what is atheism? Atheism is not screaming that there is no God. This is not even a mockery of this or that dogma, of their rhetoric, by no means. This is the right to think, this is the triumph of freethinking, this is the ability to think critically, skeptically and evaluate everything, first of all, analyzing, independently, and to any words written or spoken, atheism involves critical reflection.

This was also said by the great La Mettrie, this was said by Paul Henri Holbach. And my words should also be treated as critically as any verse of the Bible. Everything must be taken critically.

And as soon as this criticism, as soon as this skepticism and the ability and desire to analyze become the norm, then the gods themselves die. Or they emigrate to where there is still a place left for them: somewhere on the shores of Lake Chad or to New Guinea.

It's a question, like, does the church help you when trouble comes? Does the church give peace of mind, like analgin relieves pain?

Forgive my liberties, but I deliberately sharpen the question this way. I remember how, already being a presbyter, I talked with one woman. She repented. Preparations are underway for baptism. Various questions: Do you believe? Are you sure? She replies, “You know, my back hurts. I went through different doctors. I turned to grandmothers. I've been to psychics. Nobody helped. I came to church. Repented. But my back still hurts." She was not among the baptized afterwards. But her testimony is telling. By the way, I note that this idea of ​​the church is most common among the people. Especially in our people. That is why the most popular icons are those that heal, liberate, multiply the harvest, protect, and the like. And "we won't stand up for the price"... Superstition is the main religion of our people.

I would like to give an example of Nick Vujicic. No hands. No legs. But he knows God. And he is happy. What did God give him? New hands? - No! New legs? - No! But happiness is knowing God. Happiness is not in the wardrobe. Happiness is not in money, not in a career. Happiness is in the head, in the heart. This is from God. I consider it important to repeat: Happiness is not known or created by the human mind. But a loving God enlightens the mind, purifies the heart, and makes a person happy. “We also know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding, that we might know the true God; and we are in the True One, His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)

Naturalists conducted experiments. Three groups of rats were taken. From birth. In one cage, classical music played during feeding. Pop music was playing in another cage. In the third, tin cans rattled. The rats have grown up. Then they were all placed in the same room. When the rats approached the feeders, and there were three of them, the music turned on. One has a classic feeder. At the other stage. At the third tin cans rattled. To the surprise of scientists, and I confess, to my surprise, rats, no matter what music they grew up with, preferred to feed to the sounds of classical music. There were some who listened to pop music as well. The ringing of cans did not attract any rat. What is it? There is a problem in the Bible: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey knows its master's manger; but Israel does not know me, my people do not understand.” (Is.1:3) These are words of pain and shame at the same time. This is a sentence for an arrogant person in our enlightened age. A person endowed with reason lives as if he is deprived of reason. The rat example only reinforces this diagnosis. I lived the same way. And only God restored the ability to understand. It is the inexpressible gift of His love.

It is very important to realize one's participation in God through belonging to the Church. We experienced two years of spiritual desert (in Tabaga). This cannot be told. After all, it is a spiritual experience. There was abundance in everything. Bread is enough. Health anywhere. The children developed normally and were healthy. Work for the heart, decent pay. Housing is normal. And before believing, we had it all. But there was no life. Painful illness! But such a simple: “Oh my God! Forgive me a sinner!" And a miracle: The heart is free! Life is full of meaning. What do I want to say? The Lord gives all the blessings of life to people. But man finds himself only in harmony with God. That's what Jesus said in the wilderness: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but man shall live by every Word of God"! I'll say this: God makes a man a Man.

By prayer, faith and the inexplicable real power of God's participation in our lives, like an invisible thread, we are connected with Heaven and with our Heavenly Father. He is always on the line. Always His hand is with us and over us. And saving faith gave our hearts rest, peace and joy. But without the church, these wonderful gifts of grace were, as it were, ineffective.

You know, it's like a seed in a barn. It is said that many things were found in the Egyptian pyramids. The dying pharaohs, leaving for the next world, took with them everything they needed. Among other things were grains of wheat. So, having lain in the tombs for several thousand years, they remained the same as they were. And when they were placed in a favorable environment, they sprouted, gave an ear and bore fruit! What is it? After all, the taste of life is not in consumption, but in the realization of oneself, in the development of oneself.

In the church, we found ourselves in the most favorable environment. Once again, I note that in those days we did not speak like that. Most often we said: "I'm going to the meeting." Community. Our community. One community or another. But you are also a member of the church. Baptism is precisely that moment, visible and invisible at the same time, the mystery that introduces us to the local community as members of the church. The most important thing that we have found in the Church is, perhaps, the completeness of our spiritual development. The right to perform the mystery of the breaking of bread. To be in the church, to be part of the body of the Lord. It's impossible to describe this. Some easily and simply drift from one community to another, not appreciating God's Church as the secret of God's economy, not appreciating their right to be a part of the body of Christ, and to be a representative of His Church in society, among their people. I even find it difficult to formulate somehow what exactly the Church gave me. She gave everything. Everything.

The biblical portrait of the church is the saved people, as a single holy BODY, the head of which is Christ the Lord. Or "Christ is the vine and you are the branches." The world, no matter how it boasts of its achievements, is still cruel. The world is full of dirt. He is immoral. The world is full of suffering, lies, lawlessness. There is no hope in the world. There is no light in the world. The world is in darkness and the world is darkness.

Now imagine: "God is light, and there is no darkness in Him." Christ says: "I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness." Who has not experienced fear, paralyzing fear, being in complete darkness? Is it a room, or is the night dead in the forest, or even in a familiar apartment? And suddenly - light! All fears behind you now! All items are visible. All paths are visible. The purpose of life is revealed. God is with us! This is the gift of God in the Church. “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!”

We launch ships into space, create deep-sea vehicles. We invade the microcosm in order to find somewhere the reason and meaning of being. And peoples fight for trifles, and people die for metal, spiritual darkness makes life unbearable. And at this time, among us, God Himself is building a Pure, Heavenly, Holy building - the Church. What is positive about the Church? - Gives everything. Everything positive that exists, that happens, that a person can express, everything is given by the Church. Church of God, where the head is Christ. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)

First of all, this is the creation of a person who is not driven by egoism, but by the Spirit of God. He is not guided by herd feelings, but by the Spirit, as God intended at creation, that is, in the image and likeness of God. The very core of our national tragedy is the destruction of the individual. In the dictionary of the times of domination of atheism, I read: "Life is a special form of existence and movement of matter." By the way, this definition is still the most common today. But matter is not capable of lofty thoughts. Matter is not able to sympathize, to sympathize. Matter is not capable of loving, dreaming and praying!!! Raskolnikov's question, "I am a trembling creature, or have the right" stands before everyone. And we are looking for the answer, no matter what time and in what society we live. And, mind you, the world of materialism has no answer. And the Word of God says, "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." And he not only says, but also gives: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life. I am the bread of life." (John 6:47,48)

So, the area of ​​searching for the meaning of life without God, without the Church is the old woman's money, an ax, a prison, and empty dreams. And we understand the falsity of those pretensions to the law that aroused the October massacre. Raising axes, our people killed everyone who, perhaps, had something in store for a rainy day, but, like Raskolnikov, the whole country turned out to be just in the category of a trembling creature. We are still trembling. See with what insatiability the people indulge in the sins of debauchery! With what inexplicable greed is the accumulation of capital? How the whole fabric of society was pierced by lies! Biblical revelation says: "And man became a living soul"! And materialism, multiplied by atheism, made man a soulless matter. Love has been turned into a mechanical process. Compassion is called a survival. Pity has become a degrading anachronism. Conscience has disappeared even from the dictionary. Honesty, honor, as a concept, is not quoted at all. Animal instincts began to dominate society. But God says, "Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." As Derzhavin once said: “You exist, and I am no longer “nothing”! From “nothing” to the image of God! That's what the Church gives. By the way, here it is difficult to separate the Church, fellowship, service. Just as the Holy Trinity is inseparable and inseparable, so the service and fellowship you have named constitute the essence of the Church. Meaning of life. There is such a concept. More like a question with no answer. If you make a request to the Internet, what is the meaning of life, you will see that the answer is no. That is why drunkenness, drug addiction, murders, suicides flourish. I was in the crowd trying to have fun. I have tried various types of catalysts. I was faced with a choice: “How to end this meaningless performance?”. The Church, God's Church, filled my life with high meaning!

Our Russian poet Fyodor Nikolaevich Glinka in one of his poems writes as follows:

God says to his child:

You are my! and what are your enemies?

Let swords and arrows sharpen.

I myself count their steps

And measure their limits.

Do not humiliate yourself before fate:

You are my! and guardian legions

They will tear obstacles from your paths;

Go, don't be afraid: I'm with you!

Touch the waters - and the waters are stormy,

Like meek lambs, they will fall asleep;

And around you, crowding, peoples

Thunderstorms won't scare you.

Walk without fear into the terrible flame,

Fire will not burn you;

Be cheerful in spirit, be a faith stone,

And above you everywhere is My shield!

Why do you need iron armor -

Protection weak people?

If your head is kind to me,

Who dares to touch her?

But know, not magnificent gifts

You bought the mercy of the Most High;

You did not sacrifice rams to me,

Not incense from the censer.

And what is their bloody sacrifice to me

And heaven smoky fat?

I don't like the prayers of the dead;

The gifts of unclean hands are not for me.

You have become in sins before Me,

And I washed away your sins

And, like a baby in a veil,

I have graced you!…

This poem is also my answer to your question.

You ask: what positive have I received? I got life! Real! Eternal!

How can I talk about the gift of God to me? The fact is that I turn to God as to the Father. "Not only our Father!" But also "Abba Father!" — i.e. Native father. Have you met such relationships in the hierarchy of earthly principalities? Nonsense in vegetable oil, as my grandfather used to say, and he knew a lot about nonsense. And health, and a career, and all material wealth combined - is nonsense. As modern youth sings: “The barge is aground. Therefore, it is unsinkable ... We look at the cards, secretly dreaming of swimming ... I’m on my own mind, my own prophet, like Noah I’m waiting for the flood ”...

And vice versa: when God fills the soul with Himself, when heaven becomes your home, for “Life has appeared,” then death is not terrible, and persecution brings joy, and deprivation only elevates the spirit! "I am the way and the truth and the life!" Jesus Christ says. I believed. And I got LIFE! I saw the WAY to the eternal home of the Father. I found the TRUTH, which gave me freedom! “Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him: “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

How can you talk about what “matter” is, as one man of God says: “Woe to him who quarrels with his Creator, a shard of earthly shards”! And suddenly this shard, which was in the mountain, became the temple of the Holy Spirit! “Don't you know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own”? (1 Corinthians 6:19) How can you describe this? And that's what I got in the Church of God. And here I am, “a shard of earthen shards,” talking to God! And He talks to me. He hears me. And He gives me the ability to understand His word to me! It's not even comparable to anything. In outer space, where we travel to eternity, we are given an accurate map of the world, the Word of God, the Bible, with a laid route to the Kingdom of God! Our reliable ship is the church of God! And the fuel supply, the Holy Spirit, and the intercom, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Himself is the Light that illuminates the way to the Father's house.

I like how the holy apostle John speaks of the value of fellowship in the church: “For life has come, and we have seen, and we testify, and we proclaim to you this eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us, of what we have seen and heard We declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And we write this so that your joy may be complete. (1 John 1:2-4)

I remember that my father was imprisoned. I remember the sad state of abandonment. Ordinary poverty. House without a man. Mom is with us, eight silly kids at that time. The older sister must have been thirteen years old. You can describe the tragedy of the situation. But in my memory the Church is the Community. We are not orphans. We are not abandoned. We are not alone. That amazing climate of unity, mutual help, strength, formed in my heart the idea of ​​the church. The Church is a family of loving people!

"That doesn't happen!" – this is the reaction of people living outside the church. During the years of persecution of the church, anti-sectarian publications were constant, from Murzilka to serious scientific journals. The articles were intended to debunk religious prejudice. Convincing scientific evidence was given that there is no God, faith is meaningless, religion is pernicious. And every article has a question. If everything is so obvious, and science has proven everything irrefutably, why aren't there fewer sectarians? The authors invariably answered: "Because they are extremely attentive and caring towards each other."

I worked at a construction site. Built communism. We had five children at that time. One man worked with us. Sometimes, having given in, he could quarrel, argue. There were many reasons. Life has always been difficult. “How can you feed five children when I have two children and we barely make ends meet? My wife works and we don't have enough money, but yours and the kids are at home. It doesn't happen like that!" What to say to that? The Lord added five to five, and five more. Now everyone has grown up. Count grandchildren went to the second ten. Everyone is healthy. Everyone is smart. Country decoration. Everything is the Lord! We are all His! God bless!

The whole country is building communism. And only a small sect, some fanatics, they talk about some kind of life after death, they dream about the resurrection of the dead. But the whole country, having eaten up communism to the point of vomit, remained in ridicule. And the sect of fanatics lives joyfully and victoriously, lives in love, serving each other and loving each other. Enjoying fellowship, for it is "fellowship with the Father, and with His son Jesus Christ." The reality is that, rising above the deadness of matter, the Church, by the power of the Spirit, sees the Kingdom of God, establishes it in the hearts of people and preaches it in the darkness of the godless world. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of love and peace, I received in the Church.

Quite recently, I had to talk with one sister. She is almost ninety years old. Went through the war. Buried her son. I've seen everything in my lifetime. I asked her: “Sister, if now you could, after reviewing everything you have experienced, remove the unnecessary, what would you remove?”. - “Nothing!”. The instant response amazed me. And rejoiced. Grandmother continued: “The Lord gave me everything in my life. I didn't understand everything. Didn't take everything. But His will. And His will is good, pleasing and perfect. Wow! Wow! Not like the groaning Komsomol members: "I would cross out my whole life, but start over ...".

So you could answer me. The Lord has given Me everything through the Church, through fellowship and through service. In fellowship with the brothers, I learned the Holy Scriptures. In the church I learned to preach God's Word. At the funeral, I learned to live in such a way that death was not a terrible unknown. Helping the elderly, I learned the work of faith and learned the work of love. Helping orphans, I learned the priceless gift of Heaven, in the manifestation of the Father of all! In my family, all these lessons helped to create an atmosphere of love, God's school and church. I'm still a student. And this is a great honor for me. After all, my teacher is Jesus Christ! Glory to Him for everything!

A very important issue is how to talk to believers or those who consider themselves believers in general.

In general, of course, it is better to avoid such conversations, but if you are nevertheless provoked into this conversation, then you must speak very kindly, very affectionately.

Remember that these topics are extremely painful for them, extremely difficult and that they easily get into a state of strong hysteria, therefore it is better to remove matches, it is better to remove all sharp, heavy objects and really demonstrate patience, kindness and goodwill.

And you don’t have to bother with all sorts of stupid talk about some kind of god - this is an empty topic, and any believer, if he is asked to prove the existence of a god, after 3-4 minutes begins to feel like an idiot, and then he can fall into that same frenzy. You don't have to do this.

It is always better to invite the believer to prove that he is really a believer.

The fact is that collecting icons or other pictures, crosses, some small dried buns, participating in simple performances with or without eating the meat of God, some kind of trips, appropriate phraseology, appropriate outfits - this is all not proof of the so-called faith , this is just proof that a person is playing some kind of role-playing game.

Their faith just demands from them, quite severely demands, many hardships, many infringements of themselves. And it is always necessary to offer this believer, the so-called believer, to prove that he is a believer directly in the gospel sense of the word.

Find out to whom he gave an apartment from the homeless, to whom he gave a sheepskin coat, to whom he signed a car from the beggars, how many lepers he kissed on the lips, whether he is going to go, let's say, somewhere to Sudan or to the shores of Lake Chad and preach there Christianity, as they are commanded. Usually such things baffle believers.

But, you see, they proclaim themselves believers and, like the Donkey from the famous book about Winnie the Pooh, they begin to pout their lips in an offended way and say: “You know, we are so special, you can’t say a word in front of us ball».

But in order that with you, as with Eeyore, it would be impossible to say a word ball, prove that you too Eeyore.

Prove that you are somehow special, otherwise you are only declaring this about yourself.

And here, as a rule, some kind of incident happens to them. It is very difficult for them to prove that they are believers. Leave them alone with these thoughts.

And you can be sure that some seeds of doubt have been sown, some seeds of understanding that everything is not as declarative, not as simple as it is drawn in synodal magazines, things are in this world with the so-called faith.

And do not insist on any point of view of yours, invite them to comment on a few facts of completely outright lies. What is the outright lie?

The church says it preaches faith in some kind of god, right?

Okay, let's take the church's point of view, but as it turns out, the church does not preach faith in God, but faith in one of the gods.

The impudence of all the priests is not enough to erase from the history of mankind all the other gods that mankind has known since the time of Sumer and Babylon. There are about three hundred or four hundred such gods.

And why, if one can believe in one of the gods, in the so-called Jesus, why is belief in Zeus, belief in Osiris or Quetzalcoatl, from their point of view, an absurdity? Or why is one god better and why is another god worse?

Here, for them, too, there comes a moment of certain doubts and reflections. Then, naturally, the question arises about Russia and Russian self-identification and about the connection with Orthodoxy, but here it is also better to ask them to comment: how exactly that ideology, exactly that Orthodox ideological system, which was kept ... By the way, all this spirituality, it was kept exclusively on fourteen articles of the Criminal Code, on many by-laws, on the fear of hard labor, on the fear of deprivation of the state, exile to Siberia, on very many unpleasant things.

And this was just at the time when Orthodoxy was considered a folk religion. How exactly did this ideological system lead to the complete collapse of the state in 1917?

Ask them to comment on the thesis that Orthodoxy is already a validated voucher, and trying to ride this voucher a second time in the "tram of history" is at least naive.

As if we have a historical medical fact: the collapse of the state, which for seven hundred years had nothing but this ideology. Nothing at all. And nothing was allowed. And how many articles of the Criminal Code are needed: twenty-eight, fifty, sixty? What punitive measures and means are needed to ensure all this spirituality…

It is clear that Orthodoxy can only hold on to bayonets, that without the appropriate help from the state authorities it immediately turns into, breaks up into many small sects and turns into, let's say, one of these sects.

Here it is possible and necessary to offer to comment, and here, again, we will leave the so-called believer alone with his thoughts.

After all, what is atheism? Atheism is not screaming that there is no God. This is not even a mockery of this or that dogma, of their rhetoric, by no means. This is the right to think, this is the triumph of freethinking, this is the ability to think critically, skeptically and evaluate everything, first of all, analyzing, independently, and to any words written or spoken, atheism involves critical reflection.

This was also said by the great La Mettrie, this was said by Paul Henri Holbach. And my words should also be treated as critically as any verse of the Bible. Everything must be taken critically.

And as soon as this criticism, as soon as this skepticism and the ability and desire to analyze become the norm, then the gods themselves die. Or they emigrate to where there is still a place left for them: somewhere on the shores of Lake Chad or to New Guinea.

Watch "LESSONS OF ATHEISM" on the channel:http://www.youtube.com/NevzorovTV

Hello Ivan!

In response to your letter: “How to strengthen my faith? The fact is that friends who, by the way, told me about God, come very rarely, and I don’t have enough communication with believers who we practically don’t have in our village every day because of this I sin, by the way, is it right that at the end of the day before going to bed I ask God for forgiveness for the sins that I did during the day? And so every day? What if He gets tired of it and He won’t forgive me anymore? Help, it’s very hard not to succumb to worldly things every day, if there are no believing friends nearby .... "

God's peace to you!

Yes, indeed, the Bible also advises us to communicate with fellow believers for spiritual stability and growth. But it is also true that the Lord has a special support for His children who are without such fellowship for reasons beyond their control.

He who is able to keep you from falling
and present before His glory blameless in joy,
the only wise God,
our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord,
glory and majesty, power and dominion before all ages,
now and forever.

There are many examples of this from the history and life of Christians. And I advise you to read such books. These are "On the thorny path" by Matzanova, "And the flame will not scorch you ...", "Heroes of Faith" and others. Books about how Christians, most often loners, carried the banner of faith through persecution, prisons, torture, famine and war ... This will greatly strengthen you and you will feel that the Lord is near - and with Him you will not be lonely.

The fact is that when our family was baptized (my mother and I), we also lived in the village, and the church was in the city. Of course, we went to church services, but we always wanted more, and it was not easy to allow this - dependence on transport, distance shortened our time in church, and we always felt spiritual hunger. This went on for seven years... And I'm telling you about what helped us at that time.

And trust the Lord! Pray and commit this matter to Him! If it pleases the Lord to take you to another place, He will do it. If He wants you there to be His chosen witness, He will help you with this. And with Him you will be perfect. And with Him and in your village, His church may soon appear. And do not think that in the city, among the multitude of churches and brethren, it is easier to stand on the side of the Lord!

It is very good that you search your heart and open it before the Lord every night.

If we confess our sins,
then He, being faithful and just,
forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It is better for us here on this earth to say more to the Lord ourselves (because He knows everything about us), than if He presented us at the court with something testifying against us and not confessed. Note (underlined) also from the above verse that the Lord not only forgives us our sins, but also cleanses us from sin - the Lord has a special means for us, so that if we sincerely confess sins and do not hide anything, then He settles in our heart dislikes sin and we don't feel like doing the sin we did before.

So don't give up your hope
who will have a great reward.
You need patience
in order, having fulfilled the will of God, to receive the promise;
for a little more, very little,
and the Coming One will come and will not tarry.
The righteous will live by faith;
but if anyone stumbles, my soul does not take pleasure in him.
We are not of those who hesitate to perish,
but we stand in faith for the salvation of the soul.

Blessings!

P.S. Dear brother! Tell more about yourself. Maybe one of our readers with similar problems will make friends with you and thus you will have a friend or friends :)

Read more on the topic "Consecration":

For various reasons, modern Christianity has distanced itself from unbelievers, and those who serve unbelievers are a minority among believers today. People are ready to go to conferences, to prayers and to seminars, but as soon as it comes to direct work with unbelievers, all the power gained at these wonderful events disappears somewhere. I don't mean to sound overly moralistic, but modern society there is a huge gulf between us believers and them unbelievers.

But we are the same people with a bunch of problems and inferiorities. Only we have already been forgiven by God, but our dear friends, acquaintances and relatives have not yet. Quite often I am asked questions about how to behave and what to say to non-believers in our inner circle.

We must understand that most non-believers judge us by how we behave and what and how we say to them personally. The people listening to us are not so much interested in the meaning of our words as in our personalities, so it is important for us to skillfully cooperate with our words and their presentation so as not to alienate people and close them to the gospel.

So what should you do and what should you not do? Let's try to answer.

1. Act natural.

It is very important to be yourself when communicating with people - if you overact, it will immediately become noticeable, and if you are trying to make yourself into someone you are not, it will start to cut your ears and catch your eye. I remember at one time I had several volunteers that I trained. Often, when they came to Jewish families, they tried to communicate with people in the same way that Jews from Podil in Kyiv or from Moldavanka in Odessa once communicated - it was a special "pronounced" that my volunteers wanted to emulate. Why did they think they would impress the listeners with this? After such meetings, people often asked me: “Tolya, why did your Russian comrade try so hard to speak like a Jew?” Of course, I had to smooth everything over, saying that he is a good guy and loves the Jewish style of communication, he was just pleased to communicate with Jewish people ... Is there something bad in this? No, of course not, just funny. Because if you can't speak Jewish "pronounce", this is not worth doing. As Roman Kartsev said in one of his miniatures: “Odessa language is a very delicate thing, you can either not squeeze it, or squeeze it!” So my advice is: be yourself.

I remember another episode from my ministry. Once upon a time, in my social circle there were very educated people, academicians and professors, people who had a great scientific and life experience behind them. Such people have a large knowledge base, and it is not always easy for them to explain the importance of faith and acceptance of Jesus. How I tried to impress them! It had to be seen! After some time, I realized that there is no need for me to make of myself what I am not: I am not an assistant professor, not a doctor, not an academician and not a professor, and I should remain who I am. If something is not clear to me, I need to ask the interlocutor again, if I don’t know something, ask for information, if I want to achieve more in this matter, get the literature myself and read it on my own, doing self-education. It's important to be yourself! After some time, when I understood these simple truths and stopped pretending to be a smart guy, in one of the conversations one of these people said to me: “Tolya, you know, I listen to you and understand that you are a professional in your field”. It was very nice to hear. Be yourself, do not be smart, do not use words whose meaning you or even your interlocutor does not know. Try to match, but not twist yourself. Be sincere with yourself and with the interlocutor.

2. Think about who is sitting across from you and watch their reactions.

A person who does not know faith is not a guinea pig, this is a person who has the right to his thoughts and his opinion. In the moment of communication about faith, he deserves respect.

So think about who you talk to, how you talk and how much! It must be remembered that communication with people who do not yet believe is not a sermon from the pulpit: you listen, and I will speak for 50 minutes without a break.

I was once told about a minister who had few who left after talking to him without repentance. When I attended one of his meetings, I understood why this was so: he simply did not let go of his “victim” until she recognized her faith in God! But let me remind you: acceptance does not depend on us, but on that person and his personal desire! It is his and only his choice to open himself to God. This is their dialogue, and you are simply helping a person to hear more clearly what God is saying to him.

Do not try to take over in communication. In dealing with an unbeliever, one must put oneself a little lower than one's interlocutor, from the Scriptures one should read small and understandable passages for the interlocutor. As Isaac Babel wrote in his story “How it was done in Odessa”: “Benya speaks little, but he speaks with gusto. He doesn't talk much, but I want him to say something else.". This aphorism of Babel is a good reminder for those who are going to share their faith with other people.

Do not burden a person with your knowledge of the Bible. Understand what he is interested in and talk to him so that the next time he wants to talk to you again, leave him “hungry”.

Do not worry about the result, but let people mature, then your next conversation will be even more fruitful.

3. Don't argue or threaten.

When you communicate with a person, use the most powerful tool - love. Do not argue or threaten the person. Often, if a person does not agree with us, we build our conversation on a dispute instead of listening to him, considering his arguments and subsequently giving a worthy answer. We fall into disputes, trying to convince a person and take precedence over his knowledge and conviction. The ancients said: "Truth is born in a dispute". But most often in a dispute, not truth is born, but stupidity, anger, irritation and loss of an interlocutor.

I had a friend who always started every conversation with people with a sermon about hell and ended every conversation with a warning about hell. But if you have already started talking about hell and eternal punishment, give the person a way out, tell us how to avoid this hell!

Recently, I visited one of my wards, and she, seeing me as her equal, began to tell how she met with various believers and even tried to visit the community. Then she asked me a question: “Why do believers behave so strangely?” I had to once again smooth over what our brothers and sisters said to her. If she said something bad about our authorities in their presence, they would definitely make a remark to her, saying that all power is from God and you can’t say that, this is a great sin; when, after two or three visits to the community, she once asked if she could drink 20 grams of cognac at her brother's birthday, she was bombarded with passages from the Scriptures that alcohol is evil and a service to the devil. As a result of such “evangelization”, this unbelieving woman generally began to be afraid to ask anything in this community or say an extra word in front of believers. And then she lost all interest in faith altogether. Instead of such teachings, it is better to ask a person: what do you think about this or that issue? And build a further conversation, based on the opinion of the person and his own words.

4. Honor others above yourself.

I’ll tell you from my own experience: consider non-believers also higher than yourself, because respect is respect for the one with whom you build relationships.

So show respect to unbelievers too, do not poke them in the face with the truth, thinking that your triumph is about to come and they will all immediately repent.

Use words of love

Speaking of sin, tell us how you yourself were forgiven, how you believed. And ask the interlocutor if he wants to believe and if he also needs forgiveness. Start with yourself, and then move on to it. You are not an ancient Israelite prophet and before you is not Sodom and Gomorrah ...

The truth is that many people do not believe just because they simply do not have time to think about God in the ordinary hustle and bustle of life. Of course, not all, but most are simply eaten up by the hustle and bustle of every day, and they are simply not up to faith.

All of these points, displayed above, intersect well with the words of Paul:

« To the Jews I was like a Jew, in order to gain the Jews; to those under the law he was as under the law, in order to gain those under the law; for those who are strangers to the law - as a stranger to the law, - not being a stranger to the law before God, but under the law to Christ - in order to gain strangers to the law; to the weak he was as the weak, that he might gain the weak. I have become everything to everyone in order to save at least some. But this I do for the sake of the gospel, that I may be a partaker of it."(1 Corinthians 9:20-23).

Even a thousand years later, Paul's words remind us how to deal with different people, showing wisdom for the benefit of the gospel and for the salvation of at least some!