My utmost for His highest

I was reading a devotional by Oswald Chambers (Oswald, don't see many kids being named that these days) this morning and was struck by the simple honesty of it.

When sharing Jesus with others it should never be done in a demanding way - "you are required to believe the Bible or else". As Christians we are not required to believe the Bible as much as we are to believe in the One of whom the Bible teaches.

Others will see Jesus more in how we present Him with Truth, and how we allow and live out our faith by our lives, than they will in our demanding they believe. We are instructed to take His yoke upon us, not place a heavy yoke on others. When we do it God's way we find that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 28:19). When we do it our way, there is resistance and strife. And then in the devotion it says this very profound statement:
"It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong."

Ouch, that hit home!

God deals with us with gentleness and patience, we should do no less when dealing with others. Never water down the truth of God...let it stand and speak on its own. Jesus said, "Go...make disciples..." NOT, "Convert everyone to your personal opinions and thoughts."

Now that's convicting.