Journal of Faith: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Philippians 2:12

I am sure that everyone can think of at least one time when someone tried to stop you in your tracks.  If you don't have an acceptable answer to their questions things can get pretty uncomfortable.  I have been the girl that had the answers as well as the girl who didn't.  So what do you do when God told you to do something, and no one else heard it?  What do you do when God says "go" and everyone else says "no"?  This is the moment when you have to know your Bible.  I believe that if someone is doing something that is in tuned with the Word of God, than they need to be left to their devices.  I am reminded of a story in the Bible where Jesus' disciples were being critical of men that were rebuking demons and healing people in the name of Jesus. Scripture puts it like this: Mark 9:38-39 King James Version (KJV) 38  And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, be...

       I used to ask my students this question when they started to act carelessly, "what if everything that you said, did, and thought were on display for everyone to see, and you had to make an account for every one of those things?"  It is disheartening when I realize that I've just failed a life test, but to me, the only thing worse than failing is failing in front of someone else, and seeing the confusion on their face.  I don't know if you have ever had this happen to you, but I remember the sting that I felt when someone at my elementary school looked at me after I had done something that I knew was wrong and said, "I thought you said you were a Christian."  Even at a tender age I knew that I had just lost my witness.  I felt so ashamed and regretful.   It was one thing for me to gain a bad reputation because of a choice I had made, but the idea that I was marring someone else's view of God was almost too much to bear...