They didn´t know better! Udskriv
Skrevet af Jørn Nielsen   
Lørdag, 20. juni 2020 11:21

When I was 12 or 13, I would join my buddies who were usually a little older, in their ridiculing “the saints” as we called them.  When a Christian little group during the summer came to our playground to have an open-air meeting with their guitars, singing and testimonies I disdained them, and when I one day  saw my younger sister standing there and sang with the saints, I was about to make fun with her to impress my buddies.

One of the guys rebuked me and said, “Don´t, Jørn, she´s religious!” And I remember how ashamed I was of myself.  However, less than two years after I became one of those “saints” too, and now it was as if the Lord whispered to me, “You didn´t know better”. He said something similar to Paul, for he said, “I had acted ignorantly in unbelief”  (1 Tim. 1:13)

Over the years I have known Christian mixed up youth concerning the romance of love. I had the joy of baptizing a couple of girls at one of our beautiful coasts.  One was a spiritual child of mine, and on the onset such youth is apparently sensitive towards the Lord.  Then a mistaken romance crept in, and I warned my “child” against being unequally yoked with an unbeliever, and she knew that word, but persisted to have her way.

Some may still succeed in a business career, and may even go to church.   But the spiritual intimacy and power had gone.  One young woman said to me, “I wish I had listened to you…” – I have known talented men, too, equipped with eloquence and a burning fervor, but later ruined their testimony because of adultery.  One happened to be a close relative , and I remember how I wished I had his oratorical gift and charm, but oh no.

Back to the youth.  Many didn´t know better.  They meant it so well, but were sadly mistaken.  However, there is such a thing as forgiveness, and I praise the Lord for that word and for the abundance of it (Read Rom. 5:20).  The Lord Jesus has taught me to love what He loves and hate what He hates, but I´ve also known Him as the embodiment of endless forgiveness and grace.  I´m still learning to know Him that way as I meet lost people who like myself don´t know better.   

April 21, 2020 - jn