Why I'm no longer going to hide when I hear a knock from the Mormons at my door

      Did you hear it? That knock, knock, knock. You take a peek and you see two young men dressed in black pants, a white shirt,  a tie, and of course the infamous bicycle. You mentally decide two things: either to A. Run and hide and pretend your not home (all while of course kids are yapping in the background, the TV is going, and your husband is yelling at the football game) or B. you open the door you smile politely, yet with a tinge of annoyance and you tell them thank you and that we have another faith and are not interested and please tell the Mormon church don't ever come back again. We dismiss them with a shrug and wonder why they even bother.
 
       I happen to fall into the A category. When I  hear that knock and see who is outside, I hit the floor running and turn off all the lights... except for this day on April 16th.  That day, was a typical day my now 1 year old was playing near the door in a onesie and my toddler was watching Curious George after nap time as I normally allow him that screen time. My door was wide open as it was a curious warm day in Minnesota during spring time and I noticed those  Mormon boys coming up the driveway to my door. Like an idiot, I darted into the room to shut off the TV all the while forgetting the 1 year old was sitting by the screen door happily looking at our visitors. Shoot, no pretending I'm not home. As I'm walking up to my door, I'm mentally thinking how did I look darting into the other room considering the fact I'm pretty sure they saw me run off in a stupid hurry.

     I grab my 1 year old and I open the door and they said hello and I said hello and then there was this awkward silence and then they ask me if they could share their "testimony". I said sure all the meanwhile thinking how could I end this conversation without being rude. During their testimony, I realized I just couldn't keep silent..those who know me know it's difficult for me to keep my mouth shut if there is something I believe in and am passionate about. As they were talking, I was thinking.." I got this, I just studied Romans 1-5 in depth about faith and works..I'm going to blow them away with truth" I stood up straighter, rolled my shoulders up and down a bit, stretched my arms and said " Well, I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ that he is the Son of God,  that he died for our sins, was buried, and was resurrected on the 3rd day and we need to repent and believe in him." To my shock the Mormons agreed.They said they believed God's salvation and only by grace we are saved and our purpose here on earth was to follow Christ example. I stood a bit dumbfounded. I just had this fantastic study on Romans and I can't even pinpoint an error or difference in what I'm saying and what they are saying. I just stood there. I didn't know what to say. My pride took a beating. Here I was showing them "the way" and they were agreeing with everything I was saying. Eventually I told them, that I know enough about their religion to know we don't believe in the same things (even though I couldn't quite pinpoint it yet) and that they preached a different gospel. To them, they said we were "both" Christians and I said "If I'm a christian, you are not one, and if you are a Christian then I'm  not one..we cannot both be Christians" I said if I am right what your doing on this missionary journey would be pointless and your faith in vain. To my surprise, they agreed and asked if they could set up a time to meet back. I told them yes and that I would study up on the Mormon website if they would read Romans. So the meeting was set for Thursday, 23rd at 7:00

            After our conversation that afternoon, I began researching the Mormon faith and everything that they believed in. When I commit to something... I'm all in. it's hard for me to set limits because I just have to know everything. My brother-in-law, gave me some great resources that really helped in seeing how the LDS missionaries work and what they base their faith on. It's a really scary false religion. In some points of my reading, I felt like I was reading the mind of Satan. Don't ever underestimate the devil. He is crafty and don't think these people are dumb for believing in this religion. There is a whole state and university built upon the Mormon faith.

          To the point in my article, I used to think what is even the point of doing this? Why even take the time to talk to these people. All it leads to is arguing and essentially agreeing to disagree, and then later banging my head against the bathroom door because it's so frustrating. I'm not an apologist, I'm not a MDiv or PH. D in Theology. What chance do I really have in convincing these young chaps? And then it hit me! Like God's spirit telling me that this didn't matter. It doesn't matter if I  don't know Everything about the Mormon faith or every theological stand and strategic viewpoint to refute...I have the Gospel!! It's not about what I do..it's about what God has already done for us! Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the POWER of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" I have God's spirit living inside of me and the power of the Gospel.  All I needed to do was share the gospel with them in truth and grace.

        Here is the thing Christian. We need to be ready to give an answer to everyone who ask. 1 Peter 3:15 "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" We have no excuse Not to talk to them! They came to my door..they set up a time with me that works for me. How easy is that! I don't have to go anywhere or go to Africa or go to the weekly meeting at my church for evangelism...or walk up to my neighbor and try to toe around as to what they believe in.  They came to me! I should have an answer ready. We know they will knock..it will just be a matter of time.  They are just as spiritually dead as anybody else who doesn't have the gospel of Christ. No one can be deader than the other ...deader doesn't even exist in language. When your dead..your dead..no deader. They are not more dead then the Muslim, the atheist, the passive "christian" in church.  Aren't you glad someone shared with you the gospel of Christ? How many times did you need to hear the Gospel before you repented and believed? They are dead in their sins and how can they know unless someone tells them? Rom 10:14" ...and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? and how are they to hear without someone preaching?" . God's word is sharper than a two-edged sword.Heb 4:12 tells us  "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and dicerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Wow! Is that powerful...Let God's word speak to them..how do you know Christian if by speaking God's word in truth and grace will penetrate their heart and God will draw them to himself???


     During our meeting on Thursday. I served them some homemade strawberry shortcake and some rootbeer (i thought they couldn't have caffine but it's just coffee!;) and we talked for almost 2 hours. At the end of the meeting, they said they had a lot to think about. I encouraged them to take their 2 year missionary journey and read the New Testament with no preconceived notions just to read it as it was. Here are some things you might not know about LDS Missionaries.
   1. They are usually male
    2. Between the ages of 18-20
   3. They typically stay in "an area" for about 6 weeks
   4. Their parents ususally make them do this to get serious about "the church"
   5. They can only call home and Skype once a week.
   6. They are not allowed to really socialized or watch movies.
   7. Their parents pay $400 a month to the church, and the church  gives them only $120 for food and 
        necessities
   8. They are not really versed in the Bible or even their own Mormon faith
   9. They get up at 6:30 to study and then to go hit the streets

    All this to say...invite these young men into your homes. Love on them--give them food!! (they are hungary ;) Play a game..have a good time...they don't get out much!!! Show them the hope that you have because you never know what God can do.1 Cor. 4:3 "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth"..how do you know Christian if you are planting or watering..you don't and it doesn't matter! God will give the increase. Ever wandered why he referred it to plants? How much watering does a plant need to grow? So regardless of whether these Mormon friends of ours are hearing it for the 1st time or the 12th time..keep watering because God's word is sharper than a two-edged sword and who are we to judge or determine who God will save or not? We asked them..."if you are at a Nursing home and someone was dying and had a day to live...what would you tell them of the hope that is in you for eternal life?". They said " we hope that they would recieve it but we can't tell them either way because we don't know how they lived on earth and it's up to God to decide"...how sad is that!!!! That our works because the basis of our eternal life and hope?? We have hope!!! We are heirs of the kingdom of God  because of what he did and nothing about ourselves. To God be the glory

    So please Christian open your door, and if you are not ready. Invite them back. Do some due diligence and study up on their definitions. Open your home and speak truth and grace...Here are some websites below that really helped me in my research. If you have time listen to lynn Wilder son share his 10 min testimony...it will change the way you see them..it changed me. Because a pastor stopped to take time to show him the gospel. He is saved along with his entire family. His mom was a BYU professor and his dad a high priest. God can use anybody. Please answer the knock and pray that they will have ears to hear and eyes to see..:)...Part 2 could be coming because they might be coming back and I'll divulge more in what we actually talked about :)

http://mormonisminvestigated.co.uk/2014/03/31/how-to-witness-to-mormon-missionaries/

 http://tilm.org/speaking/sharing-the-seriousness-of-sin/

Once standing in Legalism to now standing in Grace

  When you first hear of legalism--you might think stiff, suffocating, unbending, restrictive, rules upon rules--however for me, it was just a way of life; a standard of living. I never once felt suffocated or suppressed. I felt quite the opposite. I felt safe and secure. I had a list of do's and don'ts that were easy to follow and check off. I was told these rules/standards did not save, but were necessary to be a "good christian" and the more standards you had the more spiritual you were. I strived to be this person! I actually thought I was doing a pretty good job of it too. My measuring stick of spirituality was based on the standards set before me. This was my foundation. I was standing on works, and then I read Romans and I mean really read Romans

      To preface some history of the Roman Church when the letter was written, the Jews had been expelled from Rome in A.D. 49 and were allowed to return to Rome in A.D. 54. By that time, the church was mainly made up of gentile Christians. Some of the gentile Christians believed, because of living under grace, you could do whatever you want, and once the Jews came back into the church; they said you couldn't be a christian unless you were living under the "law" and had become circumcised. There is much tension-- imagine an invisible line down the church. The self-righteous, know it all  Jews on one side, and the dirty, pig eater gentile christian on the other. Paul here decides to take the church and take them to court. So imagine standing in a courtroom. There is a judge, a prosecutor, a defendant, and a jury/witnesses. You are the defendant, Paul is the prosecutor, God is the Judge, and the law and the prophets are the jury/witnesses. 

       Through Romans 1-3:21, Paul has just prosecuted the gentile Christians and the Jews and has eloquently presented and proven that all are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. No one is righteous & the whole world is accountable to God (the verdict). So here I stand, before God guilty. When reading through these verses, you have this sort of sense of heaviness, remorse, and guilt. I have come to realize I'm guilty on every account, and that I could never attain on my own merit a right standing before God. So I'm a sinner, what does that have to do with legalism and grace? Just wait! You'll see in the next stages of the "court case proceeding" that it has everything to do with being justified by faith into this grace in which we stand.

      Paul has just declared that it has always been " the righteous shall live by faith" and we are "justified by faith". The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law (Rom. 3:21). After the church is reading this, imagine what's going on in the heads of the gentile Christian and the Jews. The gentile Christians are probably nodding their heads and saying to themselves take that Jew you ain't coming near me with those knives today so take your law and take your circumcision and shove it! The Jews are just as mad as hornets. They are probably bursting at the seams with "righteous" indignation. They are yelling (v.27) "then what becomes of our boasting?" The Jews boasted, took pride in: being a Jew from Father Abraham, from following the law, and from being circumcised. They hated the fact that Paul was saying being a Jew didn't matter, that the law didn't matter, that circumcision no longer mattered. Paul wasn't saying that at all.

    Knowing that this would be the response. He calls his witnesses to take the stand. And who does he call up? None other then Father Abraham himself--the patriarch himself. The Jews believed that Father Abraham was perfect. In the book of jubilee 100 b.c. the rabbis would preach that "Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord, and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life" (meaning he was perfect--he had no need of repentance). They even believed that it was impossible for a circumcised man to go to hell. Paul is taking this Jewish philosophy and cross-examining it with what the scriptures actually say. Abraham wasn't justified by his works. The law came 430 years after Abraham (Gal. 3:17) So then if Abraham had no law, how was he justified? Rom. 4:3 "For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" Paul is laying out the case that it has Always been by faith and never has been about the law or about circumcision.

    Abraham was a nobody. He was a heathen who came from UR(now southern Iraq). The Bible doesn't say why God chose Abraham--he just did. So here is a guy who is 75 years old and God tells him to leave a place that was something to go to an unknown land that was nothing.   God promised him that he would be the father of many nations yet Abraham had no biological children with his wife Sarah. How long did it take for God to fulfill that promise 25 years! Sarah and Abraham had Isaac when he was 100 and Sarah was 90. Why would God wait 25 years!!?? Would it not have made more sense to have a child when they were "younger?"  No wonder they laughed at that possibility. It was physically impossible...no really it was impossible. Sarah was passed menopause there was no way they could have a child, unless God said it would be so. Would you have waited for God's promise for 25 years?? My guess I would have taken matters into my own hands like Sarah did as she told Abraham to produce a child through her servant Hagar.

       So here comes my point. You are either going to fall into two categories: the gentile christian or a man- made self-righteous person who thinks they are fulfilling God's plan. I fall into the self-righteous category. I know I'm saved yet I still fall into this trap!!  Like the Jews, I was putting more weight on what type of christian I was on what preachers I listen to, what church I attended, what theological view point I had, what type of ministries I was involved in. I started comparing myself with other people and thought.."oh, I'm way more spiritual then these people because I believe in this certain theology" WHAT! I'm turning legalistic again. Before I was legalistic by watching my hemline or what movies I watched or how many times I went to church in a week, but now I'm making theology my God versus the God in my theology!!!

   So what is the good christian?? Faith---living a life of faith!

   The scriptures said Abraham never wavered! It says " In hope he believed against hope" ( Rom. 3:18). "He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead" (v.19). No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised"(v. 201-21). and this is why it was counted to him as righteousness. His unwavering faith!!

   So are you living and believing each day in the God of the impossible? Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exists? (v. 17) Do you believe in hope against hope and make each and every day by this standard? Abraham did this. He wasn't obeying some law or banking on some circumcision. He lived each day believing in the God of the impossible and his daily actions/works were a product of that faith. I know if I lived by this standard I don't think I live life the same way...I wouldn't worry about the things I worry about. A "good christian" is not the person with "moral standards" it's the person who lives out their faith and believes in the hope against hope.

   My conclusion all resides in Romans 4:16 and Romans 5:2-5. "That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on GRACE"! "Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this GRACE in which we stand, and we Rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More then that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."  We rest/stand on Grace and we can rejoice during suffering because we have the promise of being heirs with Christ--we have the power of the gospel and that's why we can have joyful confidence and eternal security by what Christ had done for us on the cross. It's so beautiful. So are you standing on works or are you living, breathing, and standing on God's grace and his eternal gift to us?