“But we...will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you.” 2Co 10:13
We may well ask why we would want to influence people in the first place. What about “live and let live.” As nice as that sounds, every disciple of Jesus knows that loving your neighbor is a higher calling than just letting them be. If you love someone you seek what is best for them. But there is certainly a difference in manipulating someone the get what you want and influencing people to clarify what they want and help them determine if what they want is really in their best interest. Only in some extreme instances, such as intervention with an addict or a person attempting suicide would we violate someone's freedom to choose. Such mercies expressed by humans might even give us hope that “Hell” for some people might be a place to restrict the damage that they can do to themselves. As for our own influences, we can and should use any honest means to persuade others so long as we respect the line that God Himself will not cross. You can't make people choose love. 4/13/2011 Conversations Within ts (Between, GA)
Just me trying to be honest with God.
