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	<title>Deeper Bible Studies Blog &#187; Changing the Face of Christianity</title>
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	<description>Life Changing, Life Application</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:44:52 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Go beyond WWJD &#8211; What Would Jesus Do?</title>
		<link>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/go-beyond-wwjd-what-would-jesus-do</link>
		<comments>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/go-beyond-wwjd-what-would-jesus-do#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:44:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dbsbrad</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[1 John]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Changing the Face of Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith in action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[walk]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/?p=159</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Instead of asking WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?)...start asking WIDWJWD (Will I Do What Jesus Would Do?). To be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, we must back up our talk with Actions. 1 John 3:18.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;ve heard the phrase. You may have even seen it on a billboard: <strong>WWJD &#8211; &#8220;What Would Jesus Do&#8221;</strong>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a great way of saying, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what I should do in this situation&#8230;but no matter, I should do what Jesus would do&#8230;so WWJD.&#8221;</p>
<p>So, we see a car stranded. Or we see a person in need. Or we have a conflict with a friend or family member. And we ask WWJD.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s great advice. <strong>Jesus is our role model</strong>&#8230;and it IS HE that we should emulate.</p>
<p>How many of us acknowledge what Jesus would do&#8230;but then don&#8217;t do it? It&#8217;s a BIG reason why non-Christians look at Christians and label us <strong>hypocrites</strong>.</p>
<p>We must not SAY one thing (talk the talk) and then NOT do it (not walking the walk).</p>
<p>So, I propose a <strong>NEW catch phrase: WIDWJWD &#8211; &#8220;Will I Do What Jesus Would Do?&#8221;</strong></p>
<p><strong>1 John 3:18</strong> says &#8220;<em>Dear children, let  us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.</em>&#8221;</p>
<p>To be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, we must take action. Until we do this consistently, outsiders will continue to look at us as all talk, and no action.</p>
<p>So in the coming weeks,<strong> start asking yourself: WIDWJWD</strong>! And let me know how it works out.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.changingthefaceofchristianity.com" target="_blank">To learn more about how you can LIVE your faith and walk the walk, visit this site</a>.</p>
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		<title>What happens to a family when a member loses their faith?</title>
		<link>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/what-happens-to-a-family-when-a-member-loses-their-faith</link>
		<comments>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/what-happens-to-a-family-when-a-member-loses-their-faith#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 May 2010 03:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dbsbrad</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Changing the Face of Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[atheist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christian love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/?p=152</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What happens when a family member walks away from the faith? Do we shun them or do we love them? We do damage to the person and tarnish the image of our faith when we reject them. So, LIVE the faith and love them through their difficult time.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I like to visit the &#8220;other&#8221; side from time to time and read comments from non-believers on various sites.</p>
<p>One thing I keep seeing is situations where the person (the non-believer) finally tells their parents or friends&#8230;and BAM&#8230;rejection. Parents and friends stop talking to them (presumably because they are so hurt)..they are shunned.</p>
<p>It leaves me scratching my head in disbelief. I know it happens, but WHY?</p>
<p>God calls us to love each other. God calls us to take care of one another.</p>
<p>How do you think non-believers feel when us Christians, who are supposed to show unconditional love, about face and walk away from the relationship?</p>
<p>From reading the comments, it&#8217;s clear that it&#8217;s incredibly damaging&#8230;not just to the person who&#8217;s at a very vulnerable time (spiritual low you might say)&#8230;but also damaging to Christianity.</p>
<p>Our reputation should be one of loving people THROUGH a hard time in their life&#8230;not walking away. People should know us as the people who didn&#8217;t judge, didn&#8217;t condemn, didn&#8217;t shun.</p>
<p>So, I&#8217;ll ask the pink elephant in the room question here: Is there anyone in your family that you have severed relations with because they fell away from the church? Ask yourself&#8230;is that what God wants, or is this just my imperfect human way of dealing with difficult situations?</p>
<p>Reach out in love and rebuild the relationship. Don&#8217;t try to drag them to church, don&#8217;t have your pastor chat with them, don&#8217;t try to fix them&#8230;just love them and spend time with them. Show them God&#8217;s unconditional love and mercy by how you treat them.</p>
<p>Who knows&#8230;LIVING the Christian faith may be just the witness they need to someday return to the faith.</p>
<p>To learn more about how you can help reverse negative Christian stereotypes, visit <a href="http://www.changingthefaceofchristianity.com">http://www.changingthefaceofchristianity.com</a>. When you get there, JOIN the cause.</p>
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		<title>Love Others by Looking Them in the Eye</title>
		<link>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/love-others-by-looking-them-in-the-eye</link>
		<comments>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/love-others-by-looking-them-in-the-eye#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:05:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dbsbrad</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[1 John]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Changing the Face of Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bible]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christian love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/?p=142</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We meet people all the time. All too often I feel like the person shaking my hand has no interest in me at all. They don't take the time to "SEE" me. They are usually gazing off in the distance for the next hand to shake. I'm left feeling like "Mr. Cellophane" from the musical Chicago. To establish relationships with other people, and to show them you care, start by looking them in the eye.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt like Mr. Cellophane from the musical Chicago? I have felt this way more often than I care to admit. In other cultures, it might be the norm, but in America, not looking someone in the eye sends a message: &#8221;You aren&#8217;t very important to me&#8221;. Forget about trying to remember someone&#8217;s name; the eyes come first.</p>
<p>God commands us to love one another (1 John 3:23). Love can be communicated in many different ways… by listening, by helping, through words of encouragement and hope, and through acts of selfless service. But love always starts with &#8221;hello&#8221;. When you first meet someone, do you give them undivided attention, or are you looking for the next person to meet?</p>
<p>I can count on one hand the times in my life when I have witnessed someone giving consistent focused attention to a group of new people; treating each person as uniquely important. How about you?</p>
<p>We meet new people at the grocery store, at the pharmacy, standing in line for tickets to a show, waiting for a table at a restaurant, at a power-lunch or networking event, and even at church. How do you make people feel when you first meet them? My suggestion is to first make them feel important to you with your eyes. There are other suggestions, but this is a good first step.</p>
<p>In my church, there is a small time set aside at the beginning of service to &#8221;go shake some hands&#8221;. This is where I have most often felt invisible to those new people I&#8217;m meeting. For some visualization, imagine you are in a dense fog and all you see coming at you is a hand. So, you start to extend your hand to meet theirs. Now, if you are like me, the next thing you do is look up and see whose hand it is.</p>
<p>This is the moment of truth. Will the person be looking at you as they shake your hand, or will they be looking left, right, or past you for the next hand? The goal is not to &#8216;&#8217;shake as many hands in the next 30 seconds as possible&#8221; and the winner gets a prize. It&#8217;s about connecting briefly with another human being.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m calling you to be the type of person who looks the other person in the eye. When they look up, they should see you looking at them and only them. While you say hello, continue to look at them. In that brief moment, make them feel important with your eyes.</p>
<p>Jesus Christ was quoted as saying &#8221;If someone says, &#8216;I love God,&#8217; and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.&#8221; (1 John 4:20) The practical application today is this: How can you love others if you aren&#8217;t even willing to give them your brief undivided attention? If it&#8217;s tough to do this in church with fellow believers, how are you possibly going to make non-believers feel important when you meet them?</p>
<p>When it comes to evangelism and connecting with non-believers, I won&#8217;t suggest I have it all figured out. But I do know this: true evangelism starts with a loving relationship where the other person feels as important to you as they are to our heavenly Father. The first and possibly only chance you will get to develop such a relationship depends on your eyes. Where are they focused?</p>
<p>My plea is that you let the whole world turn into a thick fog where the only thing you see is the other person&#8217;s eyes. In that moment, choose to love them as our Father has commanded, through focused attention. Who knows? The next time you meet them they might actually remember your name and you might remember theirs.</p>
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		<title>Love them Anyway!</title>
		<link>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/changing-the-face-of-christianity/love-them-anyway</link>
		<comments>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/changing-the-face-of-christianity/love-them-anyway#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:05:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dbsbrad</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Changing the Face of Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/?p=100</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We can change the face of Christianity by loving others...ESPECIALLY when we aren't feeling loved ourselves. ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sometimes, I don&#8217;t feel like being loving. People aren&#8217;t being nice to me, I&#8217;m feeling unappreciated, and no one seems to notice me in a positive way. Ever feel like that?</p>
<p>I felt that way last night with my family. Then I was reminded by God that It&#8217;s in these times that we are called to Love anyway.</p>
<p>We can <a title="facebook group - changing the face of christianity" href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35751902542" target="_blank">change the face of Christianity </a>by loving others&#8230;ESPECIALLY when we aren&#8217;t feeling loved ourselves. Give it a try, and let me know about your experience.</p>
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		<title>Best Way to Approach an Atheist</title>
		<link>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/best-way-to-approach-an-atheist</link>
		<comments>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/best-way-to-approach-an-atheist#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:04:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dbsbrad</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Changing the Face of Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[atheist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christian love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/?p=74</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was recently on the radio sharing my faith story from Atheist to Christian. During the interview, the host asked a question I wasn&#8217;t completely prepared for. She said &#8220;Given that you were an atheist, how do you suggest Christians should approach an atheist&#8221;?
Now, I knew how NOT too&#8230;but how to? I thought for a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was recently on the radio sharing my faith story from Atheist to Christian. During the interview, the host asked a question I wasn&#8217;t completely prepared for. She said &#8220;Given that you were an atheist, how do you suggest Christians should approach an atheist&#8221;?</p>
<p>Now, I knew how NOT too&#8230;but how to? I thought for a second and answered&#8230; you simply much SHOW God&#8217;s love to them. You can&#8217;t quote scripture (they don&#8217;t believe in the Book), you can&#8217;t say &#8220;I&#8217;ll pray for you&#8221; because that&#8217;s like telling an Atheist you are from Mars and your name is Shraaaak-neebo-alkkksitar&#8221;. It just doesn&#8217;t resonate with them. So, the only way to truly win them over is to show them genuine Christianity. The kind where you actually DO love your neighbor in words and actions. The kind where you don&#8217;t look and act like every other person in the world.</p>
<p>In my words, you show them the true FACE of christianity&#8230;.the kind they can&#8217;t resist.</p>
<p>So, a quick topic to discuss as a group. What REAL, practical, do-able, genuine acts of Christian Love are you doing for Christians and non-christians alike? Share your best tips!!!</p>
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		<title>Holy Ostracism&#8230;Not So Holy</title>
		<link>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/holy-ostracismnot-so-holy</link>
		<comments>http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/general/holy-ostracismnot-so-holy#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2009 13:40:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>dbsbrad</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Changing the Face of Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.deeperbiblestudies.com/blog/?p=72</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Should we practice holy ostracism because someone is homosexual? absolutely not. That only feeds the negative perception...that "we won't associate with those sinners"..and that we are somehow better than them.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I recently read a blog article about Holy Ostracism. It was asking the question if we should isolate ourselves&#8230;or otherwise refuse fellowship with homosexuals. There are biblical references to not fellowshipping with &#8220;sinners&#8221; that people rely on to support this view. However, here is my response.</p>
<p>I think we Christians, to our discredit, place much too much importance on the issue of homesexual sin. Outsiders view us a haters, high and mighty, pompous, etc&#8230;  Is homosexuality a sin? yes. But remember that ANY sin is just as sinful as homosexuality to God. God teaches us to take the plank out of our own eye before we look to take the speck out of another person&#8217;s eye.</p>
<p>Should we practice holy ostracism because someone is homosexual? absolutely not. That only feeds the negative perception&#8230;that &#8220;we won&#8217;t associate with those sinners&#8221;..and that we are somehow better than them.</p>
<p>The fact is that we are NOT better than them. Even if we are Christian, and they are not&#8230;we are still NOT better than them. God is better&#8230;and it is Him who redeems us.</p>
<p>Would you ostracize someone who drank excessively? How about someone who was prideful. How about someone who lusts after someone who is not our spouse? How about someone who (insert any other sin you&#8217;ve ever heard of)?</p>
<p>Unless you are going to ostracise everyone (for all sins), I wouldn&#8217;t recommend ostracizing anyone for simply being homosexual.</p>
<p>Instead, associate with them. Share your love with them. Engage with them and let your life influence them positively. Let them know that even though God considers their behavior a sin&#8230;that we ALL sin, and God still loves us. Then encourage them to seek God and ask him into their life. Homosexuals don&#8217;t need to be &#8220;fixed&#8221;&#8230;they need to be loved. God will take it from there.</p>
<p>By the way, I&#8217;m very passionate about this negative perception of Christianity. I&#8217;ve started a movement to counter those negative perceptions&#8230;but it starts with YOU..and how you interface with the world. If you are interested, <a title="Changing the Face of Christianity - FaceBook Group" href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35751902542" target="_blank">join our facebook group called &#8220;Chaning the Face of Christianity</a>&#8220;:</p>
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