Convert!

After writing Home for the Holiday, there has been a word bouncing around my head: Convert. I read a tweet where someone suggested I was trying to convert Jews to Christianity, which I denied. I still stand by what I said: I am not called to "convert." Yet what I should have added: I am called to SHARE!
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One time at a large fair near us, I was curious about a group that had a tent with "Jesus" written in negative (where parts of the outline were in black and the letters were the same color as the background). Above it read a sign: "Can you see what it says?" So I walked up and said I could. They asked three more riddles, giving me the answers, and then I was called into the presence of the woman in the back of the tent. She told me how I was saved by Jesus, how I should now confess all my sins, repent, read the Word and Believe! She read a passage from one of the four main gospels and then had me bow my head while we prayed together for forgiveness. Not once did they ever ask if I believed or was a fellow follower of Christ. And by this point in my life, I had come to identify myself as Yeshua / Jesus' sister.
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Then the woman instructed me to write down something along the lines of: "Thank You, Jesus, for saving me and opening my eyes today." I, being stubborn, wrote down what was in my heart, "Thank You for the opportunity to take a moment from a fair, and turn to You with another in prayer."
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The woman was outraged!
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This was NOT what she wanted to see. She scolded me and said that she wanted me to write it over. She even crumpled it up and tossed it away! I noted the stack of written testimonials she had behind her. I refused and got tossed out of the tent.
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Why didn't I write the words she wanted? My eyes weren't opened that day; I was a Christian already. Or did my eyes open a bit more following that experience?
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What I saw saddened me: sharing the Good News (definition of "Gospel") and Love of my Brother and God had become a ... video game. It was more important to score "points" by counting the number of people you "converted" than it was sharing what we are called to share. Even Atheists use the word "convert" when they convince another to believe as they do.
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In complete honesty, God or Christ does not give a fig what "religion" you are. How we behave, how we treat each other and how we work on our relationship with God gives us our measure in this life.
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Gandhi was a remarkable and noteworthy follower of Christ's teachings; he was also a Hindu! I have no doubt he is sharing the feast with my Brother in Heaven among many others. There are *M*A*N*Y* in Heaven who are not Christian or even monotheistic.
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In addition to our relationships, we are called to share. Yes, we can share the Word, but the actual tool we should use to teach is a far greater one: our example. So many in this world don't get that. They condemn others who do not follow God as the do. They even look down upon others who share their faith when there are differences in practices or traditions.
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It literally breaks my heart!!! I feel pain course through my spirit each time I come across this. Do they truly NOT see what they do????
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We are not God's Judges. Why do we then continue to divide the world along religious lines and insist that if another is not inside our circle; they are to be condemned? The adversary seeks to divide. For only when our efforts are united can humanity achieve far more than the sum of our individual efforts. God seeks to unite us; Christ calls us to be brothers and sisters, to be ONE. Which calling are we following?
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Instead of "converting", we should let God's Love flow through us, showing compassion to another. We should let Christ's Forgiveness flow through us, forgiving each other, where we truly find our own forgiveness. We should let God's Mercy be a light that shines in our actions. We should teach through example...   after all   ....politicians and salespeople use words.
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God is in all religions that teach these things. When the teachings of a religion divide or put their followers above their fellow man outside "the circle," they have become lost sheep. My Brother grieves this. I think this is why there is the scolding of various churches at the beginning of the book of Revelation. They are lost while they try to save.
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A hand in the darkness...
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Yet within each there is God's Light and it still shines if we put aside what we believe things SHOULD be to discover what is really there.