Thoughts on door knocking...

Just had my door knocked by some Jehovah's witnesses! LOL Usually I don't mind a door knocking, but this was crazy! I have never walked away from a door knocking shaking, trembling with anger. I got called a pharisee and a sinner whose prayer God cannot hear. WHAT? How is that going to bring people to Christ?! I guess that was their fear-up-harsh approach. Little did they know they were knocking on my door and I don't take being beat up with scripture especially in the name of Jesus. It made me sad that they were willing to go door-to-door telling people God could not hear them if they weren't a Jehovah's Witness. So I told her that.

I told her Jesus met needs first before teaching anything. He brought a teaching filled with love foremost, not filled with doom. She told me meeting needs only drudged up "membership numbers" and filled pews with people who mooch off the church. She then told me I was denominational, but couldn't tell me what denomination was.  I told her that there were "holy" people who weren't going to make it, and then she called me a Pharisee. I showed her scripture to back up what I was saying and invited her to church and she got ticked and left.

WOW. I have knocked doors before, but what we asked is if they needed anything. We did everything from giving food to people to putting tires on people's cars to helping someone put a roof on. Some came back, some didn't. But we cared for them and carried out work for them before we ever cracked a Bible. If someone wants to learn let them know you care before you do anything otherwise it's hollow. No one wants to feel like a checkbox on your list of things to do before you die.


Does God Hear Sinners? Well...

This concept comes from John 9:31, "We know that God does not listen to sinners." But as with all scripture, we must not take it out of context.

Who said this? Was it God, Jesus, an apostle, or a prophet? No, it was a blind man that Jesus healed who was speaking to the Pharisees. Was he divinely inspired to say such a thing?

From John 9, we see the blind man did not seek out Jesus, but Jesus healed him to teach His disciples a lesson. We can't tell how much knowledge the blind man had of Jesus. He did say Jesus was a prophet (v.17), and had disciples (v.27), but he did not know if Jesus was a sinner or not (v.25). We do know his parent had close ties to the synagogue (v.22), so maybe he heard this concept taught by the Jewish leaders.
So, does God listen to the prayers of sinners?

I hope so, since we have all sinned (1 John 1:8). In the prayer Jesus taught His disciples, He said, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12). There is also the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector found in Luke 18. The latter prayed, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (v.13). Jesus said, "this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God" (v.14).

Probably the best account of a sinner praying is Cornelius of Acts 10. It says he "prayed
to God regularly" (v.2). Luke records that Cornelius was "devout and God-fearing" (v.2), but he was not a Christian. God sent an angel to him which said, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God" (v.5). Eventually, he heard the gospel from Peter and was baptized.

From these scriptures, we can see that God does listen to the prayers of sinners. And keep in mind, we may be God's answer to those prayers.

Do I think God can have anything to do with sin? No. But I believe that you can be sincere and sincerely wrong, and by telling someone something that will shatter them and perhaps their faith, and their willingness to hear, even with good intention, you're committing a sin as well and maybe more lost than the person you're evangelizing to.

I do believe God can hear anyone. He's God! He cares for everyone. He desperately desires everyone... doesn't matter if you're sinner, Christian, woman, man, black, white, pink, purple or polka dot.