"A Message To Non-Believers" By Shane C. Montgomery

I would like to take a moment and speak to those readers who have not given their lives to the Lord, to those of you who have not come out from the world and chosen the good path, and followed Jesus Christ.

First, I need to tell you that I am not judging you one bit, it is not my intention to call you out as a wretched sinner or a Hell bound soul. This is a subject I do not wish to engage at this time. Why not? Because, like you, I am a sinner also. So is every single man, woman and child who are true believers of Christ. We all are nothing more than sinners, sinners who have recognized their guilt and lot in life and have been found and delivered by Christ Jesus.
We are no different than you non-believer, we were sinners in need of a Savior, and we still remain sinners in need of a Savior. We do not change into a new creature of righteousness once we believe, instead it takes a life time and then only after we have left this world and stand before God the Father in the next, will we be Glorified and made completely anew.


My first message to you would be to beg you not to judge Christ by His children. You see us everyday and you base your thoughts and theories about Christ from what you see in His adopted children, but like I mentioned a moment ago, we are no different than you, we are by no means better than you, just simply better off. And even then, I do not mean better off in the treasures and happiness of this world, for the true believer will endure hardships in the name of Christ.  All true believers must endure the trials and hardships of life. Just because we are promised eternal life, does not mean we do not suffer in this life.


You have heard it said “Don't judge a book by it's cover”, well, I am asking you not to judge Christ by His flock. We still sin, though we work on not sinning and we hate sin, yet we still stumble in sin. In God's eyes we are made right and ready for Heaven, but in your eyes and in our eyes, we still look and most times still act like every other sinner in life. We do not morph into a perfect being. We do not have all the answers, we are not perfect, we are not righteous, we will not be so until we stand before God and inherit our crown in heaven. The world is full of self proclaimed “Righteous” people, these are the ones that you cannot stand to be around, they think they are sinless and made perfect and that everyone else is garbage next to them. It is unfortunate that these people act this way, but they do, let me say this, they do not speak for the true believer and they most assuredly do not speak for Christ, for they do not know anything of Him and His love, mercy, and free grace, they only know of their self deception. These people who claim they are without sin are even more lost then you are dear reader. They are just as Hell bound as every other person who goes through this life without Christ as Savior.


Those who make their own righteousness make a righteousness of no value and no use. Even the faith of a believer is a free gift of God's mercy and love. Please do not be fooled by these people, and please do not base your thoughts on Christ on these type of people, for they truly are not of Christ. Even the best Christian falls short of the glory of God. Even the very best believer, the most devout among us are sinners. We are no better, just better off. It is the mercy and love of God alone that we are delivered from sin and made children of God. Not by anything we do or earn. God simply chose to show us pity and compassion, nothing more. But even as the strongest of believers is still sinful and unworthy of His mercy, the very weakest and foolish believer is in a better state than you who remain a non-believer.


This is a hard thing to say, and I do not say it to belittle you in anyway, or to pass judgment, you might think I speak differently and that I very well do pass judgment on you, but I assure you, I am not. Only pointing out a truth in life.  If the weakest and most foolish believer were to stand next to the most loving, intelligent non-believer, even the very best example of a non-believer who does great and merciful works for others, the foolish, feeble believer has communion with God in this life and the one to come. The other person does not have this promise. Let me remind you, I base everything I am writing, on the Bible, the Holy Word of God and I base nothing on my own thoughts or theories. Straight from the Word of God and you are free to pick up a Bible and challenge every word I write here today. I have no intention of misleading you, I want nothing from you except your welfare. I do not desire your money, or your attendance in my church, I do not desire your approval or your good comments, I only desire your life be long and spared in the end. You are my neighbor and you are my townspeople. Why would I want anything ill for you? You are not my enemy non-believer, you are a human being just as I am, flesh and blood and bones, you have family and friends just as I do, you have cares and worries just as I do, you have dreams of joy and contentment, just as I do. Why would I wish ill for you? I only seek that God be glorified and that your life be long.....in both worlds.


Everyone has a little god that they make up, one they carry around with them in their pocket, this god they make, he allows and approves of everything they do, this god they make does not weigh heavy on their conscience, this god they make goes along and permits all they desire and do. But this “little god” is false. You must know he is not the “Real God” of the Bible. This little god we all make up as nonbelievers is only a device of our own making to help us cope with our ever demanding conscience, this little god will not get you to Heaven. This little god will prove useless in the trials of life. This little god cannot stand up to temptation, suffering, illness, the loss of a loved one, loss of job, loss of home, this little god is plastic and useless. Nothing more than a trinket of your own making. Please do not put your faith in a god of your own making.


Whenever I speak of God to non-believers they will always reply thusly- “Well to me, God is _______” And right there is where they go wrong. Saying, who God is to them and not who God is in reality. They are two very different Gods! One is true and real, the other is make believe. Which one will save your soul? Whatever you might think of God, whatever you might have always heard of Him, pay it no attention or thought until you yourself open a Bible and read the truths. Do not let someone else tell you what Scripture says, read it yourself. (I am not rejecting the public worship of God in Church) Don't let your neighbor or friend tell you what God is, he or she might be way off track. Read on your own, if you do not understand something then you can ask a minister or elder or some other mature believer to clarify, but do not be content on what others who have never read the Bible tell you what the Bible says.


Would you trust your life to a surgeon who has never performed an operation or who has never been to medical school? Then why trust just anyone with an opinion on God, why trust them with your soul? That is true foolishness.  I asked you not to judge Christ after His servants, and now I ask you not to judge the privileges of His Kingdom by the measure of comfort His people attain. This comfort might be health and wealth or it might be poverty and illness. Most of us are poor creatures, who fall well short of the glory of God. We all come short of the blessedness of God which we might enjoy. We know and depend on this truth, there are glorious things in the city of our God. Blessings we have had, and blessing that await us. There will be trials for us as believers, we will be purified and made ready for Heaven in the fires of God's furnace. Just as gold is purified with fire, so are we, we will suffer hardships and trials, all of which is there to make us more pure and prepare us for life's troubles and for Heavens holiness. Life as a believer is not what you see on the religious TV stations. We do cry, we do worry, we do get sick, we do suffer poverty and often death, and all for His Namesake.


What we do have is peace. We have a comfort in knowing that all this means very little. We know that love is what is important, love for God and for our Neighbors. That is you dear reader! What makes us joyful is that we have friendship with God in this life, here and now and will have it more so in Heaven. We have peace of mind and soul that the non-believer knows nothing of. We have a love for God, a love for ourselves and a love for people that is unknowable and beyond even the greatest love of the non-believer. This is not boasting, it is true. We have a joy, deep within us that gets us through every trial in life. Even the harshest of life's trials mean so little in the big picture. Contentment of heart, mind and soul is more valuable than the largest chest of gold. Peace of mind and of heart that only a child of God can know. We eat of bread from our Father's house. This bread sustains us like nothing else can, and the good news is this my friend, there is enough bread in our Father's house for you! This I promise you, if you desire this bread of life, you only need to seek it. Seek God with all your heart, mind and soul and He will find you, He will deliver you from your bondage to sin, fear, anxiety.


You can be a child of God's. Christ is Lord, we do not “make Him Lord of our lives”, we do not “accept” Him as Savior, He is already all these things and more, we do not “find” Him, He is not missing! Seek Christ, and He will find you! Seek Christ, and He will find you! Seek Him with all your heart, pray to Him, cry out to Him. The Bible says this.... “anyone who calls on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved!” We are saved by calling on His Name, not by giving money, not by tithing, not by going to church, not by living religious, not by being good. But by calling on His Name alone. Have faith that Christ can and will save you and He will! Keep calling on Him, day after day, and you will begin to see that He is working in your life, things are beginning to change, you begin to dislike sin more and more and you begin to love more and more. Is that such a bad thing? “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you.” If you still believe I have a judgmental heart, or that I have another motive or that I am being unloving by saying this to you, think of this and I will end......


….....What is more loving? If I am driving down your street late one night, in the very wee hours of the night and I drive by your house and notice flames and smoke coming from the roof of your house. It is too late at night, all your neighbors are fast asleep. I notice that all the lights are off and there appears to be no movement in your house, everyone is still asleep, while the fire grows. Should I mind my own business and keep driving? Or should I stop my car, jump out and run to your front door and bang on the door hard, screaming as loud as I can, “Fire, Fire! Wake up, your house is on fire! Wake up and Run for Your Lives!” Would that be rude of me? Would that be unloving of me? Should I keep driving? After all, I would not want to wake you from your slumber to save your life! That would be unloving my friends.


“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you.”


Shane C. Montgomery