I've been on both sides of the fence on this, and here's my take.
Short response = no interest
No response = no interest
However, if I have taken the time to write a long, carefully worded and thought out email, It is rude not to reply, even if it is to say there is no interest. That has happened a couple of times but I just say oh well, I tried.
Same with if I get an email. If someone has taken the time to write extensively, I am sensitive to that and respect it, even if I don't have an interest. I will always reply to those in the same manner.
"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)
Don't get me started on this one. I have seen a good friend in anguish over this because she (and many others) have focused on the last part of that verse, that God will give the desires of his/her heart. Then they get upset when their prayers aren't answered. People take it to mean that God will give us what we want. They say "Well, God knows the desire of my heart, and He wants me to be happy."
Since when is God at our bidding? Since when are we to tell God what we want Him to do to please us?
The first part of the verse says, "Take delight in the Lord". So if we take delight in the Lord, what are we going to do? We will seek Him. His priority and His will - will be ours. We take joy in Him. So, he will give us our hearts desire because our hearts desire will be His desires.
I think it is up to us to be aware of our brothers and sisters.
First and foremost, are they truly saved? If we see evidence that the essentials are there - they profess faith in Christ and show fruit, they will make it across, perhaps solely by the grace and merit of the guide, even if their theology is not good. (To use your analogy, they are being picked up and carried).
If their theology does not include the right guide, we need to introduce them to Him. Without Him they won't make it across.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV) -
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Then the question of the trail (interpretation of scripture) is stickier. We can try to help the wayward trailblazer by asking the guide to help illuminate them and light their way, and ask him to help us illuminate our own way as we talk to them and show them the trail.
2 Peter 3:16 (NIV)
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
If we or someone else is on the right trail (interpretation of the trail), one might examine whether they are being rebellious to listen to the guide. They may wander not because they don't know the trail, but because they don't want to follow it obiediantly.We do the same thing - we ask the guide to help them, we point out the trail to them to the truth they know. They too, will be at the mercy of the guide. He will finish the work He started in getting them across. He may discipline them, and in the end, carry them if He has to.
Then we've either interpreted the trail wrong or we are not following the right guide. Back track on the trail, question the guide. Wait. Do not go forward until they agree.
Even if you know the trail and follow it, you still need the guide to pick you up when you fall down along the way and to help when you don't follow it exactly.
I would also add that if the guide starts at with you, you are guaranteed to get to the other side - but you still have to physically cross to it.
Thanks for the encouragement. I got 32 oz. in today, and I need the accoutability to stick with it. I know for me its something I've needed to do for a long time. My beverage diet has been toxic for years. (Just diet coke).
