2/1/12 Calvin, about 45
On my way home from work today I stopped for some groceries. Wherever there are people there are opportunities to share the Gospel so I struck up a conversation with another shopper named Calvin. He was more than happy to vent his frustrations with the hypocrisy and injustice he sees in our government, capitalism, church, and God Himself, saying that he can't believe in a God who would let the world get into the horrible state it is in. He reminded me of some of the "Occupy" protestors I've seen on TV. We had a long, interesting discussion right there in the frozen foods aisle. Calvin grew up in a southside Chicago housing project and, beginning with his grandmother's Baptist church, has a history of moving from one church to another. However because of the hypocracy he says he found, he now claims he can't believe in God. What could I tell Calvin that he hasn't heard before? Calvin believes strongly in his own sense of right and wrong, so I asked how he measures up according to his own standard. Asking about specific sins such as lying helped him to see he is guilty of the same wrongs he judges in others. I asked how the world would be if people obeyed their God-given conscience. "Can we really blame God for allowing the world to be in this state, or should we take responsibility for it ourselves?" We didn't solve the world's problems in the 20 minutes or so that we talked, but I pray this conversation might have helped Calvin to stop blaming them on God.

1/30/12   Hajee,    about 30
Jesus told his followers they would be fishers of men so Joe, a church brother, and I went out on a "streetfishing" expedition. We met a man named Hajee (not sure of spelling) as he headed into a store, and asked if he had a minute to talk about his beliefs. Hajee is from Lebanon and is a Druze, a mideast religion with close ties to Islam. He believes in reincarnation for those who aren't ready for heaven, and that all people will eventually go to heaven after a succesion of lives. We heard a lot more of his beliefs, many of which are obviously in opposition to biblical Christianity. It might have been tempting to point out our differences immediately, but we were looking for a conversation, not a confrontation. Our respect and willingness to listen gave Hajee the willingness to listen to the basics of the Gospel in return. When we went our separate ways, Joe and I prayed that Hajee will respond to the biblical truths he heard.

1/27/12 Vince, about 18
On my way home from work today I stopped at a park where I met a serious looking older teen on his way to the basketball courts. I asked if he had a minute to answer an interesting question - "What do you think happens after we step off this earth - what happens next after this life?" He - Vince - looked at me and broke into a big smile - "I don't know but that's just what I was thinking about before you asked me" he said. I found out Vince has no religious background and hasn't read any of the Bible, but he is definitely interested in spiritual things. The problem is he gets his information from YouTube and sensationalist TV shows. He also told about different personal experiences with ghosts or spiritual apparitions of some sort. He feels that if he was judged he would have to stay here in the middle, joining these spirits, because he feels he is neither good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. I spent some time explaining biblical truths, and Vince was very interested but due to a short attention span and various friends walking by distracting him we only talked about 20 minutes. He was glad to get more info - please pray against everything that will try to distract him from reading it.

1/26/12 Alfred, about 24
Today I went with Micah (from church) to witness at a nearby college campus. In the student center we met Alfred, a graduate student from France who agreed to talk about his beliefs. Alfred's grandparents were Catholic and he had nominal involvement in their church, but he decided early that God doesn't exist because of all the evil in the world and, as Alfred put it, "God never did anything good for me". We talked for awhile about reasons for belief in God, and then about the implications if God does, indeed, exist. Much of our conversation focused on the sources of evil in the world and in our own hearts. Alfred said several times that he gets disgusted not just by the bad behavior of others but in himself. He could see that he can't even keep his own standards which, according to the Bible, comes from his God-given conscience. He agreed that though he knows better, his selfish desires often keep him from doing the right thing. He was beginning to see the connection between our own immoral choices and the problems in the world around us that he had blamed God for, and he was slowly taking responsibility for his sin. There was so much more I wanted to tell him - especially about Jesus - but I didn't want to mistake intellectual progress about biblical truths for spiritual progress such as conviction and repentence of sin. Alfred had already heard more than he could comprehend with his atheistic world view, and he had much to think about. I gave him a good book and my contact info should he want to talk further.

1/25/12 Ed, about 20
I went on a witnessing walk with Brad from church, and we came across an IIT student out for a smoke in front of one of their Greek fraternities. He was open to answering some questions so I began by asking if he had any belief in a future existance of any sort after his life on earth is over. He - Ed - is a chemical engineering student and explained that although he grew up in a culturally Buddhist household he doesn't have any belief in a life to come or in a creator God, since they can't be proven scientifically. He liked the idea of "spirit guides" who lead one through life, but this seemed to be more of a whimsical thought inconsistent with his previous claim of commitment to science. It was cold out and I knew we didn't have time to talk for very long, so rather than go through some of the logical arguments for God's existence, I simply explained the Christian view of God as both our creator and final judge who will hold us accountable for our actions in this life. Ed was open to this possibility, though obviously very non-commital, so I just asked how he thought he would measure up to such a judgment. I used some of the Ten Commandments as a standard for comparison to help Ed see the personal nature of his sin, and even without believing in the authority of the Bible Ed could see he had failed to keep even his own standards according to his conscience. This was a lot to take in for a young guy who was just out for a smoke, being exposed to a world view entirely different from his own and I felt it important to end the conversation before wearing out our welcome. I believe Brad and I may have been part of Ed's first exposure to bibllical truths, and hope we won't be the last.

1/24/12 Sam, about 23
A young man at Burger King agreed to answer some questions about his spiritual beliefs, and I soon found that he - Sam - has rejected any sort of organized religion or faith in favor of science and reason. His main reason for rejecting God, though, was that he can't understand how a loving God would allow the poverty, injustice, and cruelty he sees in the world. We talked about this a while and one point I made seemed to get him thinking - that ultimately God must have decided in His infinite wisdom that somehow giving man free will is worth all the trouble. Being the rebel that he is Sam could hardly disagree that we shouldn't have free will, but he found it hard to believe that we humans would have enough wickedness in our hearts that we would turn against each other the way we do - but he couldn't deny the evidence in the world around us. I explained how the original temptation of Adam and Eve was not just the forbidden fruit but to "be like God" (Gen 3:5) At first Sam disagreed that it would be a problem for everyone to be their own God - but as we talked he could see where that would lead - selfishness, greed, poverty, famine, war - the very things he had blamed God for in the first place. "So you see, there's only room for one God" was my conclusion. We talked quite a while, and I could see he was really thinking it all through. I'd like to say my logical explanations won Sam over to faith, but I know better. Even though I do believe in man's free will on some level, in the end God is still sovereign. Sam will only believe if God reveals the truth to him (Luke 10:21) Please pray that He does.

1/22/12    Ken,     about 40
On my way home from church today I stopped at a McDonald's hoping to share the Gospel. I found an African-American man dressed in a suit, looking like he had either just come from church himself or was a businessman. He - Ken - was willing to answer my questions so I sat down to talk. As it turned out he is a bodyguard by trade and had an appointment to keep, but he had 10 or 15 minutes to talk. Ken said he believes in God and a God-given purpose in life - "to make the best use of one's gifts and talents" - but he doesn't believe in heaven or hell. He thinks that one's soul goes on to influence the lives of others, particularly ones descendants. He believes that very little of what the Bible says is true, because there are so many different denominations within Christianity. He said he doesn't believe that the idea of being accountable to God on judgment day is even possible, yet he believes in those things that all major religions share in common. Where does one go with a conversation like this? I knew my time was limited, so I just touched on a few things Ken didn't seem to have thought of, like the exclusive claims of Christ to be God; the predictions of Christ about many false teachers; the desire of God to make His will known for all to see in the Bible. Finally I asked if, even though he doesn't believe it, does he have at least a basic understanding of the Bible's message? "Do you have any idea why this man who was hung on a cross 2000 years ago would have anything to do with us today?" I asked. This started a good discussion, but, unfortunately, Ken had to get to his appointment. I gave him a booklet about that very topic, and, hopefully, I also stirred up the curiosity he will need to read it.

1/22/12 Ken, about 40
On my way home from church today I stopped at a McDonald's hoping to share the Gospel. I found an African-American man dressed in a suit, looking like he had either just come from church himself or was a businessman. He - Ken - was willing to answer my questions so I sat down to talk. As it turned out he is a bodyguard by trade and had an appointment to keep, but he had 10 or 15 minutes to talk. Ken said he believes in God and a God-given purpose in life - "to make the best use of one's gifts and talents" - but he doesn't believe in heaven or hell. He thinks that one's soul goes on to influence the lives of others, particularly ones descendants. He believes that very little of what the Bible says is true, because there are so many different denominations within Christianity. He said he doesn't believe that the idea of being accountable to God on judgment day is even possible, yet he believes in those things that all major religions share in common. Where does one go with a conversation like this? I knew my time was limited, so I just touched on a few things Ken didn't seem to have thought of, like the exclusive claims of Christ to be God; the predictions of Christ about many false teachers; and the desire of God to make His will known for all to see in the Bible. Finally I asked if, even though he doesn't believe it, does he have at least a basic understanding of the Bible's message? "Do you have any idea why this man who was hung on a cross 2000 years ago would have anything to do with us today?" I asked. This started a good discussion, but, unfortunately, Ken had to get to his appointment. I gave him a booklet about that very topic, and, hopefully, I also stirred up the curiosity he will need to read it.