The Everyday Club

3/13/10 Joe, about 40
After our monthly Saturday morning men's breakfast at church I invited Jake, a younger believer, to go on an evangelism outing with me. Since it was raining we went to the grocery store where we talked to several people including Joe, who believed in God as the "higher power" of his A.A. background. He views himself as a good person in general, but not a good Catholic because of his poor church attendance. Joe also told us he has not kept the Ten Commandments well, and since he seemed to have a good understanding of his own failings, I skipped the task of talking about individual commandments and personalizing Joe's guilt in failing to keep them. In hindsight I wish I had taken the time to do this, because being aware of one's own sins and being truly alarmed that one has broken God's laws in rebellion against him are two different things. We went on to discuss God's justice in demanding punishment for sin, and God's love in sacrificing His own son to satisfy that justice. This was good, and I think it may help Joe realize there is much more to his relationship to God than church attendance or trying to be good, but without the alarm that one has when seeing their own sin compared to the standard of God's holy law, our conversation could only go so far.