The Everyday Club

12/06/10   Julio, about 35
While at a Target store I knew I would find some people with a little extra time on their hands in the books and music departments and I did indeed, using a MDB gospel tract as a conversation starter with a man named Julio. Like so many people, once I met him his personality seemed very different than what I imagined. From his clothes style to the way he carried himself, he didn't appear to be the "brightest light on the tree" but he turned out to be very intelligent and inquisitive, especially about spiritual things. However, this same intelligence is what has made it impossible for him to be in a right relationship with God (outside of God's intervention of course) for he has applied his intelligence toward trying to explain away and disprove every major point God has revealed about himself in his word. We talked there for almost an hour, and I'm sure dozens of customers heard parts of our conversation. Trying to explain all the errors in Julio's thinking would be like trying to describe all the symptoms of a disease without talking about the disease itself. The root cause is idolatry, worshipping a "god" of his own making. And in so doing he is falling for many of the original temptations of the serpent in Genesis 3: - he questions God's word, he scoffs at God's warnings of punishment, and he is attracted to the opportunity to be "like God" without God's help. He freely admitted he would be the first to bite from the forbidden fruit just to gain the promised "knowledge". I felt that relating his sinful errors all the way back to the third chapter of the Bible might help him realize he's not the first to think of these things, and that his fate won't be any different either.