The Everyday Club

2/27/11     Wassin,      about 30
I had to go to Home Depot to pick up a few items and on my way out a MDB gospel tract helped start an interesting conversation with Wassin, a Home Depot employee from Lebanon. He talked about some of the religious groups in Lebanon, placing himself in the Christian camp, but I found his spiritual beliefs were far from biblical Christianity. Wassin is of the opinion that there is no eternal heaven or hell, that they exist in this world right now, and that when he dies he will be reincarnated into another human being. He is a positive person, truly appreciating his new home and job here in Chicago, loves his wife and is excited to have their first child on the way. He said he feels he is in heaven right now. He feels every person should decide for themselves who God is. I referred to the 2nd commandment which warns against making false idols to explain how we have a human tendency to try to make a god for ourselves, one we are most comfortable with. Our ideas about God should come from outside ourselves, according to how He chooses to reveal Himself, and I explained that this is why we need to look to the Bible for that outside authority. This made some sense to Wassin and seemed to get his focus off of his own imaginary ideas about God and onto the authority of God's Word. He listened and I think he began to get convicted by exposure to the law as it revealed how he has been rebelling against God's authority in his life, even as he thought of himself as a "good person". Unfortunately, he was called back to work, but I think I definitely got his attention, enough for him to read what I gave him and check out the Bible for himself.