Excuses, Excuses!

11/26/11     Scott,     48

If you are a Christian, do you think of more reasons to share the Gospel, or do you more often think of excuses to keep it to yourself?

One goal I have as a Christian is to be ready and willing to share the Gospel "in season and out", in any situation God gives me. But I still struggle with getting out of my comfort zone and being a bold witness.

I really enjoy having longer, more in-depth conversations with people, but sometimes I just don't have the time. It can be hard to settle for the shorter conversations that usually come with handing out tracts as conversation starters. If someone responds favorably and does want to talk more, I know I won't have much time to continue the conversation.

One day this was the situation, and I almost used it as an excuse to not even try. But after praying about it I decided to reset my sights and just hand out a few interesting Gospel tracts and see what might happen, which led to a short but meaningful conversation with a man named Scott.

Scott confessed to a lifetime of drinking and womanizing and freely called himself a sinner, confessing his sins but showing no evidence of having repented of them. Yet he still believed he was saved because of a youth camp experience he'd had as a teenager. He talked about a Bible he had been given there, with the date of his "conversion" written in it. I wondered whether this experience had opened him up to a relationship with God or caused him to be a false convert whose closest experience with God had occurred over 30 years ago.

My time was limited because of my situation, so I had to leave Scott with some good questions and some good info to answer them. Should I have listened to the excuses replaying in my head and not begun the conversation in the first place, since I knew I wouldn't have time for follow-up if needed?

One well-known Christian wrote that the lack of Christian follow-up is like "bringing a spiritual baby into the world but not sticking around to care for it." He wrote this in a book about fulfilling our Great Commission as Christians, to "...go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..."

But this commission must be read in context. Just before it, Jesus said "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." And just after it, he said "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Our Great Commission begins and ends with Jesus! We are just a small part in it. And we are also just a small part of Jesus' Church. Our CO-mission is to be a team effort, and Jesus is our coach, our chief strategist, and ultimately responsible for it's success. So much of the New Testament tells us how we are to do our small part. But no one of us can do it all.

So let's lower our high personal expectations that too often become stumbling blocks, in favor of just going out and doing our part, trusting Jesus and His Church to do theirs. Let's pray past the excuses, proclaim the Gospel, and see what might happen!

11/22/11     Paul,     about 50
While grocery shopping I talked with a man named Paul who had an unusual reason for feeling sure he would go to heaven when he dies. He had a near-death experience - a motorcycle accident - yeas ago and he remembers seeing a white light and feeling a tremendous sense of peace, which he believed was heaven. He reasons that as long as he continues to be just as good as he was when this incident occured, he will still go to heaven. He knows of a former coworker that had the same thing happen to him, except he felt that he had been to hell and back. Its hard to argue against something one has experienced personally, but as we talked it was clear that Paul believes fiercely in his own goodness for salvation rather than in Jesus and the cross. He feels he has suffered enough in this life, and that he now deserves some sort of reward. He told of his struggles with childhood neglect, depression and suicidal thoughts. I would have expected him to have low self-esteem, - and I think he did in terms of social confidence - but when I asked how God would judge him he was bursting with pride. He knows he isn't perfect but because he has gone through so many difficult times he believes God accepts all the excuses he has for breaking His laws. He no longer attends church because of a bad experience he had several years ago, in which he felt offended when a church he was attending wouldn't lend him some money when he found himself unemployed. Try as I did to help him take responsibility for the sin in his life, he always found a way to put the blame on God or someone else. He overlooks the good news of Jesus because he sees no need for Him. He ignores the Saviour because he is convinced he doesn't need saving.

11/21/11     Mike     about 30
Today I spoke with Mike, a Jewish atheist who works as an environmental scientist and whose Brazilian wife is Catholic with an evangelical Christian father. Whew! I had gone to witness at a nearby deli with Paul - from church - and when I asked Mike if he had time to answer a few questions about his beliefs he said "Funny - my wife and I were just talking about that!" He calls himself an atheist but recent conversations with his wife and father-in-law have got him asking some important questions about religion and God's existence. I began by asking all about his beliefs and went on to talk about how the creation reveals a creator, how God's moral law shows the existence of a lawmaker, and how he would be judged according to that law. Mike failed the "good person test" baased on the Ten Commandments, but when asked if he thought the result would be heaven or hell, he maintained his belief in his own goodness, saying "I'm not perfect, but at least I've never tried to hurt others" At this point, maybe I should have continued to try to convince him of God's existence and his need for forgiveness, but it was getting late and I didn't want to leave him convinced only of the unreasonabless of a God who leaves no way out for sinners. I decided to go ahead and share God's plan of redemption in Christ even though Mike wasn't convinced of the depth of his own guilt. I felt he needed to see the logic of Jesus on an intellectual level before he might receive Him in his heart. I hope I was right.

11/18/11 Pam, about 30
Please pray for Pam. She is a waitress who had stepped out of her restaurant for a smoke break. I was walking down the sidewalk and gave her a MDB gospel tract which started a good conversation. When I asked about her beliefs, she said "I think I've just completely lost my faith". I asked "Do you feel mad at God? Do you feel like He has let you down?" "Oh no, I've let Him down. I've been so horrible, I've treated people so terribly. I can't believe what I've done. I'm totally heading in the wrong direction" she told me, tears in her eyes. "Well, the good news is you are in a good place" I said. "The first step back to God is exactly what you are doing, to realize you are headed in the wrong direction. Too many people can't even make that first step" I asked if she was on a very long break and she said she was still on the clock, that she had just stepped out for a smoke, so I gave her some more info that explains both God's law and the consquences for breaking it and the forgiveness found through faith in Jesus. I gave her my contact info and before I left I asked permission to pray for her. She looked a little hesitant. "I'll keep it short" I promised - and I did, praying briefly for God's blessing on her life. She seemed very appreciative as she went back to work and I continued down the sidewalk.

11/14/11    Jose    about 20

I believe that very few people actually believe they will be punished in hell when they die.  If they did, they would be terrified and would seek to do something about it, and in fact, most people have done so already.  They say they are "good enough", or they give excuses for their sins, or put the blame on God, or point out how they think the church has disqualified itself, or deny that God or hell exists.  I met a young man at the park named Jose who chose the last option.  He had good reason to hope that God doesn't exist, because he did believe he would be headed to hell if He does.  He had a good sense of his own guilt and that hell would be an appropriate punishment for him.  I think this is why Jose has been denying God's existence for many years.  AIthough I feel I presented some rather compelling arguments to logically prove God's existence, Jose knew the implications of such belief, and wasn't about to jump in to belief just yet.

11/12/11         Brendon,     late 20's
I was outside a video game store with Tony (from church) where I asked a customer leaving the store if he had a minute to answer a few questions. His name was Brendon. He had grown up in a Catholic household but had ceased believing in the God of the Bible since his early teens. He took pride in having an open mind and being accepting of other people's religious beliefs and experiances. He said he believes in a higher power of some sort but rejects organized religion and the idea of a personal God. He said he simply lives for the present, trying to make the most of each day, yet he was quick to point out that he is a moral person who would be a very good person compared to many of the hypocritical people he has seen in church. He clearly feels accountable for his personal behavior even if he doesn't believe in a personal God. He was very opinionated and defensive about his own personal goodness, and his personal beliefs wouldn't allow him to judge the religious experiences of another person without obvious hypocracy so instead of questioning him directly about his own morality I applied the "good person" questions about keeping the Ten Commandments to myself. He vigorously defended me, I believe because he could see the connection that whatever applied to me must apply to himself also. He quieted down after that, and seemed quietly convicted of his own sin and denial of God. He was very willing to listen to an explanation of the Gospel from that point on, and was very grateful that we had asked to talk with him.

11/11/11 Jose, about 35
At a Home Depot I decided to witness to whomever might be near me after I found the item I was looking for. It turned out to be a man named Jose who could speak English only about as good as I could speak Spanish, which made for a labor-intensive conversation. Jose said he believes in God but not in heaven or hell, and that he believes he is probably a sinner simply because he doesn't go to church, though he didn't seem too concerned about it. He has a four-year old son so I told Jose about the responsibility he has as a father to provide spiritual guidance for his son. This seemed to hit home with him and to motivate him to take home and read some Gospel tracts I gave him...... I've been realizing as I witness that people like Jose don't necessarily feel the true burden of guilt and condemnation for breaking God's commands but rather they feel bad for failing to live up to the (perceived) demands of church. I think in our often misguided efforts to get people in the doors of our churches we then bend over backwards to make them comfortable even to the point of ignoring their sin. No I believe that the bulk of "doing the work of an evangelist" should take place outside the church, in the streets and marketplace, so that there are clear distinctions between those who are believers and those who are not. The work of the evangelist outside the church upfront can save the pastor from a lot of trouble inside the church later on.

11/10/11 Abdul, Calvin    late 20's
After being prayed for and sent out by our Thursday night men's Bible study group, Bob and I headed for a nearby Starbucks where we met two 20-something African -American men who were doing some work on a laptop. Their names were Abdul and Calvin and they are involved in the Hip-Hop fashion and recording industries and are completing work on a rap CD. Though they had never talked to each other about their beliefs, they were very open to talking to us when we simply asked. Abdul told about his childhood conversion to the Nation of Islam, (led by Louis Farrakhan here in Chicago) due to his father's influence (a former Black Panther) and in spite of his mother's Baptist heritage. He soon began talking about his disbelief in Jesus' divine nature, a major source of disagreement between Christians and Muslims. We let him talk, asking more about his beliefs and Islam in general from the point of view of an insider. I think our genuine interest and active listening helped win his trust, so after 15 or 20 minutes I began to ask a line of questions not to directly convince Abdul of Jesus' claims to divinity but to convince him of his need for such a savior. We talked about the nature of his sin, God's infinite holiness and His love not only for man but His love for justice; the demands of His justice and the forgiveness found in Jesus. We talked priimarliy with Abdul but eventually Calvin, who said his father is a pastor, had to jump in with his doubts and some thoughts and questions of his own about our freewill and predestination. It made for a very interesting discussion and I could see other people at Starbucks take notice. After an hour or so we knew we needed to get back to our Bible study group, so we prayed with Abdul and Calvin, that God would lead all four of us into His truth. This seemed especially meaningful to them and they were very thankful for the conversation.

11/4/11    John, Monty      both about 40
A quick stop at a rest area while on a road trip gave me the opportunity to talk to two Canadian truck drivers, John and Monty. When asked about their beliefs about life after death they looked at each other in surprise. "We were just talking about that!" Monty told me. "You wouldn't want to know my opinions about it!" he added. I assurred him I did so he told me about his theory that space aliens had planted life here on earth. Monty had recently seen a History Channel show about this, and after growing up Catholic he seemed to be just in the early stages of drifting away from biblical truth and seeking out other ideas about eternity. "I'll tell you one thing", he said, "I know there's more to life than just dying and being buried in the ground." His wife's grandmother had died recently, and he told me he had been thinking a lot about his beliefs lately. John also wondered whether he would be seeing his loved ones again. Something told me to keep this conversation short, so I just told them of the common mistake most religious people make about God - that they can somehow earn their way to heaven - and I gave them more literature to read with my contact info on it. My hope and prayer is that the Lord will use even a simple ten-minute conversation like this to bring saving faith to John and Monty.

11/3/11 Sean, about 35
In my experience people who say they are atheists fall into one of three categories. Some are from communist countries who have been indoctrinated in atheism since they were young. Others are so caught up in a hedonistic lifestyle that they no longer think about God or eternal things. Then there are those who try to prove they have the moral upper hand over Christians and/or God by trying to be godly without God. They would say they don't need the threat of hell or the promise of heaven to be good people. That's the kind of person John and I found at a local delicatesen after we were prayed for and sent out during our men's Bible study. He - Sean - remarked "You're not going to like what I have to say" when I told him we were from a nearby church and asked if we could run a few questions by him, and it was true that we didn't like all the lies and accusations and conspiracy theories he directed against the church, the Bible, and God, but we tried to avoid those conversational rabbit trails. Sean had grown up with a mixture of religious influence - Jewish, Baptist, and Catholic - and seemed to have a strong moral compass even though he said he hasn't believed in God since his early teens. He is very interested in discrediting religion and reads all the books he can find to support his unbelief. He feels he has moral superiority over Christians by trying to protect disadvantaged people from religious tyranny. Rather than fear God he claims to be a god himslf, totally in control of his own destiny, even though I pointed out that, as he put it, when he dies he will just turn into worm food. He liked to lump all monotheistic religions in the same category as being especially tyranical. John and I talked later about some of the benefits of the Christian concept of the Trinity - God is not "alone" and doesn't need us; He is relational and the various parts of the Trinity seek to glorify the Father and Son; and God was able to satidfy His own demand for justice without being a tyrant by sacrificing His own Son - a part of Himself - on the cross. I think we made some progress with Sean, helping him to see some of the inconsistencies of his beliefs, and left him with some books to read from the biblical "law and grace" perspective that his religious background most likely overlooked.

Here's a story from a reader  named Eric.  I encourage more people to write about their witnessing conversations.  Let's get off the pews (and the couch) and into the streets!   Jeff

Hey Jeff
Today on my lunch break, i went to my local college to hand out some tracts and start a conversation. Well, i didnt talk to anyone b/c they looked like they were busy on mp3s or newspapers(i am also a chicken). So i handed out some mdbs. But as i walked back to my car, I asked a young guy if i could ask him something. I said "i ask people about their beliefs, so what do you believe happens after this life?" he said "nothing, thats it". i said "what led you to that?" he said "i believe in science, so you know " and as i was about to reply, he said he was on his way to the dentist, so he had to run. I was able to give him a mdb. I prayed as i drove back to work. I was glad that i am planting seeds and the Holy Spirit is who gives the increase.