Blind Leader

7/25/13                    Ricardo, Marco, John, and others                                    all around 20

A group of friends were hanging out at the park and looked like they had some time on their hands, so I asked them my question about eternity.  Two believed in some kind of existence after we die, and two did not, including Ricardo , who quickly emerged as the leader and spokesman for the group.  The rest readily admitted that they had at one time had a much stronger belief in God’s existence, but due to their conversations with Ricardo they now had huge doubts.  I began to focus on Ricardo with questions that they hadn't thought to ask him, challenging his science-based presuppositions and helping him to see that his trust in science was, in fact, a faith in its own right.  I explained how many of his beliefs in science came from his faith that even though science can’t answer many of the essential questions I asked him, one day it will – a typical belief for his generation.  We talked almost two hours and I don’t know where to begin to tell about all that we talked about.  They had a lot of questions about what faith in Christ might look like, criticizing those who had “belief” but no repentance, and wondering why repentance alone wasn’t sufficient for salvation.  Ricardo made a very eye-opening statement toward the end that helped his friends better understand the kind of influence he was having on them.  After my clear presentation of the law of sin and death and the gospel of grace and forgiveness in Christ, Ricardo said “But my freedom is way too important to me.  I would rather spend all of eternity away from God being punished in hell if I could just have one lifetime of complete freedom to do what I want here on earth”  “I don’t think you understand the full gravity of what you are saying” I told him, “but you will get your wish.  I pray you don’t, but if you continue on this way, you will.”  He looked a little shocked at himself, that he had said this, and his friends looked at him like he was crazy.  And tonight, at home, away from his friends, when he looks into the mirror, he just might admit to himself that what he said was crazy too.  Let’s trust the law, their God-given conscience, and the Holy Spirit to bring Ricardo and his friends to repentance and faith in Jesus.