Best Answer Ever

11/12/12      Julio,         about 28

Today I heard the best answer ever to my “man on the street” question, “What do you think happens next after this life?”  I had stopped a young man named Julio on the sidewalk, asking if he would answer a crazy question, and when I asked it he smiled and said without hesitation “Jesus!”  I’ve never heard anyone put it so simply and beautifully before, especially when asked by a stranger out of the blue. It reminds me of what Jesus said in John 17: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent”.  I asked Julio how he came to faith in Jesus.  He had been a Jehovah’s Witness, but God rescued him out of their false teachings about two years ago through a combination of help from some Christian friends and a supernatural experience that he said he couldn’t even begin to describe.  I told him how encouraging it was to talk to him after encountering so many Jehovah’s Witnesses who refuse to accept Jesus as the Son of God and who believe in so many other distortions of Scripture.  After enjoying the fellowship of meeting a brother in the Lord for a while I prayed for Julio right there on the sidewalk and encouraged him to share his faith, not out of obligation as the Jehovah’s Witnesses do, but out of love for the Lord and the love He gives us for people.  “And if nothing else, it’s the best way I have ever experienced to grow in my own relationship with God” I told Julio.  I drove home rejoicing, feeling encouraged and refreshed as I always do after a Gospel conversation, but especially so after meeting Julio and seeing how God has been working in his life.