No Trivial Matter

 5/13/15                        Demetrius and Antoinette              in their 20's

When Dave and I met after work to go to a park in order to initiate some Gospel conversations, we asked a young man named Demetrius, 20, about his beliefs.  He was sitting on a park bench with his girlfriend Antoinette.  “What do you think happens after this life?”  Demetrius had enough of a church background to say that we would face “Judgment Day” but hadn’t really though its implications.  “You’re right” I said.  “The Bible says everyone will die one day and then face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)  Then I asked both a question they had never considered before:  “How do you think you would be judged on Judgment Day?”  Both thought God would say they were not perfect but nonetheless good people and worthy of heaven.  I could see why they hadn’t considered the question before – if it’s not broken don’t fix it!  They had both trivialized God’s holiness and their own sins to the point that they never bothered to question whether they were “good” in God’s sight, yet they also believed some people were not and would indeed be destined for hell.  Without even being religious they were engaged in the same sort of self-righteous pride that the Pharisees, whom Jesus had severely criticized, were guilty of.  I went on to use the Ten Commandments to help them see that their sin and God’s holiness are no trivial matter.  God’s law is the standard by which we see our need for forgiveness in Jesus, and we should use it to show other people their need as well!