Better than drugs...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to share my faith! A supplier that we do a lot of business with took me out for lunch; I have known this man for about 7 years and never really went into the gospel before with him.

It was neat how the situation developed for us to discuss things of the scriptures. I found out that his wife was planning to baptize their one year old baby. I then asked him whether or not he had a Christian upbringing. He replied that he had not grown up going to church and was not really familiar with these things.

I then asked him the following question; “If you were to die tonight, where would you go? Where would you spend eternity?” I told him that life does not simply end at death but rather we go on to face the judgment of God and will give an account for everything we have done in this life.

Then I proceeded to go through some of the Ten Commandments with him to see how “good” of a person he actually was. Of course he had to admit he was a liar, a thief, an adulterer in his heart, and a blasphemer before God. Nevertheless, he still did not see himself as a very bad person.

He asked me, “How do you know any of this stuff is true”? I began to realize he did not have the standard foundation of bible knowledge that many of us growing up in Sunday school take for granted. So I started at the beginning, describing how God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I then showed him how they had taken of the fruit against the express command of God. This act on their part introduced sin into their lives, and the lives of everyone of their descendants showing him that all of us were therefore sinners. (Rom. 3:23)

I went on to explain how many prophecies had been fulfilled exactly as foretold hundreds of years prior by Isaiah and others. In fact, even in the Garden, Christ was prophesied to crush the head of the enemy. I explained that this book, the Bible, was written by about 40 different authors over a period of 1500 years and yet fit together like a glove.

I told him that only Jesus Christ had ever claimed to be God; not Mohammed, not Buddha, not any other religious figure in history. I further told him that the god of Islam was not the same as the God of the Bible. The god of Islam was a god of wrath and vengeance, but the God of the Bible was a God of justice and mercy. God is just and will not give us more than we deserve, yet neither will He give us less than we deserve. However, He is also merciful and does not want to give us what we deserve, but rather what we do not deserve; His mercy.

He then asked me, “So are you saying that I am the same as murders, etc.” Have you ever had that question before? I told him that we as humans like to grade ourselves on a curve and compare ourselves with others who are a lot “worse”. This makes us look comparatively better and puts our fears at ease regarding our sinful condition. I told him that there are possibly sins of degree, but that we have ALL fallen short of God’s perfection and glory. Further, Revelation declares that all liars, fornicators, adulterers, murderers, whoremongers, etc. will have their place in the lake of fire. This lake of fire was originally reserved for the devil and his angels but now that man has also rebelled against God, many will sadly share the same end as Satan.

Jesus revealed that the sins of the heart were equivalent with actually committing the “sin”. James has also mentioned that if we break one of God’s commandments we stand guilty of all. I told him that man is without excuse concerning the existence of God, because creation itself clearly shows His handiwork.

I said to him; “What is harder to believe, that an intelligent person created everything we see, or that we evolved from a piece of dust?” So, the Atheistic argument is simply a smokescreen to the true issue which is; we do not want to obey God or submit to His plan.

I left that lunchtime excited and rejoicing that I was able to witness for Christ and share the life changing news of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. If you remember please pray for this man that the Word would do a work in his heart, that he would see how truly sinful he is.

Praise the Lord, I thank Him for the opportunity when so many times I quench the Spirit’s leading to speak. Go ahead, take a chance and open your mouth for the Lord.