Meet April (1)

So, normally me and my good buddy Trabo (picture of us to the right ---->) will try to get some witnessing done on Tuesdays and get some Bible Study done on Thursdays. We call it our 'Tell It To'Em Tuesdays' and our 'Thru the Bible Thursdays'. Both of those terms are copyrighted so don't even think about using them.

But, I am sure you know how it goes. We looked out on the green Tuesday afternoon and were like, "I am way too scared to talk to anybody about Jesus."

Look, don't judge us, ok. I know the bible says the 'The righteous are as bold as a lion' (Pro 28:1) and it says "Whoever captures souls is wise' (Pro 11:30) and we shouldn't be afraid or nervous because Jesus said ' Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ... And behold, I am with you always ...' (Mat 28:19-20) Man, that one is a good one, but come on! We were way too chicken to talk to people that day so we went up and read our bibles together. It was really good. I think we read Job 8 and Hebrews 5.

Ok, so then our Tell It To'Em Tuesdays became Tell It To'Em Thursday and vice versa for the other day. And this is one person I met.

Her name was April. I stood around looking at potential people to talk to and there she was, just sitting on a bench staring at grass (to be fair there were some guys playing football on the green so she may have been looking at them but she had sun-glasses on, so who knows), occasionally looking at the time on her phone. So, I tried a totally new opening line on her. I said,

"Excuse me, are you afraid of talking to strangers?"

"No."

"Would you mind if I talked with you?"

"No."

And we were off. It went great. April said she was a Christian and she had grown up in the church. Now, someone might get that far and say, "Oh, you are a Christian? Then I don't need to talk to you. Good bye."

But, if God is sovereign then I am not talking to her on accident. Plus, I said I was a Christian for 10 years and the entire time I put my wants, goals, and dreams before God (just in case you were wondering, Christians should not live a life like that.)

So, I dug a little deeper. I asked her if she thought she was a good person and what she thought God thought of her. She gave a typical answer, "I am not perfect, but I do my best" (or something along those lines). Then I walked her through God's Law.

Normally, when you do this people repeat the fact that they are not perfect. Little do they know that it doesn't matter. In fact, admitting that you are not perfect is admitting that you are guilty. They get that part, but it is linking the fact that if you are guilty then you deserve punishment. Nobody ever wants to admit that they deserve hell.

*Time Out*

I deserve to go to hell for breaking God's Laws.

*Time In*

When I speak to people who say they are Christians, I try to do a couple things.

1)I want to explain the Gospel and make sure they agree with it.

2)If they do, then I try to ask them how their spiritual life is going (are they reading their bible daily, praying daily, do they have a church, etc).

Why? because if you are a Christian, then you are my brother or sister and I care about. Not to say I don't care about people who aren't Christian, if I didn't care about them I wouldn't be witnessing would I?

Oh, man, crazy convicting question coming...ready...Do you care about people who are not Christians? Are you witnessing?

Ok, ok, back to the counting thing.

3)If they are doing fine, then I usually try to enjoy a short time of fellowship with a fellow brother or sister in Christ. Those have been rare, but great times.

'And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works' (Heb 10:24)

4)Then I try to invite them to do some evangelism once in a while with me.

This time with April I am not sure if I got through #1. She had to leave early to go to class, so I wanted to make sure she understood how the penalty for her sins against God had been paid for. I explained how Jesus came and died and rose again. How He alone paid for her sins in His blood.

Of course, she said she had heard it before, but before I end this post let me leave this troubling piece of information.

She had not once mentioned the name of Jesus when I asked her about God or how to get to heaven.

'out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks' (Mat 12:34, Luke 6:45)

If your mouth never speaks about Jesus, then does your heart treasure Him?

If you are a Christian and somebody asks you about how to get to heaven, will you mention Jesus?

Do you ever mention Jesus?