WITNESSING ENCOUNTERS – 4/3/09

Hello beloved,

I really want to jot this story down before it slips my mind.  Brent and I went witnessing, at Concord Mills, last Friday night.  It’s crazy how things can go so differently from one week to the next.  The week before, I was astonished at how easy all of the conversations went.  People were so open to hearing the truth.  Well, for the most part anyway.  This week, however, it was much harder to penetrate their hearts.  The beautiful thing in that, though, is that God doesn’t measure our success.  He measures our faithfulness.

The first guy I talked to, outside of Hot Topic, looked at the tract I handed him and asked, “What’s this?”  I told him it was a gospel tract and asked if he would help me with a project I’ve been working on.  The first words out of his mouth were, “You’re wasting your time.  I’m an athiest.”  My response was, “Oh, I’m definitely not wasting my time.”  We started to talk a little when his friends came out of the store.  We shook hands and parted ways.  It might not have seemed to go to well, but he did leave with a tract.  You never know what God will do with a Gospel tract.  Never leave home without them.

I had quite a few conversations on this night.  I met a few Christians.  Believe it or not, these are sometimes the best conversations and the best opportunity for a heart to be changed.  If they truly are Christians, I like to share some scriptures with them on our call to evangelize.  My favorite is Matthew 7:13-14, which says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” I then get them to look around the mall and ask them what the application of this scriptures says about all these people at the mall tonight.  They usually understand it but hesitate to say it, “Most of these people will go to hell if they die tonight.”  This tends to get a reaction of concern.  So, then I ask them, “Does this concern you?”  The answer is usually, “Yes.”  But, then I’ll ask a question I learned from Mark Cahill, “Does it concern you enough to do something about it?”

At that point, you just share with them how to do it.  I’ll get them to “act” like a lost person and I’ll take them through the Ten Commandments.  This is great.  If they truly are saved, it gives them a lesson on how to biblically share their faith.  If they aren’t saved, they will fall under conviction and you will be able to explain to them why Jesus really died on the cross.

So, that’s a little about the conversations I had with Christians.  Let me share a conversation I had with a professing athiest, named Chris.  Chris was around twenty-five years old and had been in and out of prison for the last six years or so; mainly for dealing drugs.  I handed him a tract and asked him if he would help me with a project.  He said, “sure”.  He didn’t seem to enthused though.  But, the question I asked next, got his attention.  I asked him, “What do you think is out there, on the other side, when you die?  When you take your last breath, what do you think will happen to you?”  He tried to tell me that he had never really thought about it.  It’s hard to believe, but I get that answer alot.

After a few more questions, he admitted that he had thought about it before.  He said he didn’t think anything is out there.  “When you die, you just die.  That’s it.”  Then he told me he was an athiest.  So, I asked him, “You really don’t believe that there is a God?  How do you think we got here?”  His answer was the typical, “We just did”.  I then pointed at the construction of the mall; all the architecture and windows and asked him, “What is the proof that there was a builder of this building?”  He said that the building was the proof that there was a builder.  So, I then asked him him, “When you see a beautiful painting, what is the proof that there was a painter of that painting?” Of course, he said, “The painting is the proof”.  So I then asked him, “If this building proves that there was a builder, and a painting proves that there was a painter, would you not have to say that creation is proof that there is a Creator?”  You could almost see the lightbulb go off.

I now had Chris’s attention and a little of his respect.  Several times in our conversation, he alluded to using reason to explain everything around us.  I had him there.  Over and over, I showed him reasonable evidence that there is a God.  I showed him reasonable evidence that the scriptures are infalliable.  I then reasoned with him some more.  I asked him if he was 100% sure that there is no God.  As he answered, “no”, I explained to him that he’s not really an athiest.

I was then able to reason with him about Judgment.  You could see that, for the first time, this stuff was making sense to him.  As soon as I got him to a place where he believed that there might be a Heaven and Hell, I took him through the Ten Commandments.  I didn’t use the typical “Good Person Test”, which I normally use.  I just explained to him that if he lied one time he was a liar; that if he ever stole something, he was a thief; had he ever looked with lust, Jesus sees him as an adulterer; and that taking God’s name in vain is called blasphemy.  To show him that these sins are much more severe than we think, I told him how all liars will have their part in the lake of fire; that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; that no thieves or adulterers will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.  I then explained to him how awful it was that he ever took God’s holy name and used it as a curse word.

Well, it’s a beautiful thing what the Word of God can do to the proud heart of a professing athiest.  By this time, Chris had a much different countenance.  You could see that the Law of God had humbled him.  I asked him if he had any idea what God had done for him so he wouldn’t have to go to hell.  He didn’t know.  I could tell he was understanding what I was saying.  Being that Chris was someone who had stood in front of a judge a few times, I gave him the Gospel in a court room setting.  I asked him, “If you had been convicted of robbing Fort Knox, and the judged sentenced you to either lifetime in prison or paying a one million dollar fine, what would you have to do to pay for your crime?”  He said, “I’d have to do the time.”  I said, “That’s right.  Unless someone stepped in to pay your fine.  And just like this court room, you will be found guilty on the day of Judgment; in God’s courtroom.  The difference is, there is nothing you could ever do to pay your fine.  You’ll have to go to Hell for eternity.  And for eternity, you will never even begin to pay for your sins.  But, the beautiful thing is, that Jesus has already stepped in to pay your fine.  As he was nailed to the cross, He took all of your punishment and paid your fine in full.  However, none of that does you any good if you do not recieve Him.”

So, Chris heard the Gospel loud and clear that night.  Did he respond?  Not at this point.  But, a seed was planted.  He explained to me that he now knew what he needed to do, but he just wasn’t ready at this point.  We talked a little longer and I shared with him a little of my testimony.  It was a good conversation.

I also wanted to add something that I found very cool about the talk I had with Chris.  His friends came up to him several times during our conversation and eventually walked off.  You could tell that Chris had someplace to be, but he was far more concerned about eternal things.

I would ask all of you, to please pray for Chris.  And I also want to encourage all of you that I am not some great evangelist.  I’m just a simple little Christian living out his faith.  Do I have all the answers?  No.  Do all of the conversations go well?  Absolutely not.  But, God hasn’t called us to be talented or to be successful.  He has just called us to be faithful.

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”  (Matthew 25:21)

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant

P.S.  I hope that you have been pricked in the heart by these stories.  Please, if any of you want to know how to share your faith, please contact me.  I would love to help equip you.