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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Fishing Report: Transformed (the next day)

(This is Part 3 of a 3 part series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.)

This morning was Sunday and the day after the Transformed conference. I got to church early to practice for worship, and my fishing buddy says, "Come with me after church. I want to go talk to somebody about Jesus. I'm making it my goal to talk to at least one person a day."

We take turns in witnessing, alternating who drives the conversation. We learned from experience that 2 people trying to drive a witnessing encounter usually makes for a long, frustrating conversation that goes nowhere. Instead, one of us mostly carries the conversation while the other prays.

Of course that meant that today was my turn.

Something else I learned: at a men's prayer meeting, I had the opportunity to talk with a guy who came to check the fire extinguishers. But I barely got into the conversation before we ran out of time and were interrupted. The solution? Always carry gospel tracts with you. It happened again today, but I was prepared.

We went to a gas station near church, because time was short and the weather was rainy and yucky. (Yes, the gas station is covered.) Charlie is my eyes, so he found someone to talk to. We approached the man as he was pumping gas and asked if I could share something with him that I was asked to practice from a conference I just went to. He agreed. I asked if he was a good person, and he said no. I asked if he had a Christian background, and he said "nondemoninational." So I asked if he'd kept the ten commandments, and went through a few of them. He admitted to being a liar, and theif, and an adulterer in the eyes of Jesus. I asked if he'd be innocent or guilty, and he said....innocent. I reasoned with him: would you say it's fair to say that you've committed 3 sins a day? No, of course not.

"Really? God sees every thought. Everything you've done in secret. 3 sins a day?" He agreed.

"Man, that's 1000 sins every year of your life. If God is just, how can he let you go with a wrap sheet like that?" He agreed. At that point, he was finished pumping his gas. Feeling like I might be pushing my luck, I pulled out a World's Best Optical Illusions tract from my pocket and handed it to him. I said, "I know you're done, and I appreciate you talking with us. This tells you how you can get to Heaven." He took the tract, shook our hands and was off. Unlike our church's fire extinguisher guy, he got the Gospel even though we ran out of time.

Charlie stirs me up. I'm serious. If you don't have someone who stirs you up, pray for him or her. Pray for open doors in your conversations today. Look for them. They're all around each of us. Mention something having to do with God in your natural conversations, and say, "Do you ever think about spiritual stuff much? What do you think happens when we die? Do you think there's a Heaven? Do you think you're good enough to go there?" and you're off and running. My primary goal for this blog is to encourage you to share your faith. Remember that God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to reach this world for Jesus Christ. The FOOLISHNESS of preaching. Count me in.

2 comments:

  1. So true, we have to be sensitive to the holy spirit nudging us, you never who God wants to touch thru our lives, we just have to keep our ears open:)

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