This blog is a continued blog…
Through conversation we found out that Jason did know about
bits and pieces of the word but only through stumbling upon it somewhere. He told
us that he had never read the bible and that we were the first people who have
ever told him about Jesus.
Blake is a 24 year old man from Arizona who joined the
conversation when he overheard us talking about Jesus. When he came into the
conversation and started speaking about God something in my being did not sit
right. I kept thinking that he was sitting in on our conversation trying to twist the truth
somehow but didn’t really know why I thought that.
About a month ago I read a blog from one of my
friend’s who
was living in Amsterdam. She mentioned a guy in her blog that was a
false
prophet who showed up one day for her bible study. That’s another story
but I
share that with you to tell you that thoughts about the guy who was a
false
prophet who entered Janell’s bible study in Amsterdam continued running
through
my head as Blake talked about the bible during this conversation.
However, I didn’t tell anyone and just let him speak a little more.
He spilled verses out to our new friend Jason so after a
while I thought to myself that I may have been judging the Blake and asked God to
take that judgment away from me. I didn’t want to judge a fellow brother who
was trying to help us. However, something still wasn’t sitting right. About an
hour after he joined the conversation he left. He didn’t have a hostel he was
staying in yet so I pointed him to our hostel that we are staying at in hopes
of catching up with him later to encourage him. I did get to minister to him
but we will get back to him in a little bit.
In 4 ½ hours we discussed about a million things. Jason asked
question after question about our faith. Allegra spoke then Josh would speak
then I would speak. Back and forth we went answering questions and listening to
Jason’s thoughts. He was so open to what we had to say as we tried to explain
the gospel to him and also he is very intelligent. He has done his research on
many things including other religions. So of course other religions came up in
the conversation.
Jason has a hard time believing why we say that Jesus is the
only way to heaven. From what I gathered, he believes that all religions are equal and that Buddhist,
Muslims, Hindus, etc. will also receive a spot reserved for them in the kingdom
of heaven. He also has created his own beliefs through much study stimulating
from what scientists believe. He told us that he thought Jesus was a beautiful
spirit but he also thought there were a lot of other beautiful spirits. As we
tried to explain to Jason why we believe what we do more questions stimulated.
For 4 ½ hours we talked about many different subjects pertaining to the gospel.
In the beginning of
the conversation Jason told me that he wanted to read the bible one day but it
wouldn’t be anytime soon. Throughout the conversation we would always refer our
answers back to the bible. Also throughout the conversation I kept telling him
that the only way for him to know for sure if we were telling the truth was if
he read the word for himself.
Jason loves to research and look into anything
and everything and I think that it bothered him a little that he didn’t fully
know how to defend his point of view if he didn’t read the bible. So I am happy
to give glory to God by telling you by the end of the conversation he told us
that he was going to read the gospels in the next month! God worked in Jason’s
heart much more than we even saw today. Today we saw God use us to bring the
good news of Jesus Christ to someone who has never been evangelized to! Praise
Jesus!
After our talk with Jason I went to a restaurant and sought
someone else out to talk to. I sat down with a 64 year old man from Japan and
chatted with him for about an hour. We talked a lot about him and through our
conversation I found out that he is Buddhist and he lives to have a happy life.
I was able to share the good news of Jesus with him during that conversation
telling him that Jesus is the only way to heaven! He didn’t carry on a
conversation about Jesus and changed the subject but I believe that God worked
in his heart!
After that our team went out to dinner. When our stomachs
were satisfied we walked back to the hostel. When I walked through the common
area I saw Blake sitting in one of the chairs so I sat down with him and asked
him about his day. Soon after that we got into a conversation about Jesus. I
went into this conversation with Josh expecting to encourage another believer.
However, the conversation took a turn that I didn’t really expect it to take.
He started pouring out his heart and eventually
told Josh
and I that he did not believe that Jesus is God. He believes that the
creator
is God but that Jesus is not God. He started pulling out all kind of
scripture
trying to prove his claim that Jesus isn’t God. He told us that he
believed
that Jesus is the son of God but didn’t see anywhere in scripture that
told him
that Jesus is God. Time after time again he used scripture out of it’s
context. He could not grasp that the father, son and Holy Spirit are
three separate beings but one God combined.
Josh did a lot of the talking in this conversation using
scripture to show him that it actually does say that Jesus is God. I talked a
little bit but we couldn’t seem to convince him that Jesus is God. So I just
started praying out loud that Satan would not blind his mind to the truth. I
believe that Satan has been distorting his thinking. At the end of our
conversation we asked him if we could pray for him and if he would pray for us.
He told us that we could pray for him but it says in the bible to go into your
room and pray by yourself instead of in front of people. Therefore, he couldn’t
let us pray for him while we were in the common area. Then he walked away. Josh
and I talked a little then prayed for God to reveal himself to Blake.
Through all of the conversation today I saw God move. I came
out of all three of those conversations feeling great about what we expressed
and also having a deeper desire to know God’s word better. I want to be able to defend
the gospel by using every bit of the gospel that God has so graciously given
us. And I close this blog by giving thanks to God for all that happened in the hearts of those who were ministered to today!
