The first person I attempted to witness to today reacted rather harshly. It became clear this person was very bitter at God about circumstances in his life. As I listened patiently to him vent his emotions, I waited for opportunities to simply assure him that God loved him and that God suffered the worst of all evils in order to rescue us from this evil age. He refused to listen. Eventually, I simply acknowledged internally what was obvious externally--God wasn't opening a door to share the gospel with this very troubled man (who I happened to notice was wearing a bra).
The next person that I witnessed to was James. This was a very different encounter. I handed James a million dollar bill gospel tract and asked him if he had ever received one of these before. No, he responded. I told him it was a gospel tract and asked him if he knew what his eternal destiny would be if he were to die today. I hope it will be heaven, he said. Would you like to know for sure that your destiny would be heaven, I asked? Yes, he said without hesitation. That is always a sign to me that the Lord is opening a door to the gospel. Using the approach Jesus used with the Rich Young Man (Mk. 10) and the Woman at the Well (John 4), I first used the law of God to show James that he would justifiably be declared guilty by God on the day of Judgment, and James acknowledged that his destiny, if judged guilty, would be hell. After I explained to James what Jesus said about hell, James expressed concern that his destiny would be hell if he died today. I then asked him if he knew what Jesus said one must do in order to inherit eternal life and know for sure that you will be declared innocent on the day of the judgment, though we deserve to be judged guilty. He did not know. I explained to him that Jesus said we must (1) repent and (2) believe that he died in our place in satisfaction of our sin debt and in satisfaction of God's just wrath toward sin (Mk. 1:15). I asked James if he had ever repented and trusted Christ alone as his savior. He said he had done that. I asked him if he knew what to do in order to follow Jesus. I shared with him that Jesus said to continue in His Word (John 8:31-32, seek to obey what you read (John 14:21), and begin to fish for men (Matt. 4:19). I gave James some million dollar bills, encouraged him to study the gospel message on the back, and urged him to share them with family and friends who may not know for sure what their destiny will be.
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