Stories From the Field

Making the gospel message clear to others one step at a time…

March 26, 2007 on 10:40 pm | In Acquaintances | No Comments

Last week I had a conversation with a young Chinese gal that started from pre-evangelism and led to sharing part of the gospel. From her reaction I could tell she really did not have a clear picture of what it means to be a Christian until I clarified some things for her. It also became apparent that the Holy Spirit had created those open doors for spiritual dialog without much effort on my part other than a little probing. I hope it encourages you to realize that each day God may be able to use you and I in the lives of our family, friends, co-workers, or even just acquaintances, to plant a seed and make the gospel message more clear to them each day.

After a few minutes of pleasant conversation (I had already clarified in our conversation that I am a Christian and that my wife is also but that her parents are Buddhist/Taoists), I asked her if she had any kind of religious preference to which she replied that she was a free thinker.

So I asked her “What do you mean by free thinker?” She explained that she didn’t really have any religion but she also said she prayed only about once or twice a year (notice the discrepancy here). So I asked her “How do you know that the god you pray to is the right one?” She said she didn’t know (which would probably explain why she only prayed once or twice a year). I said that I’ve noticed a couple things about Singaporeans. One thing is that some of them call themselves Buddhist but don’t buy into all that Buddha said. For example some still want to get in line for their lottery ticket (she laughed when I said this). I also told her about the Chinese lady I talked to here in Singapore and listened to her talk about how great Buddhism is and finally after 30 minutes of almost uninterrupted silence on my part (which led her to be open to listen to what I had to say), I got her to agree with me that the main goal in Buddhism is to stop desiring. So then I asked her, “But don’t you still desire to see good things happen to your children?” After saying this, the young Chinese gal laughed again. So I recognized by her reaction that she was at least seeing that there was a difference between  what people say they believe and how they actually live sometime.

After giving her a few examples of these kinds of discrepancies (views that she might not really be able to identify with), I said something a little more closer to home. I said, “I’ve also noticed that most Singaporeans don’t really worship their gods because they really believe in them (remember she told me she wasn’t sure if her god was the right one), but they worship them more out of the fear that if they don’t continue the practice, something bad might happened.” I gave her the example that before my wife because a Christian, she went to church a few times but thought that her gods were going to punish her for going to church. I told her that after she became a Christian nothing really bad happened to her so there was no reason for her to fear the spirits. I mentioned this so she will know that just in the days of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, (1 Kings 18) there is no reason to fear the retribution of other gods if one chooses Christ.

I could see all of this was getting her to think more deeply about all that I said. So I stepped out and asked her another question to try to engage her further spiritually. I asked her, “So do you know anything about Christianity.” She said that yes she has some Christian friends. Then she asked me (to my surprise) how many in my wife’s family are Christians and I explained that my wife had two sisters and that one of the two is also a Christian and that she also has a brother who was going to church regularly but has not been baptized. I also told her that Charlene’s mom and dad are Buddhist/Taoist. That seemed to puzzle her that either we were not all Christians or that we were not all non-Christians. She explained that when her friend’s parents became Christians, everyone in her family became a Christian. So I asked her how old her friend was when she became a Christian to which she replied “one year old.” So I said to her (realizing she had some fuzzy thinking about what it meant to be a Christian) that there is a difference between someone who believes that Jesus is their Savior and who died to take the penalty of their sin, and someone who actually is a Christian. I explained that the church is full of people who “believe that” all the right things yet they are not Christians. I said that a Christian is someone who “believes in” Christ. I told her that a Christian is someone who has made a decision to submit his or her will to Christ and allow Christ to come into their life, forgive them of their sins and change them from the inside out. I also realized she probably had some confusion in her mind about baby baptisms and when someone verbally chooses Christ themselves but I realized this was probably too much for her to handle right now so I avoided that topic.

Then I explained to her that one key different between Christianity and  Buddhism is how each handles the issue of desire. Buddha taught the answer to man’s problems was to get rid of desire. However Jesus taught that instead of giving up on all desires we are to develop the right desire and that this can be done if we invite Christ to come into our lives and allow him to change us from the inside out (Phil 2:13). I further explained to her the difference between “believing that” and “believing in” I explained that when I married my wife Charlene, I believed that she would make a great wife but that still never forced me to say “I do” to her at the altar. That was a decision of my will. I could see at this point she was getting a little uncomfortable with the conversation so I obliged her and changed the subject. But  before I did so, I just asked her if she’s ever heard Christianity explained that way before to which she replied no.

In reflecting on this situation I was reminded of how important it is that we give our pre-believing friends a clear picture of the gospel by our lives (Phil 1:14) as well as by our persuasive words (Acts 14:1) so that the Spirit of God can use those things that we communicate to help them take a step towards Christ each day (1 Cor. 3:6). I was also reminded of the fact that sometimes all we need to do is a little “probing” into the lives of our friends and or those around us. We may be surprised to see that the Holy Spirit will find us that open door that leads us from pre-evangelism to evangelism!