Luke Maclean, Rick Harman and I went to "Uptown Village" in Cedar Hill last night to do some witnessing. Uptown Village is a fairly new outdoor Mall and none of us had really been there yet so we decided to give it a try. Recently we've been looking for some place where we can go regularly to witness that isn't as far away as the downtown areas of Deep Ellum or Lower Greenville. I still want to go to the downtown areas, but just not every week.
Mark didn't come tonight, but he has suggested paying for a Daily pass on the Local Dallas Transit train/bus system and riding it for a few hours and sharing the gospel with the people who are in Transit. He and Luke have been taking the Transit to get to the YMCA where they are both working this summer (because it saves them money in Gas, and because as Luke said "We can Witness along the way" :) ) We'll probably try doing that soon as we explore different Streetlight ministries fishing trip possibilities.
We arrived at the Mall and scoped it out by driving around the perimiter (however we didn't drive around 7 times, and we didn't shout at the end :)). There weren't all that many people walking or milling around since it was past 10 PM. Barnes and Nobles and a couple of the restaurants were still open so we parked and headed to Barnes and Nobles. As soon as we got in the store, Luke seemed to dissapear on some sort of beeline towards the back of the store. I wasn't sure where he went, but Rick and I began to browse the store. A teenager with an interesting T-Shirt was walking by, and I decided wanted to ask him about his shirt. His shirt had a graphic image of the Mount Rushmore monument, but instead of the faces of the presidents, there were skulls. Rick hadn't seen the shirt or the guy, so I was trying to describe what the shirt was like, but I couldn't remember what the Monument was called. Rick couldn't either. There was a guy and a girl (late 20's, early 30's) just across from us so I leaned over and asked them "What's the name of the monument with the heads of the four presidents? We're trying to recall it but can't remember it. " They knew what we were talking about right away, and said "Mt. Rushmore!" Bingo! We were now in a conversation with the two of them. (The Guy with the T-shirt ended up going to the checkoutline anyway!) Perhaps sometimes God allows forgetfulness as a way to nudge us into initiating conversations with other people. :)
I always find that the most challenging part of any witnessing encounter has always been the transition to the spiritual and the things of God. I imagine that Satan could care less if we're great conversationalists, because that serves as no threat to him, but when we determine to bring up the things of God, he goes on overdrive on the counter attack, because the very message of the gospel is a threat to him. I think this a very real part of what happened last night.
Amy and Matt were more than happy to talk to us. They mentioned near the end of our conversation that they often go to places like Barnes and Nobles, etc , but they had NEVER
just stopped and chatted with strangers like this before, and Amy thought it was very cool that tonight had been different.
Back to my original thought. Satan doesn't want the things of God brought up, he doesn't want to you to hold up the mirror of the Law of God, he doesn't want Christ preached. So he brings his influence through discourgaement, fear,lack of boldness, etc. I felt like we breached on the things of God several times, but we didn't get much farther than a breach. I have this image in my mind as I'm writing that the Gospel is like a huge resivoir of water, stored up behind a Dam. When the Dam is released, the full power of that water can be unleashed. While we had our conversation, there were several opportunities where the floodgates were about to be opened, but instead we only managed to breach some water over the dam via the dams spillway. A little breach might draw someone's interest, but it doesn't unleash the stored power of all the water behind that Dam to completely wash over the person you're talking to. With Amy and Matt, this sort of "spillway" breach happened several times. They were both schooled in Philosphy, as it had been a significant part of both of their college experience, so I had asked who they thought was the greatest philospher of all time. Matt said Plato. After Matt explained why he thought why, Amy asked me and who I thought was the greatest Philospher. I meant to come right out and say Jesus Christ (John 7:46 They Answered "Never did any man speak like this man) but I hesitated, and the topic of conversation went elsewhere. An example of another breach: Somehow we had gotten on the topic of tyranny and I had asked Matt if he thought governmental tyranny was present in the United States. He said in many respects it was, and made the point that our society was in the process of transitioning from the "Rule of Law" to the "Rule of Man". This was another perfect opportunity for me to bring up the Law of God, and talk about how the deeper problem affecting humanity was not the exteranl governance of men, but was that the law of God needed to rule in men's hearts, and this could come only through what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Again I hesitated. (Argg!). A third breach example was when I asked the question what they thought was out there when we die. Amy really liked this question (and so did Matt) but didn't elaborate because she said it wasn't something that she could discuss in 5 minutes because it needed hours. She said if I gave her my e-mail address, that we could continue a discussion via e-mail. (So we did exchange e-mail addresses later). So instead of responding to that with something like "Well I think this is such an important topic to discuss, because none of us know the day that we will die. Why don't we take you guys out to I-HOP so we can discuss this further?" I just said ok, why don't we exchange e-mail addresses. " :(
So I don't want to make it sound like the conversation wasn't really awesome , because it was, and I don't want to make it sound it won't be used by God, because I know he blesses our efforts to be faithful, even if we feel like we missed an opportunity to really preach the entirety of the gospel. It's my own self reflection on why I wasn't bolder in pursuing to the full extent certain subjects we talked about which were natural and obvious springboards to the gospel. After all on the Drive down to the mall, I was the one who had brought up the verse "The Righteous are as Bold as a Lion" ! (Proverbs 28:1). So when I got home last night I did a search of my bible for the term "philosphy". I wanted to see what the Bible said about Philosphy, becuase our conversation centered a lot on the subject of philosophy. I think in doing this I kind of found my answer. (And knowing a lot more about Philosophy is not he correct Philosphy)
Here's the verse, with quite a bit of context: (1 Corinthians
My answer to the my above mentioned dilemna? I need to continually embrace the "foolishness of preaching". You see, there remains in me too much of a desire to be a man-pleaser, I don't want to appear or come across as foolsih to people, and as a result I can neglect to consider that what may APPEAR to the world as foolishness, is in reality, the wisdom of God. God's in the process of teaching me that a continuing part of dying daily to myself is dying to what anyone else thinks about me, and rather embracing what, though it may appear as foolishness to so many, is actually TRUE wisdom. This is especially a relevant verse in the real of personal witness, because many people are going to think our message is foolish by it's very nature, but as Christians we know that the preaching of the gospel is, in truth, the power of God unto salvation. (Romans 1:16).
" For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written: " I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philospher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through it's wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things-- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of Him that you are in Chrsit Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption "
