Car Show Saturday

This past Saturday, my buddy Cam and I attended our first Car Show of 2014 to hand out some tracts and have a few conversations.

The Car Show is every third Saturday in the Riverstone Shopping Center, starts up at 2pm and goes until dark (Weather permitting). We usually get there sometime between 3:30 and 4:30 and stay an hour or so. The Car Show is a free event, open to the public and is well attended by car friendly enthusiasts; giving us lot of opportunities to share the gospel.

Since this past Saturday was Easter weekend and rainy, we anticipated a lighter crowd and fewer than usual cars in the show; we were right. Cam and I both left our houses in the rain but were met with just a fine misty drizzle in Canton when we arrived at 3:30. The radar showed we would have a small window of opportunity before the next round of showers came. We prayed up then headed out to hand out as many of the "Do You Know Him" tracts as we could while there were still people looking at the cars in the drizzle.

As always, we start off handing out tracts and let the Holy Spirit guide us to those who we will have conversations with.

Sometimes spiritual conversations start with us asking about the car with the car owner or someone looking over the car. Sometimes spiritual conversations start right after we hand out a tract and intentionally tell the person that they just received a gospel tract.

Sometimes we "know" that we are about to have a spiritual conversation with someone...especially when we (okay, I) flag someone down, hand them a tract, tell them it's a tract and then ask them if they have a Christian background :-) Such was the case Saturday when I saw a twenty-something year old kid, that I had seen before around Canton, selling snack food to raise money for a local charity.

After flagging him down, handing him a tract and introducing ourselves, I asked Trenton (after telling him what he just received was a gospel tract) if he had a Christian background.

Here are the Cliff Notes of how the twenty minute conversation went:

He said, "Yes sir, I am a Christian." He was a very nice and courteous young man who was soft spoken always looked me in the eyes when talking. I told him that was great and could he share with me his salvation story.

Blank look.

"What do you mean?" Well, I said, can you share with me something about the day you came to know Jesus Christ as your Savior?

"I have always been a Christian."

Really?

"Yes sir. I was raised a Christian and grew up a Christian."

Trenton, would you consider yourself a good person?

"Oh, yes. I am a very good person."

After taking Trenton through the Law and showing him that he had broken the Commandments, sinned against God and was in danger of the Judgment, his self-righteous defense mechanism went up.

Still proclaiming that he was a good person, he said that he didn't believe that anyone went to Hell. He said that God had a place for all people and that Hell was a fictional place that was made up to scare people into becoming Christians. Reaching for my pocket Bible, I told him I wanted to show him in Scripture the reality of Hell.

Trenton then gave me, "The Bible was written by men" speech. While I reasoned that, of course, the Bible was written by men and didn't evolve (Thanks Ray), Trenton was having none of it. I had him pause for a moment and tell me who Jesus is.

"Jesus is the Son of God"

Yes....Is Jesus God?

"No, He is the Son of God"

He is not God in the flesh?

"No"

Again turning to the Scripture, Trenton told me that he reads the Bible every day but you can't believe everything written in it.

What parts can you believe then?

"Huh?"

Trenton, do go to church locally...here in Canton somewhere?

"No, I don't believe you have to go to church."

Trenton, you have told me you don't believe in Hell, you don't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, you don't believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, and you don't believe in going to church. Trenton, based on what you are telling me, I'm having a hard time believing you are a Christian.

"Only God can judge me."

Trenton, I am not judging you...I am just having a tough time believing, based on your beliefs, that you are a Christian. Your beliefs don't line up with what the Scripture teaches.

"I read my Bible every day; I have to go now."

Trenton, make sure you read that tract I gave you and tonight, when you get home, read the Gospel of John chapters 1-3.

"Ok"

Pray for Trenton. Pray that God will open his heart to the truth.

Soli Deo Gloria -