Thursday, October 8, 2015

A Conversation Outside Of A Coffee Shop

Went to coffee tonight on the Avenue and we had a great conversation. A father and daughter at the next table overheard us and asked if they could sit with us.

Wow. We touched on a lot of subjects from Tesla to ancient civilizations, free will and the reason for the existence of evil. We talked about mercy and how it doesn't exist in Buddhism or in science but that the God of the Bible is just and merciful.

But then it turned to the subject of Jesus. Was He unique? The scripture says that Jesus was the embodiment of grace and truth. The father approved of Christ in a different way. We have been given grace because of Him and in Him. He died then was raised and He sits in Heaven and that is why Heaven is opened to men. Heaven wasn't opened before the cross... now it is. Jesus is the graced out One and we get grace only by association.

After going back and forth for a while and clearly explaining the Gospel there was a moment with the man (an agnostic scientist) that went something like this...

I said, 'Would you like to pray with me right now? Jesus came to Earth and paid for your sins. Now He sits in Heaven ready to receive you if you will only believe. We can pray right now... together.'

He said 'No...' but he was visibly shaken. Things had moved past the intellect. 'I'm not ready to do that... but... but... I like what you are saying... I want to hear more.'

I said, 'I'm not going to push you but couldn't you sense that the decision you had to make about praying just now was a serious one? I'm just a man sitting in front of Starbucks but you knew just then that if you prayed with me is was a real life changing thing. Just a few words born from a decision.'

He said, 'Yes. I did but I'm not ready.'

I said, 'Where is your agnosticism now? If you can't 'know certain things' then what did you just 'know' a moment ago when I asked you to pray with me? You just experienced a taste of spiritual warfare.'

Then the subject shifted to friendship and I said, 'Jesus is unique and he wants to be your friend. Friendship transcends intellect. People look like they are your friends but it is only in the trials that you find out who your real friends are.'

He agreed and we talked about Adam handing over his power to Satan by submitting to his initiations and why that was part of the reason the world was in such disarray right now. Adam had made a mistake that Jesus didn't duplicate. He didn't join us like Adam joined Eve. He died for us because He was really our friend.

Then I asked him again, 'Again I'm asking... Would you like to pray right now? We can pray right now together.' and looked into his eyes and waited a moment and said, 'See... there it is again. That resistance right there isn't going to come down because you have all of your questions answered. God wants to meet you right there at that door.'

He didn't seem to know what to say.

'When you are all alone' I said, 'Ask this God that you want to believe in to reveal His Son to you. He will... and coincidences you can't explain away are bound to start happening. The barrier will reappear again but I can't tell you how many chances you will have... only you can use your will to choose to believe.'

He looked me right in the eyes as I was saying those words.

Then we talked for a couple more moments and parted ways by shaking hands, smiling and laughing.

I love those interactions. Clearly this man was not offended by my initiation to pray. He was a little surprised but it was more than that. He sensed that if he prayed with me his life was going to change. His thinking could not remain the same. I believe God touched him in some way.

Little does he know that his life is going to change anyway even though he didn't say, 'Yes.'

His agnosticism just got dealt a fatal blow. Now he has Jesus to deal with and Jesus is knowable.

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