A Question About Homosexuality - 6/21/10

Monday, I went to Sinagra Park in Lakewood around 1:30. Shortly after arriving, a young man approached me and asked me, "Would it be a bad thing if I'm gay?"

This is the first time I have been asked about this subject on the street and I need to handle it with extreme care.

I told this young man that I could only tell him what the Bible said about homosexuality. He asked if it said it was bad and he would burn in hell. I told him that it was true that if he looked in 1 Corinthians 6:9 that it does say no homosexual will inherit the kingdom of heaven (The ESV says kingdom of God, but they are interchangeable).

At this point, I was quick to point out the Bible also says that no fornicators, murders, or even liars would enter, either. The young man rightly pointed out that is everyone in the world.

I told him the message wasn't geared for a specific group of people- we all need Jesus. I asked him if he was familiar with the Ten Commandments and he said, "I believe so." I told the young man this law was given to show us that none of us can keep it.

I asked him if he was familiar with Jesus at all and he brought up the issue of forgiveness.

I asked him if would consider himself to be a Christian, to which he replied, "Yea."

I asked him, "If I were to come up to you and ask you, 'How do I become a Christian?' What would you say to me?"

He replied, "Probably say, 'By being a good person.' "

At this point I asked him, "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?"

He said he would. I asked him if he had ever told a lie or stolen anything. He responded he had. I also told him that Jesus considers calling someone a "fool" the same as murder in the heart. I told the young man, "So, by your own admission, I'm not judging you- you're a lying thief, and a murderer at heart."

To which he replied, "OK, well, so are you!"

To which I said, "Absolutely! Absolutely! And we all need to face God on Judgment Day. So based on those three commandments, would he find you guilty or innocent of breaking His law?"

He responded guilty, and I immediately pointed out that I am guilty, also. I asked him if God found him guilty, should He send him to heaven or hell? He responded hell. I asked him if that concerned him. He replied, "Not at the present moment." I asked him if he knew what hell was described as. I told him it was a lake of fire, where the worm never dies- eternal torment.

The young man asked me how we could know how bad it is if none of us have been there. I responded that we have Jesus' words in the Bible.

I asked him if he knew what Jesus did for us on the cross so we don't have to go to hell. I explained that Jesus died in place of us- for our sins. I explained that a legal transaction took place- we broke God's law, but He died and took the penalty for our sins.

I told him it was like being in a court of law with a fine of $1 million in front of you or life in prison. You can't pay the fine and the judge is about to pass sentence and at the last second, someone comes in and puts down $1 million on the judge's desk and says, "Here, I'm paying the fine." The judge looks over at you and says, "You're free to go. Not because you are innocent, not because you deserve it, but because your fine has been paid." That's what Jesus has done on the cross.

I told the young man that what Jesus commands us to do is repent of our sins- turn away from them, and trust in Him like a parachute. I explained how merely believing in a parachute on a crashing plane won't save anyone- you must strap the parachute on, trust the parachute, and jump from the plane. In the same sense, we need to strap on the Lord Jesus, trust Him, and abandon our sins- repent.

I confessed to the young man that my big thing before I came to Christ was dealing with lust. I told him that Jesus said, "Whoever looks with lust is guilty of adultery in the heart." I said to him that I didn't need to tell him how bad it was out in public with all the temptation.

I quickly explain imputed righteousness again to him and told him to look at the back side of the gospel tract I had given him- that it talked about the things we talked about. I asked him if he had a Bible at home, and he said, "I think, somewhere." I encouraged him to look at the Gospel of John and don't take my word for it- read the Bible yourself and see if what I am telling you is the truth.

I told him I know it's a hard message because it was hard for me. I let him know that I really struggled with turning away from my sin and that I still struggle with lust at times.

I asked him if he had a home church and he replied with the name of it and I asked if it was a Catholic Church. He replied it was and I said I wouldn't get into about the Catholic Church, but to remember this: Jesus said, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." I told him God cares about our hearts, not just externalizations.

If you doubt that standing on the street with a cross isn't effective, I hope this post shows you that it can and does draw people in. This young man knew what the Bible says about homosexuality, yet he wanted someone to talk to about it. He may have been afraid to talk to someone at church or someone he knew about homosexuality, but he was able to talk to me about it. I may never see this young man again, but he will be on my heart and I pray that God grants him repentance and salvation.

A Conversation with Jason and John - 6/17/10

Last Thursday, I went to my spot in Lakewood- Sinagra Park in front of the City Center. I stood near the traffic light next to Chipotle. I was handing out tracts and Jason approached me. Jason told me he wanted to offer me encouragement and pray for me. Our conversation lasted for quite a while and Jason did end up praying for me.

Towards the end of our conversation, two young men approached us and one of them, John, asked about the cross. Shortly after getting into the law and John realizing his sinfulness, Jason took over. The two young men were involved in some activities that Jason had been involved in previously. I am glad Jason was there to take over the conversation I had started, because he was able to relate to these young men a way I could not. Jason ended up giving the one young man his number and invited him to an outreach.

I ended up seeing John again the following Monday and he recalled his conversation with Jason. I think I ended up giving John a gospel tract and told him it went over the things Jason had spoken to him about. Please be in prayer for John.

A Conversation With Ron - 6/10/10

Thursday, I went out to Lakewood with my cross around 1:00. Shortly after I arrived, a woman asked me what the cross was about. She told me she was a very religious person and spoke of what her "god" would and would not do. She was very self righteous- only admitting to a white lie, never stealing anything, although she did admit to and did blaspheme in front of me. I told her she was guilty of idolatry at which point she told me our conversation wasn't going to go anywhere and she walked away.

Shortly thereafter, a man named Ron came up to me and started asking me questions about my beliefs. After a while, Ron admitted he was Catholic and wanted to prove to me that the Catholic Church was the ultimate authority here on earth. While he was talking to me, another man got into a verbal argument with Ron, which got very heated at some points- to the point of physical violence being threatened. The situation eventually diffused itself and I am thankful for that.

I went to leave at 3:30 and after putting my cross away and as I was about to shut the door to my car, Rob pulled up. I had met Rob exactly a week prior to this (see this post). Rob is a King James Only Bible believer. Rob asked if I was leaving already and if I wanted to go pass out some tracts with him. We started talking and he asked me if I wanted to go get a coffee and talk. I ended up agreeing and we went to a local fast food restaurant, got something to drink and began to talk.

Rob spent about an hour trying to convince me the King James Bible is the infallible Word of God and other translations do not honor God. Specifically, he has been going after the ESV, which I very much like. I had already told myself I wasn't going to get involved in discussions like this, but yet again, I did.

Repentance - Change of Heart Only or Also Turning From Sin?

Yesterday, I went out to Sinagra Park in Downtown Lakewood. Shortly after I arrived, Rob came up to me and engaged me in a discussion. Rob is King James only and was trying to convert me to be the same.

I told Rob that one must repent and trust Jesus to be saved and he asked me what "repent" meant. I told him it is a turning away from sin. Our conversation went on from here about errors in current translations of the Bible and he ended up getting me a few books- one of them a book about errors in modern translations and another a King James Bible. Just for the record, I have nothing against the King James Bible.

I was told from another King James only friend that the meaning of the word "repent" simply means a "change of heart" and does not involve a turning away from sin. I do not know if this is the majority stance of King James Only or just this particular person. The reason for this comes from the first use of the word in the Bible in Genesis 6:6 (KJV): "And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at his heart." Using the second phrase of the sentence to define "repent," the definition here is that it "grieved" Him. I support using Scripture to define Scripture, and I will use this method.

Using the Strong's Concordance, the definition of the word "repent" in the Hebrew is indeed "to be sorry, rue, suffer grief." The problem is that when Jesus told people they must repent, he spoke in Greek. The Strong's Concordance defines "repent" in Greek "to change one's mind."

It is more than just a change of one's mind, though.

When I tell people to "repent," I define it as a "turning from sin." Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 12:41: "The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here."

This is what Jesus was talking about in Jonah 3:8b- where the King said, "Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands." Verse 10 adds: "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said he would do to them, and he did not do it."

What did the people do? They turned from their evil way. They repented.

Verse 9 does say, "Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish," but Jesus said in Matthew 12:41 that the men of Nineveh repented - not God.

Jesus said in Luke 13:3 that "Unless you repent, you will perish" and in Luke 24:47 "that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations."

When I started reading the Bible for the first time in 2008, I started out reading the Gospels. I want to say I read them in order, but I am not 100% sure. One passage that concerned me was reading the Sermon on the Mount- that Jesus viewed lust the same as adultery and that whoever is angry with his brother is liable to the hell of fire. Another passage that concerned me was reading Luke 13:3, that "unless you repent, you will perish." Then I read John 3:3, where Jesus said "unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

It was at this point that I asked my pastor what it meant to be born again. I did not want to be one of the people who would not see the kingdom of God.

I have been taken to task by a member in my family over the fact that I push repentance too hard. I find it ironic that I am now debating again this topic, the very one that saved me.

In Lakewood (5/30/10) and the Importance of Reading God's Word Daily

Sunday, I went out to Lakewood with my cross from about 1:00 to 2:30- the first time in a little over a month. I feel the rust has started to form a bit and needs to be sanded off.

My wife bought me the John MacArthur Study Bible for my birthday (mid October) and I started reading it shortly thereafter. I started with the New Testament and when I finished that, I read the Old Testament. I finished the entire Study Bible about a month and a half ago. At that point, I wanted to follow MacArthur's reading plan to memorize the New Testament.

He suggests reading the same portions of the NT for about a month straight and if you divide it up correctly, you will have read through the entire NT in three years and really know it. He also recommends making note cards for each chapter of a book and writing down the main themes of it. I did that for my first portion of reading, but haven't done it for the second portion.

Five weeks ago, I read Matthew, chapters 1 through 7, almost every day for four weeks. In the beginning I made the note cards and I believe I initially read the accompanying notes in the Study Bible. I also have been listening to John MacArthur's sermons on the related text during that time (although I am now on to my section portion of Scripture and am still listening to sermons from the first portion).

Reading the same thing for four weeks can be tough, but I want to give this a real go. A week ago, I moved on to Matthew, chapters 8 to 14, but I wasn't reading through all 7 chapters every day. I was reading one to two chapters chronologically in John MacArthur's Study Bible and then when I read chapters 8 to 14 in MacArthur's Study Bible, I read those 7 in the ESV Study Bible.

I noticed last week that something was different about my reading and that I wasn't quite retaining it as I had the first 7 chapters. Then I went out on the street on Sunday with my cross and met an atheist and his friend. I found myself stumbling over a lot of the questions being presented to me.

Yesterday, I read straight through chapters 8 to 14 in Matthew and realized I would have been much better prepared had I been reading the entire 7 chapters every day, instead of one or two chapters a day. I am not saying that the accompanying notes and commentary do not have their place (indeed, I need to read them to understand the text), but there is something to be said about the continuity of the way the Gospels are organized. When I am going through reading the notes, I need to read the entire portion I have set aside, not just a chapter or two.

Back to the two young men I met on the street. Initially, they had walked past me earlier and one of them looked at my cross and said he was ready. On their way back, Steve and Jeff stopped and engaged me in conversation and inquired further about the cross. Turns out one of them was an atheist, and I was getting the same vibe from his friend.

To start off, the one young man did not believe in God. I told him he had all of creation to testify to the existence of God, and he rebutted with evolution. Paul said in Romans 1:20: "For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."

I told him evolution was just a theory, to which he countered it was fact. He also told me the human eye, which has 137 million light cells, just evolved by chance.

The young man denied the miracles of Jesus and eventually came to outright deny Jesus even existed- they were just stories passed down through the years- "the greatest story ever told." Another hanging point seemed to be that the Bible was written by man. I told him it was written by God, through man.

At some point, I asked him if he considered himself to be a good person. He responded he would, and I asked him if he thought he had kept the Ten Commandments. He responded he hadn't and that no one has. I skipped over the part of asking specific questions (Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever looked with lust [which is the same as adultery]? Have you ever hated [which is the same as murder]?), which I think was a mistake. I skipped to saying we would all be guilty before God on Judgment Day, to which he agreed. I asked what God should do to us if we are guilty (heaven or hell), and he asked, "Doesn't He forgive people?" He admitted hell and I was able to explain the cross- how Jesus bore the penalty for our sins and the necessity of repentance.

Our conversation spun off into a host of different things, among them about how much harm religion has done. I told him those aren't true Christians who are doing harm. We also talked about the existence of life outside of the earth, where heaven and hell physically were, and the age of the earth.

This young man also wanted a "sign" from God. This is where remembering Matthew 12 would have been useful. Jesus said in Matthew 12: 39-40, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." I told him he had the miracles of Jesus, but he doesn't believe Jesus existed, so we are back to square one.

One question I asked was if hell existed, was there something someone could do to deserve hell. The one young man responded he didn't believe in hell so I proposed it as a question that if hell exists (even though I know it does), is there anything one could do to deserve hell- for example, what about Hitler? Does Hitler deserve to be in hell? He responded yes. I like to ask this type of question to show people that they do draw a line in the sand- except whose line is it- theirs or God's?

Our conversation went in to some other things and looking back, I now wish I would have said certain things in rebuttal. I also wish I would have pressed the real reason he was not going to heaven and headed for hell- because he had sinned against a holy God and deserved His wrath. I feel I failed to make that abundantly clear by not going through the Law. It's been over a month since I had been out on the street and I can definitely tell by reviewing our conversation.

What should have been a witnessing encountered turned into a friendly discussion about my beliefs. I have noticed this before- people seem to be interested in probing me to find out what exactly I believe and that becomes the theme of the conversation. I have to really make sure the focus stays on Jesus Christ, the cross, and His death and resurrection. Apologetics have their place, but the number one focus has to be Jesus.