Ask me! God’s been good to me.

About two weeks ago a few of my friends went to a weekly night festival here in the Chattanooga area. We take this time to serve God by sharing the Gospel one-to-one with people that come our way. Over the years I have learned to keep an eye open for easy opportunities to chat with someone. Sometimes I will use a button that someone might be wearing or a shirt with a question on it to strike up a conversation. That is exactly what happened on this night.

Across the park I saw a man wearing a t-shirt that read, “God’s been good to me”. What an invitation to talk to someone!

I walked up to the man and asked him “So, God’s been good to you?”

“Yes”. He said.

“How has He done that?” I asked.

“Well, He woke me up this morning. I had something to eat today. I’m not in any pain right now. Yeah, God has been good to me.” He said.

I just smiled and told him that was a great answer. But I began to probe further…”Tell me. How else has God been good to you?” This started a 45 minute conversation that took many twists and turns. As the conversation continued he asked me to sit down with him on a park bench. His name is Anthony. He tried to show off his Biblical knowledge to me by quoting all of the books of the Bible and he did this FAST. I was actually very impressed. “Wow!” I told him. “There is no way I could do that”.

Something was missing out of Anthony’s story and he admitted it. He had not been living for the Lord. He had fallen on some tough times. He was very quiet and humble. He kindly held on to every word that I spoke to him. His eyes were dead locked right into mine.

I presented God’s holiness to Anthony. I tried to explain God’s love for everyone but that God is also Just and Perfect so He must punish wrong doing. He must punish sin.

Before Anthony and I parted ways he asked that I pray for him. So I grabbed his hand and took his name before the Father, sitting right there on a park bench with hundreds of people around.

He told me, “I know God sent you here tonight. He sent you here to talk to me.”

“Yes He did, Anthony. It’s your move now. What are you going to do about it?”

We parted ways we exchanged contact information and I gave him a copy of Mark Cahill’s book “One Heartbeat Away”. He thanked me, I thanked him, and off we went.

Fast forward – Yesterday afternoon my cell phone rang with a number that I did not recognize. It was Anthony! He called to let me know that he had been out of town spending some time with loved ones in Michigan. He wanted to let me know that he had been reading Mark’s book and was underling all the parts that talked about the Bible. He added, “so most of the book is underlined!”. He reminded me that he knew God has arranged our meeting a few weeks ago.

He said, “You know that right? Don’t you ever let anyone tell you different!”

You better believe I know it. So Christian, I will echo Anthony’s words. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you different? You don’t HAVE to establish relationships before you share the Gospel. You don’t HAVE to earn someone’s trust first. The relationship that I earned/established with Anthony was based on the truth of the Gospel. I didn’t have to hide my motives in wanting to talk to him. He knew upfront!

Look for those opportunities to start conversations with people – clothes they are wearing or books they are reading. Be on the lookout, the lost are everywhere.