Wednesday, December 06, 2006
9:43 AM
Just wanted to share this with you guys.
I bought a few $3 small booklets the church was selling on Sunday( actually feli bought it for me); they were meant for my army friends. You see there's this bunch of us who still bother to meet up some 3 years after we all left OCS for greener pastures, so I'll be the first to admit that yes they are a burden on my heart 'cause I really want to see them accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. I was supposed to meet my friend for kopi at my house kopi tiam, ( in case you guys din know i am a la kopi kinda person, best thing i like to do is to sit around kopi tiams and drink teh-o while reminiscing about the good old days in OCS when my BMI was still acceptable).
So the announcement and the sales of the small little booklets came in handy. So at 11 pm went downstairs, met him and had a good chat about our OCS days, and how we miss those days, getting scolded, punished, bashing through the jungle, etc etc etc. So finally, after we exhausted all topics, i took out the booklet and handed it to him. Told him, hey in case you needed to be intellectually satisfied that God is real and that God loves you, here's this man.
Well, i was never too much of a persuasive person, usually after you do this kinda things, an awkward silence ensures.heh. But i thank God that over the years i've learnt how to handle the silence and how to steer the topic towards something deeper and heartfelt, and also help the opposite party be more open about his beliefs.
So i started asking him about how he viewed Christianity. Basically, he had no real issues with Christianity, not like how some ppl can't really accept how come people could do all kinda bad things yet at the last moment if they accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour they still make it to heaven. No real issues with the Christian doctrine.
For him really, its really about what works for him. Like he mentioned just like each time i share with him how prayer works for me, its the same for him. Buddhist teachings are like a moral compass to him and thats what he appreciates about Buddhism. And like how he gets calmed by Buddhist chantings.
Then i asked him how does he correlate science and religion together. Basically for him science and religion dun mix. Each requires a different model to explain things. SO i told him that my belief is that science is only discovering what religion (God and Christian beliefs) have already affirmed. So to him, thats a pretty big statement, and he told me that he needed strong proof to be convinced of that. I told him i'll get back to him on this one.
Interestingly enough, he told me that even if God were to appear to him, it would only prove that our God is real, not that his beliefs are false. So he still wouldn't believe in Christianity. Like how one true does not make another false.
To him, religions which have the right teachings are all true. So conceptually when i pressed further, he told me that in the afterlife, I would go to heaven and he would be reincarnated, based on our beliefs.
I told him frankly i respected his views, but as a Christian, i believe that there is only one way, its either up or down.Okie, here's where it is abit sensitive. I can tell him such things based on our friendship and the frankness which we regard each other with. For some friends this is not possible especially with zealous believers, so you gotta step gingerly on this kinda issues.
It was a pretty open discussion and at the end i'm happy to learn more about how he thinks cos u know what, i'll know more about what i need to target in prayer.
At the end of the day, each time u share, you gotta come to the realisation that our words mean nothing. You can try to remove intellectual barriers, maybe improve the receptivity of the person to Christianity by avoiding being obnoxious and overly-dogmatic, but salvation is first and foremost a spiritual work which is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. We are mere vessels.
Anyway, this is for all those who wants to know more about evangelizing to the people around you. Its not exactly a success story but a step closer. By faith, i believe one day my friends will come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
God bless!
Ivan
+ AMEN
