(Matt 11: 2 – 5) “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
As my soul-winning partner and I walked up to a townhouse in our area, a woman, whose name we later found out to be Lena, was sitting on the steps leading to the front door smoking a cigarette. With a smile, I introduced myself and my soul-winning partner. She politely pulled her hoodie from her face and smiled back in greeting. The ensuing conversation went something like this:
Me: “Hi! I am McG and this is Leo and we are from our church. We are doing a quick community survey. It has seven questions and should take about a minute. Do you have some time?”
Lena: (smiling) “I love doing things like this!”
Me: “Great! First question: What is your view of religion, Positive or negative?”
Lena: “Negative.”
Me: “Me, too. What is your view of Jesus Christ, positive or negative?”
Lena: “Oh…!” (Pauses to think) “Neutral…”
Me: “Do you believe there is a literal heaven and hell?”
Lena: “Yes!”
Me: “Where do you think you will go when you die?”
Lena: “I don’t know.”
Me: “In your opinion, how does someone get to heaven?”
Lena: “Doing good works, being a good person in society, stuff like that.”
Me: “If you were wrong, would you want to know?”
Lena: “Wrong about what?”
Me: “About what you have just shared with me about your opinions and the other answers you gave?”
Lena: “Yes I would want to know, but it will just be an opinion.”
Me: “Well, the last question may answer that. Did you know that the Bible tells you how you can know for sure where you will spend eternity?”
Lena: (In disbelief) “No! But I bet you believe that don’t you?”
Me: “Yes I do, and I would love to share with you why. Do you have time?”
Lena: “Sure.”
After thirty to forty minutes of conversation and sharing scripture with Lena there are four things I learned about her:
She is a Palestinian. I started my discourse with an apologetic position of the Bible. As I began to show Lena through history and scripture why I believe the Bible is true, I mentioned Israel and her reaction was vitriolic. Her vehement hatred for Israel and the Jewish people surprised me. She began asking political questions and at that time, my soul-winning partner jumped in and brought the conversation back to the main purpose: sharing the gospel.
Since then, I’ve marveled at how a Jewish Savior died for Lena, a Palestinian, just as he died for me, someone who hails from the Caribbean. John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
She is an agnostic. We continued talking with Lena, and I explained to her the reason why we are accountable to a Holy God. I explained the sin nature that was passed down from Adam to us. She made it known that she was not quite sure there was even a God. I did not (and will never) defend the existence of God, but as I went through the Ten Commandments with her, she admitted she had broken at least five of the ten. That is when I shared with her that there are over three hundred and sixty commandments and that James 2:10 said “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
She is lost. This should be an obvious point, but once she admitted to be a sinner, she then allowed me to share the gospel with her. I then used the same Bible she doubted earlier to take her through the Roman’s Road. As I turned from scripture to scripture, I turned the Bible towards her and asked her to read the verses out loud. She politely read each verse and I took the time to explain them after she read them. Rom 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
She is a lesbian. Soon after I wrapped up the Roman’s Road, a sense of uneasiness came over Lena’s face. That is when she informed us that we had taken up enough of her time. We thanked her for her time and turned to leave when she said: “I have one more question. Have you heard of Westboro Baptist Church?” I had, but my partner had not. She directed the question to me. She asked, “What do you think about what Westboro Baptist Church is doing? – I see you are Baptist, and I ask because I’m gay.” After thoroughly demonstrating that our church has no affiliation with WBC as she may have thought, I gave her a biblical answer. She nodded and acknowledged that my answer was not hateful. We thanked her again for her time and left.
I often think back on this encounter. First, let me say that after knocking on maybe thousands of doors in my county, meeting someone who is willing to talk for five minutes (much less over thirty minutes) is rare. Leo and I were able to answer Lena’s questions and bring her to a point where she had to choose between Christ and her sin. To our knowledge, she did not get saved that day. But I praise the Lord that the seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ was planted into the heart of one more soul in our area. And if there be any doubts as to whether it’s worth it to go door-to-door and confront others with the gospel, I would say “go tell the doubters that the Palestinians have heard the love of a Jewish Saviour, the agnostics have heard of their responsibility to a Holy God, that the lost have had the gospel preached to them, and that the homosexuals have been exhorted to repent and believe the gospel.”
The only question that remains is this: will you join us in our mission to turn our Jerusalem upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
(Matt 11:4, 5) “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
(Acts 17:6) “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;”
Praise the Lord!
Well done, brother!
You are on the front lines.
So thankful to see that someone is doing door-to-door evangelism, leading by example, bold as a lion. Praise God!