Day 150722: At the Mall

July 22, 2015CarlCreated to Do, July 2015, one on one

I met a friend for lunch at the mall. Several workers were handing out samples. I exchanged them for tracts. I ordered lunch and then gave the cashier a Create to Do tract.

After lunch we walked around the mall a little bit and struck up some conversations with people.

The first conversation was the worker at a booth selling popcorn. As I walked up, I asked, “Do you think they will have popcorn in Heaven?” She said she had no idea. So I followed with who goes to Heaven and then do you think there is a Heaven? In both cases I got a simple answer “don’t know don’t care.” She said she was not interested because it didn’t matter till she died. I asked, “what if it’s too late then.” Again “don’t care.” So we thanked her for her time and walked off.

Second conversation was with a guy demoing a “selfie stick”. So I asked “do you think people will take selfies in Heaven?” He said, “no.” I asked why not. He said, “because when you die you can’t take anything with you.” We had a great conversation and he shared his testimony of how he got saved and participated in a local church with his wife and son.

Third conversation was a man selling watches. Walked up and asked him, “do you think people will wear watches in Heaven?” He was not sure. So I asked how people get to Heaven. This lead to a long conversation which basically centered on him explaining how good people go to Heaven. I listened for a while and then asked, “if good people go to Heaven, wouldn’t it make sense that God would tell us how good we need to be to get there?” He agreed. But held to his belief. We talked about who determines truth? Could it be determined by popular opinion? Like what if the Supreme Court ruled? Would that make it true? Or is truth true regardless of popular opinion. he agreed that truth is truth regardless. He started talking about how rude some customers of the mall are. Demanding to see certain items. And even damaging his kiosk. Then he said that the mall would fine him if he did not fix the customers damage. I asked how he would feel if I offered to pay the repair. He said it would not be right for me to pay and he would not ask me. I reminded him that he did not ask, but what if I offered. He told us that he is a Muslim. And we built a lot of common ground with these things and even things from the Bible like belief in Moses, the Ten Commandments and that there is a God.

So eventually, I looked him in the eye and said, “here is the difference between Christianity and all other religions.” While religion teaches man to be good to earn favor with God, Christianity is about Christ paying the price for our sin. He went back to his idea of being good. I reiterated our common ground about truth and the payment of our sin.  I told him who Jesus is. Then I pointed ot the red calculator on his counter and said, “you know I realize that what I’m telling you is like if you thought this calculator was yellow and suddenly I am telling you it is red.” I realize this may take some time to sink in.

I gave him a copy of our book The Truth May Impact Your Opinion and he said he would read it. And I told him that I’d stop back next week to see what he thinks of it. So please pray for him!

We had day two of VBS on the road and got to have several conversations with people about the Gospel. On the way home we stopped at WalMart to put some tracts around the store and give to some people. Oh, and my wife picked up a couple things while we were there!