Thursday 8 December 2011

Witnessing to a professing Christian

This is a short excerpt from my soon to be released book, "A fall from the top" A true story of when I shared Jesus with a work colleague. Perhaps you know people like this. 

Another recruit called Iain joined the office from a banking background. He was a pleasant chap and was very popular. He was very intelligent and had won a very difficult quiz game on television. I let him know that I was a Christian on his first day in the job. He told me “I am a Christian and I go to our local church every Sunday”. “Great” I thought. As he got more familiar with colleagues I noticed that he swore a lot and even took the name of the Lord in vain. This disturbed me because if a person has truly given their life to Jesus the last thing they would do is use the name of Jesus Christ as a swear word. I decided when the time was right that I would challenge Him.

It wasn’t very long before I had an opportunity, when we were alone. I said “Iain can I ask you a personal question?” “Yes of course” he replied. I said “To be totally honest with you, I am a little confused. You say you are a Christian, yet you use profane language and have even taken the name of the Lord in vain”. He looked embarrassed and said that he didn’t realise he had done so. I said “Imagine a drunk on the street was being spoken to by a person who was trying to help him from a local church. During the conversation the so-called Christian used profane language. I think you’d agree that even a drunk person would realise that something was wrong”. Iain agreed and the language he used quickly changed.

I couldn’t leave it there though, so I spoke to him on a number of occasions and asked him when he had made a decision to follow Jesus. He admitted that he had never done that, but that he did believe the Bible. I asked him as I had done with Paul whether he thought that Jesus was in fact who He said He was and what he thought of the same verse of scripture. “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3: 5 NIV). His answer was just the same as Paul’s, "Oh, I don't think I believe that"

We had many conversations and as with Paul we had much common ground. But once again, we got stuck on that same fundamental truth. One Friday evening we were alone in the office and soon got onto the subject of the Lord. We talked about Heaven and discussed that no matter how good someone is, whether they go to church or give to charity they will not be able to enter Heaven unless their name is in the Book of Life. The only way of getting there is to be a true follower of Jesus. We discussed how no one would be able to enter the kingdom of God through his or her own righteousness or by doing good works: -
All our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. (Isaiah 64: 6 NIV)
 I used another verse to explain that a commitment is required from the heart: -
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7: 21-23 NIV)

As we spoke I saw from his expression that he had had a sudden realisation - there was nothing he could do to earn his way into Heaven. He was a lost sheep just like I had been. Jesus had saved me by His Grace. I asked him “Do you want to leave here tonight with complete assurance that if you died today you would be in Heaven with Jesus?” He looked at me and said “Moray I’m not ready yet”. I replied “We will never be ready because there is nothing we can do of ourselves. Today is the day of Salvation. Don’t put it off, we can deal with this now if you truly believe”. “Yes I do believe” he replied. That was all I needed to hear. At that moment it felt as if God’s presence was very powerful in the office. I could clearly see that Iain was affected by it because he took a sharp intake of breath and stopped breathing for a moment. His eyes filled with tears. I asked, “Would you like to receive Jesus as your Saviour now?” He answered “Yes, I would”. We went through the prayer in the same way as I had with Paul. God is truly amazing! I couldn’t wait to tell Desiree the wonderful news.

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