I spent 3 1/2 hours the other day with a man who has never been to a church service in the 31 years of his life. As far as he knows, his parents never went to church, or at least they never talked to him about church. However, for people who have never been to “church” they all have some pretty strong opinions about it.
Our conversation meandered quite a bit in those hours, but 4 very strong points came across.
1. He believes in God, every time he referred to God he would point up and say “The Big Guy upstairs”.
2. He has never in his life had anyone talk to him about Jesus Christ being the Son of God. His knowledge about Jesus comes from others opinions, the media and his own assumptions.
3. He has never read any part of the Bible and did not know what the Gospels were, (he does now, because I told him what they were.)
4. His opinion about Christians come from 4 people who proclaimed to be so.. who all 4 told him he was going to Hell, but because of his angry reaction to them, never told him the way to Heaven. They just told him the things he HAD to do!
I told him he didn’t HAVE TO DO anything. Christians WANT to do. We do it because we love God and want to obey him. Love takes away the HAVE to and turns it into a WANT to. I used his mom as an example. I asked him if he would steal $20 out of his mom’s wallet? He was very indignant when I asked him that. He gave me a very curt “NO.”
“Why not?” I asked….
“because I would never take something from her, because it’s wrong. “
“How do you know it’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, I just know it’s wrong. It would hurt my mom and so I don’t want to hurt my mom.”
“That’s how I feel about wanting to follow God’s rules.” I said.
He looked me square in the eyes and said “ROBBERS!” They are “ROBBERS!” He was beginning to become quite agitated. (I have to admit, I got a bit nervous at this point.)
I asked him what he meant by the word “robbers.”
“They’re nothing but a bunch of Robbers, cause they are stealing a name that’s not theirs.” “No offense to you.” He said.
I told him I didn’t take offense, but I was curious as to why we (our church people) were not considered to be in the category of “Robbers.”
“Because you all don’t tell me I HAVE to do this….but you make me WANT TO. ROBBERS Take, what’s not theirs! They don’t deserve the name….if it’s about LOVE…then they’re ROBBERS.”
Wow, I pray that I always be the person that draws people to WANT to follow Christ….I sure don’t want to be a Robber.
