Are you prepared to have a conversation with someone who sits down and
says 'Tell me about Christ.' ?
That happened to me today.
Are you then prepared to have a conversation with someone who says 'I
disagree with you and here is why.' ?
That also happened to me today.
I believe I would answer both of those questions with an affirmative
'yes'. But that isn't what was really happening.
Today as I was at work doing my job, and in fact, on a Friday being very
busy about it, I was asked by the receptionist to speak to a man who
walked in off the street. My office is placed inside the Director's
office but I am not a director. I happen to sit here because my job is
communication. So, when a man came looking for a director, and they
were all out of the office, I was asked to field it.
I showed the man in. He was a Papua New Guinean man, we spoke a mixture
of English and Tok Pisin. He was definitely educated about the Bible
and able to quote Scripture. I kept trying to discover why he was here,
what he wanted.
So, (not for the first time) I played a little bi-lingual back and forth
trying to discern the man's intentions. Often times a man says 'tell me
about Christ.' and there intention is not to learn about Christ at all.
God must have prepared me for this meeting years ago because the first
time I was asked this in country I did an entire Gospel presentation
only to find out the person didn't want to know any of that.
After going back and forth in a friendly way, talking about the Bible
and our beliefs, I gathered that the man wanted to come and speak to
leadership. He saw us as responsible for translating the Bible and
wanted to convince us to clear up a few misunderstandings. Mostly he
was friendly and wanted to be heard.
He believes that Christ has not come yet. That the Bible is talking
prophetically about a savior yet to come. And because we have not yet
identified who Christ is, we're still in sin. He believes the church
was wrong in assuming that Christ has already come and he is going
around talking to everyone in leadership about his ideas. He kept
quoting Daniel to show me he was right. Of course, one verse does not a
theology make.
I kindly told him I disagreed with him, shared with him a brief Gospel
message of who Christ was and is, and is to come.
We agreed to disagree, and he thanked me for listening to him. He
wanted to be sure that I heard him and got his name known, in case we
wanted to ask him questions in the future.
And then we shook hands and he left.
Unexpected and odd conversations like this happen frequently amongst
folks here. For me, in this office job, this is a first. But I've had
these interesting conversations outside of the office before.
It is during these conversations that I say a quick prayer "God, give me
the words to say, this person has come to me probably on your behest,
what do you want to share with them today?" I never know what happens
after that.
You never know when those chances are going to come, and I tell you, it
makes me want to continue memorizing more Scripture so I can be more
prepared for them. I'm actually kind of excited that even in a desk job
that supports Bible Translation, I can have these face to face meetings.
