Sharing Jesus Without Fear

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

This verse was my go-to verse before a "fishing trip" in college. I wouldn't hesitate to call myself socially awkward. When I am talking to people I don't know, I tend to stumble over my words. I don't know what to say. Carrying a conversation with a new person just, unfortunately, isn't one of my strong suits. But 1 Corinthians would remind me that it wasn't by my own power I would be speaking, it was the Holy Spirit who would be speaking through me. It has been a while since I was in college and we made these semi-regular trips to "tailgate city" to share the gospel. During those trips we were using tracts and a technique we had learned through Way of the Master / Living Waters. The tracts not only contained the gospel message, but were presented in a creative way that allowed us to walk up to strangers and start a conversation. My personal favorite was the "Survey Pad," which had a series of trick questions to break the ice, before moving on into more serious questions like "How does a person get to heaven?"

Even after those trips, I wouldn't say it really got "less scary." At the beginning of 2015, I participated in an exercise in which event participants wrote down things they wanted to leave behind from 2014 and then toss them in the fire. I have a lot of bad habits, but I chose one word to write down: Fear. Oddly enough, not long before that, I purchased a bible study from Lifeway, Share Jesus Without Fear. Unlike the previous study "Praying With Paul," our small interdenominational group chose to simply read through this study because of its layout.Share Jesus Without Fear was organized as a four-week study with each week broken into five days. With two hours, once per week, we managed to complete the study in about six weeks. Here are some of the things that stuck out to me:

• Not sharing my faith is a sin; it is disobedience. (Sin of Silence)
• Because sharing the gospel is a partnership with God and it is the Holy Spirit who will change hearts, I can't fail if I simply obey and share our faith. If the message is rejected, the person isn't rejecting me.
• Even Moses made excuses; many of which are similar to an excuse we might give today. But he followed through. (Ex. 3:11-12,13-17; 4:1-9,10-12,13)
• Remember to always Say something, Ask questions, Listen, and Turn the conversation (SALT).
• There are ways to share the gospel, through questions, that make the person feel more at ease. Don't argue with the person, simply listen. The study presents five questions to help open the conversation.
• Mark a small bible with seven bible verses (provided) and ask the person to read each of them aloud; ask them what it means to them after each.
• Close with key questions, offering the person a chance to respond to the gospel.
• If I need a "cheat sheet," it is OK. I don't have to know everything and the person may appreciate the fact I am a normal person, not a bible scholar.

The study closes with a list of 36 possible negative responses a person might have and some responses. Many times a simple "Why," is the response. Other times, more detailed answers are provided. I must say there are a few I don't agree with.

Maybe it is my semi-sarcastic nature, but if I were not a Christian and when I said I was not ready to make a decision the person told me something like, "OK, drive carefully," or "Have a nice day," and then walked away, I'm not sure I would take that positively. I think I would lean more in the direction of some of the previous responses and encourage them to think about our discussion and let them know I would love to talk to them again and at least leave my contact information.

So now I have to ask myself, what am I afraid of? " What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). When we started the study, my two responses were a fear of not knowing what to say, and not knowing how to start/hold a conversation (and social awkwardness in general). Now, I think the latter is my primary fear. In college, I found the gospel tracts from Living Waters helpful. The two methods in sharing the gospel are slightly different -- I could see a way to combine the tracts from Living Waters with the approach presented in Sharing Jesus Without Fear.

What are your biggest fears in sharing the gospel? What holds you back? How have you overcome these fears? I would love to hear from you; feel free to leave a comment.

Panhandlers

The Shell station on the corner of 9th street and I-30 access road in downtown Little Rock is not one of my favorite places to stop at night but I had to use the bathroom and knew if I didn't stop for gas there I would likely be walking several miles to the nearest gas station. I looked around and pulled up to a pump; everything seemed to be clear this time so I get out, lock my door and go inside to the restroom. Before going back outside, I stop at the register and pay for $14 in gas, all of the cash I had on me. This was on purpose, remembering the last time I stopped at the gas station. 

"Nice jacket, can I have it?" a man asks me as he approaches me next to my car. In my head: "Is he serious? You know, it is cold out here, maybe he does need it." It wasn't long before he said, "just kidding." Did my surprise show on my face? Regardless, he continued talking to me. "I'm from Missouri and I don't have any place to go. The Mission only lets you stay one night. I tried to steal some vienna sausages earlier but I got caught. Can you spare any change, even a dime would help." In my mind: "There are multiple shelters in Little Rock and I don't think that any of them have a one-night policy. And if you were caught trying to steal, how are you standing here?" What I said, "I just spent my last cash to buy gas. Let me finish pumping and I will go inside and buy you something to eat." I place the nozzle in my tank and begin (or think I begin) pumping gas and notice by this time a second person is standing five or six feet behind me. At this point, I have become nervous. The first guy continues, "Thats. OK, I am meeting a friend and hes got some KFC for us..." I realize I haven't flipped the gas pump on and say, "I guess this works better when you turn it on," I say to the two of them with a slight laugh. The second guy agrees. The first continues, "But you could buy me a pack of Marlbro cigarettes. I could sell them for 50 cents a piece and make a little bit of money."

"I'm not going to buy the cigarettes," I tell him. "I'll buy you something to eat but no cigarettes. The first man continues to try and convince me, but I'm not giving in on it. Again in my mind: "What if I did buy these for him and he sells them to a minor? Plus, you probably have to have a license to sell cigarettes and thats just going to get you in more trouble." The second guy starts talking and telling me how he had been in prison and liked it there becasue all the white people kept their distance. "All I had to do is show them this," he said as he pulled the front of his shirt up to reveal a scar. 

It is eventually the second man who takes me up on the food and he begins to explain that he wants one of the hot jack links sausages being very specific. "You might want to come in with me," I tell him. He sends the first person in with me who wasn't much help in choosing the correct one and then he picks up a bag of chips for himself. At the register he begins pointing to the newspaper and talking to me again as I try to run my credit card completely blocking out the cashier who was apparently asking, "debit or credit?" The man continues talking and asks me what I think about the Grand Jury's decision in Ferguson. At that point I am thankful I can honestly say I have purposely remained ignorant on that current event. Yes, I know it was about excesive force by law enforcement, but the remainder of the case I have remained out of the loop on. That is one news quiz I am happy to fail tonight as I could answer that I hadn't been following the story and couldn't answer the question.

We walk out of the store and I hand him the bag of chips and speed up to hand the other guy the sausage. "Only one?" he questions. "I'll take one." I then head toward my car, wanting to get in as soon as possible. "I love you brother," the second man shouted as I opened the door. "Likewise," I yell back.

Now, safely at home I am left to ponder...did I do the right thing(s)?

• I've been reading a book, "How to help the poor without hurting them or yourself." One of the main points it makes is that by simply giving 'handouts' we are actually making things worse for them and even ourselves. Instead we should work alongside them, building relations and helping them grow to be self-sufficient. What kind of harm might my buying the food have caused?
• Matthew 5:40, 42 says, "And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well...Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." Should I have immediately taken my jacket off and given it to him? What might God have done if I had?
• Was my fear/nervousness obvious? When the second person approached and stood behind me, I have to admit my thoughts were going toward, "I really hope I don't get stabbed/robbed." And having these thoughts made me wonder, "Am I being judegemental?" Forgive me.

Lessons Learned During a Winter Camping Trip

It has been a while since I last went camping and even longer since I last wrote a blog. So this weekend makes for two things I haven't done in a while.

I don't get the opportunity to go camping all that often, especially in the winter. This trip had some pretty interesting obstacles and discoveries as most trips do.

Late night + Wet wood = No fire
It was 9:30 Friday night before we arrived at Petit Jean State Park. By that time it was dark and cold outside. I chose a campsite close to the showers and bathroom where at least there would be some escaping the elements if worse came to worst. Luckily, because we weren't on a peninsula surrounded by water and a cold breeze blowing across it, I didn't suffer quite as much as one night at Lake Ouachita State Park.

Unfortunately, by the time we got camp set up it was already getting fairly late. We still had to gather small kindling to start a fire. Usually it is pretty easy but that night I wasn't quite prepared for the obstacle in front of me: wet kindling and wet firewood. I would need a lot more small stuff to get the bigger stuff to ignite. After a half hour I called it quits for the night and went to bed. Little did I know, it wasn't going to be a good night's sleep at all.

Cold night + Two people + Small tent + 0º sleeping bag ≠ Warmth / Sometimes, bigger is better

In the summer, a sleeping bag rated to 0 degrees is plenty warm, even with two people crowded in a small tent. I have a small, two man tent and a larger five man tent. Knowing it would be cold I thought the small tent would trap more body heat and help keep it warmer at night. What actually happened is I slept too close to the tent wall (keeping in mind I am 5'8" in a 6'x6' tent). Even in the summer I know to try and stay clear of the sides of the tent, but with bulkier gear it became more difficult. In the night I would roll over and find myself in the corner. That's not all I found either; each time I woke up I was reminded that cold outside air, warmer inside air, a nylon sleeping bag on a floor made out of tarp material and being too close to the sides of the tent meant I found my gear growing wetter and colder. I guess I was still in a better situation than my friend who only had a lightweight sleeping bag with him. He ended up sleeping in the car.

On the bright (and early) side, since we arrived after office hours we had to wake up early the next morning to go check in. I had to debate whether I was willing to stay a second night. In the end we decided to go ahead and pay for two nights. I set up a clothes line and hanged the blanket and bag up to dry while we went for a hike.

If the weather men can be wrong, they will be wrong / Geocaching community

Saturday morning seemed like it would be a nice day. Before going on the camping trip I checked the weather and it was supposed to be cloudy but precipitation free the entire weekend. Another plus was I had picked up hot chocolate at the store before going -- nothing like a hot drink after a cold night. By 10 a.m. we were on the trail down to Cedar Falls. 

Close to the waterfall we searched for a geocache. We looked for quite a while on both sides of the trail. The GPS was leading me in different directions every couple of seconds as the signal bounced of the canyon walls on both sides. At one point, I thought I had found the geocache when I spotted a man-made pile of rocks. I began lifting rocks but quickly noticed a cross sticking out of the top and stopped. I found an open spot and sure enough there was a small skeleton inside -- that wasn't the geocache.

Eventually we decided to head on over to the waterfall and try again later. Sitting near the waterfall, the sun was shining in to the canyon which was colder by the water. After relaxing in the sun for a while we returned to the search. Eventually I took one of the hints literal and decided to go look half-way to the grave. In the end the terrain and difficulty rating turned out to be the most useful hint. While looking in the correct area another group of geocachers arrived. This was the first time I have met another geocacher looking for the exact same geocache. Instant conversation starter.

The one we were looking for contained half of the coordinates for a third geocache we would be looking for. In order to find the other half of the coordinates we had to hike roughly another 1.5 miles in the other direction.We found it much easier and assembled the coordinates to the "mystery" cache. During all of this excitement it began to rain. My mind went to the my camera and GPS and then to my sleeping bag and blanket hanging outside back up at camp. "Looks like I may be sleeping in my car tonight," I told him. Fortunately it didn't last long and my stuff stayed dry/dried on the line. About 4 a.m. it sprinkled some more, just enough to get everything wet and ensure the weather forecasters were wrong yet again.

What goes up must come down. And sometimes what goes down must go back up.

I think I am in worse shape every trip I take to Petit Jean. And every time I hike to Cedar Falls and it comes time to hike back to the top I began asking myself why I came back down into the canyon; much like I tell myself every time I hike Pinnacle Mountain I will never do it again, but I always seem to go back.

After four miles of hiking in the canyon at Petit Jean we drove to Mount Magazine State Park, about an hour and a half away. It turns out all of the trails there were closed due to damage from the ice storm (not that I was up for more hiking). Driving up the mountain I could tell the weather had taken it's toll on the area. The bare trees lay broken on the ground and the ones still standing provided little to block the view of the surrounding valley. I was glad to be on the inside part of the road going up but knew I wouldn't be so lucky coming down. Eventually I was going to have to face the curvy, steep, high road down the mountain with no guard rails and nothing to block the view of how far down it was. (It may be time for me to reconsider how badly I want to do some things/travel some places...)

The speed limit on the road was 55 miles per hour but I think I went less than 20 most of the way down the mountain. From the area hang gliders launch, where we viewed the sunset, it took somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes to get down the mountain where I could finally breathe again.

Eating local is always a good option

The last three times I have been to Petit Jean we have eaten in the restaurant at Mather Lodge. It is becoming somewhat of a tradition and I haven't been disappointed so far. The last two times I have had beef which is raised just down the road at Winrock Farms. Good food from a local source. It is always nice to eat local food.

If I am going to go backpacking, I have a LOT of work to do
I've been saying for years now that I want to go on a backpacking trip. When I was in college, a friend and I said we would hike the Appalachian Trail after we graduated. That never happened. Now I want to hike in the Smokey Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. That could be a while though -- it will involve a lot of work:

• I am way out of shape and need to not only loose weight but build a lot of endurance
• I have got to learn how to pack my backpack better and lighter
• I have got to learn how to overcome my fear of heights -- there is no telling what adventure awaits in some locations
• I have to find a way to keep all of my gear dry in the rain (or when it decides to sweat)
• I have to buy new gear
• I have a lot of emergency skills that are important to learn before embarking on the journey