Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Jesus. We can all have our own way to get to heaven or the afterlife right? Recently, a friend and I decided to take a walk through a local park and invite people to our Sunday night church, and hopefully spur some good conversation, and maybe more. We had no plans or well thought out ideas or expectations, we just had the urge to "get out." One thing that may have prompted us (well actually two things) was that we were going through Acts in our Tuesday night small group. The other, the Holy Spirit tapping on our shoulders. In Acts, Peter and the others are filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit, getting beat down like a rabid dog for it, and loving it! They actually pray for boldness to continue this craziness of preaching!
So, during our travels through the park we encountered people of different sizes, shapes, and religions, some were just a quick "hey" and others were really open to talk to us about Jesus. One couple in particular engaged us in a great dialogue. It was kind of like hooking up with a the big fish you were trying for all afternoon. Her name was Brianne, and his was Ryan. Brianne turned out to be a sweet, intelligent caring girl. Ryan was a smart, intellectual guy. Both I'd say were in there 20's. We talked about Jesus, and asked them their thoughts. She said Jesus was a great man and a great role model that we could learn a lot from. A great teacher. And she appreciated what we were doing, but she wasn't interested. "I'm a Buddhist" she said.
We talked about salvation and the afterlife, and I told her that I believed that Jesus was the only way to heaven. I quoted a few scriptures i.e. John 1:1 and John 1:14 and John 14:6 "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but through Me". That was all well and good and real nice and churchey, but didn't really mean squat to her. You see even the demons believe in God, (not that she was a demon) but don't pledge their allegiance to Him. So I asked her - out of all the religions of the world, why did you choose to follow Buddha? She pondered for a second searching the sky for an answer, and in an almost unconvincing answer said - harmonics.
Personally I like to believe that the Creator of all things (my God) would have more than just harmonics. He died, rose again like He said He would and fulfilled umpteen prophecies while He spent time with us as a human. We talked about how the bible is a history book, and that Jesus was either who He claimed to be, or He was an all out liar and a bad person. She just smiled and said that we don't "completely understand" Him. Then Ryan started quoting from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy! Come on Ryan, we weren't ready for that one. How even His disciples questioned Him and his ideas and parables. It was an awesome dialogue. It was obvious that our road to heaven was a different one than theirs. Harmonics or a living, breathing, dead raising, life giving God. I didn't expect to change their minds that afternoon, but maybe, just maybe a seed was planted. Left for the Holy Spirit to water. We left with smiles on our faces as we continued our trek through the park and downtown. We had brought the horses to the edge of the water, but it wasn't our job to make them drink.
Later that afternoon we talked to a couple of street vendors about everything from surfing, selling cars, weird looking bicycles (that they had poured ridiculous amounts of money into that still looked "ridiculous") and Jesus. We shook hands and said our goodbyes and good days. There was no one that was offended that day. You see it's about being authentic like Jesus and meeting the lost at their home, at their campus, at their park. I had a great time talking with Brianne and Ryan, and they were totally down with what we had to say. I pray they realize that Jesus Christ is "thee" only way to heaven.
I hope they drink the water someday.
Acts 5:42
