Is Jesus really God? (Part 2)

This blog is a continued blog…

Through conversation we found out that Jason did know about bits and pieces of the word but only through stumbling upon it somewhere. He told us that he had never read the bible and that we were the first people who have ever told him about Jesus.

Blake is a 24 year old man from Arizona who joined the conversation when he overheard us talking about Jesus. When he came into the conversation and started speaking about God something in my being did not sit right. I kept thinking that he was sitting in on our conversation trying to twist the truth somehow but didn't really know why I thought that.

About a month ago I read a blog from one of my friend's who was living in Amsterdam. She mentioned a guy in her blog that was a false prophet who showed up one day for her bible study. That's another story but I share that with you to tell you that thoughts about the guy who was a false prophet who entered Janell's bible study in Amsterdam continued running through my head as Blake talked about the bible during this conversation. However, I didn't tell anyone and just let him speak a little more.

Blake spilled verses out to our new friend Jason so after a while I thought to myself that I may have been judging Blake and asked God to take that judgment away from me. I didn't want to judge a fellow brother who was trying to help us. However, something still wasn't sitting right. About an hour after he joined the conversation he left. He didn't have a hostel he was staying in yet so I pointed him to our hostel that we are staying at in hopes of catching up with him later to encourage him. I did get to minister to him but we will get back to him in a little bit.

In 4 ½ hours we discussed about a million things. Jason asked question after question about our faith. Allegra spoke then Josh would speak then I would speak. Back and forth we went answering questions and listening to Jason's thoughts. He was so open to what we had to say as we tried to explain the gospel to him and also he is very intelligent. He has done his research on many things including other religions. So of course other religions came up in the conversation.

Jason has a hard time believing why we say that Jesus is the only way to heaven. From what I gathered, he believes that all religions are equal and that Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus, etc. will also receive a spot reserved for them in the kingdom of heaven. He also has created his own beliefs through much study stimulating from what scientists believe. He told us that he thought Jesus was a beautiful spirit but he also thought there were a lot of other beautiful spirits. As we tried to explain to Jason why we believe what we do more questions stimulated. For 4 ½ hours we talked about many different subjects pertaining to the gospel.

In the beginning of the conversation Jason told me that he wanted to read the bible one day but it wouldn't be anytime soon. Throughout the conversation we would always refer our answers back to the bible. Also throughout the conversation I kept telling him that the only way for him to know for sure if we were telling the truth was if he read the word for himself.

Jason loves to research and look into anything and everything and I think that it bothered him a little that he didn't fully know how to defend his point of view if he didn't read the bible. So I am happy to give glory to God by telling you by the end of the conversation he told us that he was going to read the gospels in the next month! God worked in Jason's heart much more than we even saw today. Today we saw God use us to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to someone who has never been evangelized to! Praise Jesus!

After our talk with Jason I went to a restaurant and sought someone else out to talk to. I sat down with a 64 year old man from Japan and chatted with him for about an hour. We talked a lot about him and through our conversation I found out that he is Buddhist and he lives to have a happy life. I was able to share the good news of Jesus with him during that conversation telling him that Jesus is the only way to heaven! He didn't carry on a conversation about Jesus and changed the subject but I believe that God worked in his heart!

After that our team went out to dinner. When our stomachs were satisfied we walked back to the hostel. When I walked through the common area I saw Blake sitting in one of the chairs so I sat down with him and asked him about his day. Soon after that we got into a conversation about Jesus. I went into this conversation with Josh expecting to encourage another believer. However, the conversation took a turn that I didn't really expect it to take.

He started pouring out his heart and eventually told Josh and I that he did not believe that Jesus is God. He believes that the creator is God but that Jesus is not God. He started pulling out all kind of scripture trying to prove his claim that Jesus isn't God. He told us that he believed that Jesus is the son of God but didn't see anywhere in scripture that told him that Jesus is God. Time after time again he used scripture out of it's context. He could not grasp that the father, son and Holy Spirit are three separate beings but one God combined.

Josh did a lot of the talking in this conversation using scripture to show him that it actually does say that Jesus is God. I talked a little bit but we couldn't seem to convince him that Jesus is God. So I just started praying out loud that Satan would quit blinding his mind to the truth. I believe that Satan has been distorting his thinking. At the end of our conversation we asked him if we could pray for him and if he would pray for us. He told us that we could pray for him but it says in the bible to go into your room and pray by yourself instead of in front of people. Therefore, he couldn't let us pray for him while we were in the common area. Then he walked away. Josh and I talked a little then prayed for God to reveal himself to Blake.  

Through all of the conversation today I saw God move. I came out of all three of those conversations feeling great about what we expressed and also having a deeper desire to know God's word better. I want to be able to defend the gospel by using every bit of the gospel that God has so graciously given us. I am continuing to pray for Blake because I don't think that he has intentions of proving Jesus is not God. I believe that He is searching for the truth and the devil has thrown some "Is Jesus really God" questions at him.  And I close this blog by giving thanks to God for all that happened in the hearts of those who were ministered to today!