Yesterday I had the priviledge of going to Toronto to share the gospel with some High school students from our church youth fellowship.
Marvin(Not his real name) and I went around the Eaton Center and tried to talk to people. We were pretty scared, and most conversations did not end with any gospel discussions.
Eventually we talked to some Muslims who were manning a booth, the person who was handing out reading materials referred us to someone at the back after we told him we were Christians and wanted to talk about Jesus.
The person at the back (I'll call him Mohan) started talking about errors in the Bible, how Acts 8:37 was missing from some translations and how that violated Revelations 22:19, I was taken back a bit because I didn't know Acts 8:37 was missing , but told him it probably has something to do with manuscripts.
Mohan then brought up more errors and I remembered not to get caught up in debate on words, so I asked him how he would get to heaven, interestingly he firmly believes that by keeping the law he would go to heaven and that the Apostle Paul was wrong in relieving people of the stray jacket of the law.
I then asked him what he thought of the sacrificial systems of the OT, he said something about the Jews trying to make up a false religion.
We eventually ended our conversation with a discussion about the deity of Christ, he told me if I could show him where Jesus explicitly calls himself God, he would become a Christian, so I told him about the incident when the Jews tried to stone Jesus because he said "Before Abraham was, I am." Mohan denied it and said in the omniscience of God, all men existed before they where born. I told him that was not in the text and we bid our farewell, he told me to come visit soon, and that God willing, we shall meet again. I hope that God willing, he would see the truth and be set free from the bondage of sin and trying to earn God's favor by keeping the law.
Evangelism is exciting and I learned a lot:
1. I need to know my bible better
2. Avoid excessive debates about words and secondary issues and focus on who Jesus is and how he saves men from our sin.
2. Just be yourself and talk naturally and honestly with people, who knows what God is doing in a person's heart
3. Despite being afraid and nervous, I need to take initiative to approach strangers
4. Evangelism is fulfilling and brings a lot of joy. Maybe that's why Jesus told the disciples he has food that they don't know about (Doing God's will).
5. We should do this more often, and God willing this will become a habit for the youth fellowship.
