Today I had an interesting experience with a guy I've only been acquainted with for a couple of months. Out of the blue he came up and asked me, "What makes one church better than another church? I mean why pick one over another? I mean, there's so many freaking churches out there." He seemed a little irritated when he asked the question. I could have been mistaken.

I paused and asked, "Larry, you're a mechanic right?" He nodded in response. I asked, "If both of your arms were broken and your wife's car was broken down, who would you choose as your mechanic, and how would you choose one?"

He thought about it for a little bit and answered, "An honest one."

I said, "So if this person didn't know a head gasket from a transmission, you'd go to him because he was honest?"

He said, "No, I guess I wouldn't."

I asked him, "Wouldn't you probably look for a mechanic who really knows their stuff, and is honest too?"

He said, "Yeah."

I told him it was kind of the same way with churches. I told him about Paul and the Bereans, and how what Paul told them may have been trustworthy, but that these very careful men went ahead diligently and compared what he told them to the scriptures, to make sure that what Paul was telling them wasn't 'off the wall'. This led to a barrage of other questions. He expressed an opinion that the Bible was probably less that reliable because it had been translated so many times by so many different people. Talk about opportunities. I almost couldn't believe my ears. I talked with him at length about the number of extant copies of the New Testament alone, either whole or in part that testify to the accuracy of the scribes and their manuscripts. I then spoke with him about the Dead Sea Scrolls and what they bring to the table in regard to the Bible's accuracy and reliability. He was surprised to hear these things.

The question was why there were handicapped and disfigured people born in the world, and why had God done that to them through no fault of their own. He wanted to know why the world was such a bad place. I remembered at that moment that this fellow had mentioned to me that he had a developmentally disabled daughter, aged 7. He also has a son, aged 11. I began to tread very lightly. I was having a good time in the Spirit and I didn't want that to get in the way of witnessing to this man. I told him that these things were not really to be laid at God's feet, and that we couldn't really point a finger at Him for the responsibility.

I told him that originally that God had created a perfect world for man to live in, but that sin messed everything up.

He asked me what I meant. I told him, "It isn't God's fault that people have disabilities and handicaps. The fault lies corporately at the feet of mankind." I talked with him about the circumstances of the deception in the Garden of Eden and about the sin of Adam and the fall, and the resultant fallen world that we in. I told him that, "all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God." He told me that God could have prevented all of that. I told him that was true, but that He loved us so much that He gave us the right to choose. I told him that we could choose to curse God to His face and tell Him we want nothing to do with Him. I told him though, that there was a price for doing that.

I talked with him about why we were created the way we were and what we were created for. I told him that we were created in God's image and that we were made to be compatible for fellowship with, and the worship of Him. I told Him that God demands to be worshipped, but that He is the only one Who deserves it. He's the Creator.

He asked me why though, if God loves us that he didn't so something for the more deserving of society, over murderers and rapists and thieves. I asked him if he could think of anything God had already done for mankind. I asked him to think about that and that we would come back to that later. I then asked him, "If I were hanging off the edge of a huge cliff, and your daughter was hanging next to me and you could only choose one of us to save, who would you save?"

He seemed a little sheepish about answering, but he said, "My kid."

I told him, "That's right. I'd lose, every time! But God didn't do that. He instead chose to give us a way to be saved, and allowed His only begotten Son to go to the Cross." I reposed the question to him, "Now back to my question, has God done anything for the people of this world?"

He said, "Yeah, I guess He did."

I told him about the protoevangelium, Genesis 3:15, and told him that Jesus was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," and that God knows everything and that He knew we would sin, and that this plan for our salvation was in place before sin ever entered into the world. I also told him that this life may seem interminably long, but it's nothing compared to an eternity with a God Who loves us, and that basically, after this short life, we could spend all eternity with God, Who will in turn be showing us how much He loves us, for all eternity, and that eternity was free for the asking and that all we had to do to get it was to place our faith and trust in Jesus. We talked a bit about grace, what it is and what it means for us and what Jesus did for us on the Cross

He sought me out about a half hour later and told me, "Thank you." I asked him for what and he answered, "For explaining all of that to me. Nobody was ever able to before." He also went on to tell me that he had thought for most of these seven years since his daughter was born that God had been angry with him for his past sins and that he felt personally responsible for he condition. This was his idea of how God viewed him. I think I might have cried, had I not been standing in front of this man. The anguish he must have been going through, thinking these things, carrying this guilt, really moved me.

I did my best to reassure him of the love that God has for him, for all of us, and told him again that an eternity with God was free for the asking, and that all we had to do was to trust in Jesus and ask Him into our hearts. It's pretty much there that our time together ended. I'm leaving out quite a bit of the things we actually discussed, but I feel it was time well spent.

I invite you to pray for this man and his family, and ask that God would remove any obstacles that might stand between Him and this man's heart. My prayer is for the salvation of this man, and his family.