To begin, you might start with, "What do you think happens after we die?" "Do you think there's anyone up there?" "Weird thought, but what is life really about?" After these type of spirituality questions, ask about Jesus. Perhaps start by asking, "What do you think about Jesus?". It gets easier to ask the question after a few times, trust me, but it is nerve-wracking at first. That's normal.
In scenario #1, you may find that a person is actually interested or curious in Jesus. Ask them if they'd be interested in reading the Bible together, a gospel. A gospel is one of the four 1st books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Guess what? This is actually easy. You can simply read a chapter or maybe just 10-20 verses at a time and discuss. Ask questions and try not to provide answers. Let them go on the journey themselves, don't hand them answers easily. Questions might include: "What do you think about this statement?" "Do you think Jesus was telling the truth?" "What does this mean?". (more on that in the next set of posts "The Word")
In scenario #2, you find that a person is ambivalent. This is hard. This is often the state of our culture, and something you might feel like challenging. People like to find excuses to be apathetic, like saying "all roads lead to heaven" or "you find your way, I'll find mine". They don't want conflict, and they don't want to change. But... sometimes it is our calling to challenge such people to give up the quiet life and instead be brave and face the truth. Express that you don't want to hurt them, but instead that you do care for them and for this reason you want them to have what you have. You might have to explain you were given this good news and relationship with Jesus as a gift, and you aren't better than them.
In scenario #3, you find a person is offended or hostile. It's okay. Sometimes people get very angry with the messenger, but don't try to force the issue. Continue to love them. Continue to pray for them. The Lord can work with the passions of people, even if they are dead set against Him. The apostle Paul was a known persecutor of the early followers of Jesus and sent many to their deaths before Jesus caught up with him and entered into his life. You might think that hatred is far worse to face than apathy, but it's exactly the opposite in my opinion. If you find a person antagonistic to you, it's okay. If you can't answer their questions like "If God can do anything, can He make a rock bigger than he can carry?" or the joke from MadTV "If life is fair, why do roses have thorns?" or "Why is there evil in the world if God is real?".... if you can't answer those immediately, it's okay. You can simply say, "I don't know" or "I'll talk with God about that and see" or "I'll look into that, can I talk to you about it after I find something out?".
It's okay to not know. What's not okay is to antagonize and meet their hostility with hostility. I have done this in the past, and I regret it. It has never ended well. We don't want to act unlovingly and inoculate people against Jesus.
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Let's talk about some of these questions, but first, let me say something my missionary mentor taught me. He said that people don't really have intellectual hangups with the truth of Jesus. They just want to make excuses to sin. I believe that he is right in most cases. People don't really want to know the answer to these following questions unless they are in a crisis like going through cancer treatment, mourning the loss of a loved one, or experiencing war and murderous atrocities.
Question #1 "If God can do anything, can He make a rock bigger than he can carry?" Just for your own confidence, I'll answer this. Yes. He can. He did this in a sense by becoming a human, Jesus. He limited himself by choice, even though he is all-powerful. God can make a rock bigger than he can lift, but he can also choose in the future to make the rock carry-able. It's a stupid question that is meant to make you think you aren't a rational person for believing that there is an all-powerful God. But believing that there is a God is not the center of our faith. Rather, the center of our faith is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.
Question #2 "Why is there evil in the world if God is real?" This is another question about God's authority and power to act in the world. What do we think as followers of Jesus? We believe that sin, which is disobedience and rebellion against God, is the reason there is evil in the world. Sin has two effects on people, direct and indirect effects.
Perhaps you find a man who was abused (sin) committing atrocities (sin) against others. He was affected by sin and formed by sin and then repeated the sin and amplified sin. This is a direct effect of sin.
Indirect effects of sin are hard to understand, and that's normal. Why do children get cancer? Because in the past, the human race rebelled against God. God let us make that choice - a life without him. And a world without Him produces death, illness, plagues, unproductive soil, evil.
Sin entered into the world because God actually loves us. Hear me out. It was not his intention for sin to enter the equation, no. However, love is always a choice, and God permitted us to have the choice to love him or not. You cannot force love. You cannot make it happen. God gave us a choice, and we, through the first man who sinned, chose to rebel against what God wanted. We didn't choose to love God. This is how sin came in.
However, someone asking this sort of question who is experiening tragedy is asking a different question, even though they use the same words. The proper response is not usually one of words, but of loving kindness... of staying with that person in the moment... of being present and representing God's presence. Sometimes the question they are asking is "Where was God when I needed him?" And you should maybe ask yourself, where were the people of God? Or perhaps, where were you?
There are harder questions asked. So so many. Comment with one and maybe we can discuss it together. But don't be afraid to say you don't know the answers. Don't ever think you know it all. You were never meant to know it all, but you were always meant to direct people back to the One who does know it all. Pray with people. Ask God the question they are asking when you pray with them. Again, I give you permission to act in this way... even though it's commonly not thought of.
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Religious word of the day - Curse. In broader culture it means an evil spell cast on someone or an evil spell that becomes active after interacting with an object that is evil or taboo. However, a different way to look at a curse in the Biblical fashion is the removal of blessing and the beginning of punishment for sins committed. This can become a cycle and affect an entire family. As an example, one man abuses his son, then his son abuses his son, so forth and so on. (I haven't been abused, by the way, so don't assume!)
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