Front Porch Musings!

Evangelism is a conversation, not a presentation.  Are you conversing?  Here’s one of my experiences.
Some years ago, we lived in the small town of Farmington, Utah, near Salt Lake City.  It was a very nice place— really beautiful — at the base of the mountains with lots of trees.  We were very blessed.
Not having the time to paint our house, we hired a man to do the job.  One day I brought him some snacks and a cold drink and asked if he’d like to take a break.   We were having a great conversation, sitting on the front porch, sipping a glass of tea and eating some cookies.
As we were talking I heard a car, with a very loud muffler, driving in our direction, but still quite a distance away.  As we continued talking I could hear the car getting closer and closer and knew it was turning onto our street.  At that point the painter asked me a question that I wasn’t able to answer, I just wasn’t equipped to deal with it.  At the same time, I saw the car for the first time.  It traveled about 100 feet past us before it disappeared behind some trees and continued on its way.
I then attempted to answer the question by saying that I don’t fully understand why certain things happened.  As an illustration I asked if he had seen the car that just went by and he replied that he did (it was so loud it would have been hard to miss it).
I then asked, “Where did it start from this morning?”  He responded with, “I don’t know!”
“How about this,” I continued, “What if you were up in the sky in a hot air balloon with some binoculars, would you have been able to see where the car came from?”  “Probably,” he said.
“Well, may I suggest that’s how it is with God?  Because we’re finite, all we could see of that car was the 100 feet when it passed in front of us.  Now we could hear the car for a few miles before that, so we did have an idea of the direction it came from, but we can only make a guess on the starting point based on that.  But, if we were up in a hot air balloon with binoculars we could have seen a lot more and we possibly could know where that car came from.  Well, God’s infinite and He see’s the beginning and the end.  Just because I can’t understand everything that is going on doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer.”
We continued to talk and I shared with Him that reading the Bible reveals a lot to us that we don’t see or understand. We finished our cookies and tea and he got back to work.  He finished the job the next day and I’ve never seen him since, but I have thought of him often and prayed for him. It’s my hope that our simple conversation pointed him in a direction of seeking more answers about the Lord and that others have come into his path and witnessed to him.
Remember, just because you don’t have an answer doesn’t mean there isn’t one.  Studying the Word of God is like going higher in a hot air balloon and seeing further — you’ll see and understand more. In the Bible we can find a lot of answers from the one Who sees everything and has promised to reveal things to us by His Spirit:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. . .Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
(1 Corinthians 29-10, 12, emphasis added)

Get into His Word, get on your knees and strengthen your relationship with the Lord. Then watch and listen for the things He wants to reveal to you by His Spirit.  
Stay bold!