For example, if their change to a new profession was a result of being retrenched or some kind of personal trouble, this kind of admission can make it much easier for you to share how God provides strength in times of crises in your own life. It can also specifically provide the clues to know what kinds of questions you can ask or issues you can raise to help move the conversation more in a spiritual direction. This last weekend was no exception. In the course of our conversation the taxi driver confessed to me that he only drove a Taxi on the weekends because during the week he had to take care of his sister (who has a physical handicap). He further explained to me that no one else in his family could take care of her.

I realized from his admission that there was an opportunity to move the conversation into a spiritual direction fairly easy. I said to him that part of my job is to teach in churches throughout Singapore and I’ve noticed that some churches even have programs to help the handicapped. (Notice that in saying this to him I was telling him something about my religious beliefs. FYI, this might help to make my religious questions seem not so abrupt when I raise them later). So I asked him if his sister was involved in any of these church programs? He said she wasn’t but as we kept talking he somehow let it slip that he was a catholic.

I know some Catholics that are really devote Christians, but I also have met some that are more religions and less devote. I also know some Baptist who are really devote Christians and yet I attended church (I grew up Baptist) with some who really just played church and were not real Christians. One of the issues that I’ve learned over the years that helps clarify where a person is at spiritually (especially when I know they are at least a religious person and claim to be a Christian) concerns the issue of “belief that” and “belief in.” So in the course of my conversation with the taxi driver this was the next issue I discussed with him.

I pointed out to him that I grew up Baptist and that there were some guys I went to church with in my youth that knew a lot about Christianity and believed in fact that Jesus was the Messiah. However, I said the problem is that they were never really Christians because they never believed “in Him” (Notice I used the example of my Baptist friends in my church so as not to get him to conclude this issue is really a Protestant/Catholic disagreement).

This seemed to peak his interest when I explained to him this distinction between “belief that” and “belief in.” I explained that the bible teaches in James 2:19 that the demons believe that God exists, but that they certainly don’t believe “in Him.” He agreed that this was true. I then gave him the illustration about marrying my wife and pointing out that I can believe my wife would make a great wife (base on the evidence), but the evidence would never force me to say I do to her. I explained to him that in a similar way you and I may “believe that” Jesus is the Messiah, but it doesn’t force us to “believe in” Christ. To make a long story short, at one point of the conversation he seemed to have an epiphany when he confessed…“wow, believing in Jesus is a whole lot harder than anyone can ever imagine!” Now his English was not so good and I was nearing my destination so I gave him the Chinese tract “Discovering God In Chinese Characters” and encouraged him to read the tract to understand more about what it means to “believe in” Christ (I also wrote my name and contact info. on the tract). I could tell he hadn’t made that decision yet to “believe in” Christ. It seemed as though this may have been the first time he really understood what it meant to believe in Christ! I encouraged him to contact me (he didn’t have e-mail) if he had any questions about the tract. To me it was clear that God had given me a divine appointment that day to help him at least take one step closer!

At one point in our conversation I decided to ask more thought provoking questions to begin the process of creating a crisis in his belief system. I said to him, “Do you see why from a Muslim point of view we Christians seem confused?” I went on to explain further…I said, “I know Islam teaches that Muhammad is the last and greatest prophet, but you must realize yourself that the Koran says things about Jesus that it doesn’t even say about Muhammad?” Then I listed a few examples. I said, “The Koran teaches that Jesus is virgin born (Surah 3:47) and Muhammad is not. The Koran teaches that Jesus is without sin (Surah 3:45-46) and Muhammad is not (Surah 40:55: 48:1-2). The Koran teaches that Jesus created a bird by Allah’s leave (Surah 5:110) yet the Koran teaches that Muhammad did not have the ability to create (Surah 6:102) and could not even create a fly (Surah 22:73). Furthermore the Koran teaches that Jesus will return to Judge (Surah 3:55: 4:159).” I could have also mention other things stated in the Koran: Jesus healed those born blind and lepers (Surah 3:49), Jesus raised the dead (Surah 5:110), Jesus bodily ascended to heaven (Surah 4:158), whereas Muhammad did none of those things and is buried in Medina. The Koran also teaches that Muhammad did not have the ability to know what was hidden (Surah 27:65), yet according to the Koran, Jesus possessed supernatural power to know what was hidden (Surah 3:49). By the way the Koran also teaches that only Allah can know what is hidden (Surah 27:65). Now after I asked him the question, “you must realize yourself…”, I waited to see what his response would be. Now interestingly though he seemed like a very self confident and opinionated person, he kept relatively quiet. However his body language spoke volumes that he too was aware of some of these beliefs about Jesus that the Koran teaches.

From this point in the conversation it seemed like he was trying to disengage from our spiritual dialog or at the very least water down the impact of my questions by raising other objections. One of the concerns he raised about Christianity is that he couldn’t understand how there could only be one way if there were so many people with different religious beliefs. At this point of the conversation it really did sound like his beliefs were more consistent with the “free thinker” label he gave me at the beginning of our conversation and not what he told me later concerning his Muslim beliefs. What was most intriguing to me about this American Muslim (who is married to a Christian) is that he didn’t really seem to hold to many Muslims beliefs, though he still considered himself a Muslim.

In response to his concern about “How there could be only one way if there were so many people with different religious beliefs?,” I asked him this hypothetical question: “How many ways are there to restore your relationship with your wife for something you said or did that hurt her feelings deeply?” I further added, “Isn’t there really only one way? Don’t you have to either communicate to her by something you say or do that you are…SORRY?” I further said to him,  “If that is the way it is in our human relationships, why wouldn’t that be any different in our relationship with God?” I explained to him that Christians believe that we need to say sorry to God for our sins and the only way we can meaningfully do this is if we go through Jesus Christ. After saying all this again his response to me was surprisingly subdued.

To be honest I am not sure what impact I had in my lengthy conversation with him. I realize that it may take a while for any of our questions we normally ask our non-Christian family or friends to have any kind of impact at all. But my prayer is that God would use the things I shared to help him to begin to see the cracks in the foundation of his belief system! Over time I believe that God could orchestrate events to help widen that crack in his future interactions with his Christian wife and others that God would put in his path. This experience was another good reminder to me that you and I can and should be an instrument of God to help create a crisis of belief in those we are trying to reach so they may not so easily run from the truth!

One of the guys I was talking to had a baby that was four months old. In the course of our light conversation I explained to him that we didn’t decide to get a maid until my second oldest was five months old but now we have had had two really good maids. So I asked him if they thought of getting a maid to help with their son. He said to me “Well it is so hard to get a good maid. Right there and then I saw an opening to do pre-evangelism. I said to him well actually we have had two maids now in the last four years and both have been very good and dependable. I said this so he would ask me what is the secret to our success. Sure enough the next thing he asked me is “How did you get two good ones?” I paused for a moment looked at him and said “well we did a lot of praying.” Now I waited for him to absorb what I had just said. In my previous dialog with him that day I had already communicated that many of us in the room were a part of the same cell group, so he already knew that we were Christians. Then I said to him “Actually I prayed specifically for a Christian.” Then I explained that we didn’t just pray for someone who claimed to be a Christian. But someone who really demonstrated the true character of a Christian. To clarify what  meant by this I told him that in the Philippines, there are many who claim to be Christian but sometimes the way they live their life, shows they really aren’t a real Christian.

I said because we got a real Christian (Notice I am building a heart bridge according to the C.P.E. model), I know that I could trust my kids with her. I could see that he resonated with what I said and even though I didn’t think he was a believer (I found out later from our cell group friend that he probably was not), at least he got my point that there is value if getting a maid, especially if they demonstrate Christian qualities and therefore you can trust them with your kids! Now there were other people around us so it wasn’t really the best time to go further spiritually, but at least I was able to till the soil of his mind and heart for a few moments that day.

Perhaps God will bring other Christians into his life to reinforce the value of Christianity and make him more curious to want to learn more about Jesus. The bottom line is that with every conversation with our non-believing friends we need to help them take one step closer to Jesus with each encounter. We can do this sometime by peaking their interest in the benefits of being a Christian (or at least having a Christian maid).

My transition question from casual conversation to spiritual matters went something like this. I told him that I was originally from the U.S. and that in my country many people consider themselves Christians, whether they were or not. Yet in Singapore where I now live, many people consider themselves Buddhist, even though many are not really pure Buddhist. I said that I know in the Philippines that there are a lot of people who are either Protestant or Catholic Christians. (I used these examples to help him think more carefully about what he would say to me about his own beliefs and to help anticipate any clarifications I would have to make in our spiritual dialog).

Then I asked him if he had any religious belief? His response right away was that he was Catholic. So I mentioned that I grew up in a Baptist church myself. However some of the guys I went to church with “believed that” Jesus was the Messiah, but never really “believe in” Him and so were not Christians. I then explained more what I meant by “believing in” Christ. I repeated over and over that “believing in” Jesus was more than just knowing facts about Jesus or even intellectually accepting the idea that Jesus really did die on the cross to take away the sins of the world. It is asking Jesus to not only forgive us of our sins but also to take control of our life and make Him the Lord and master of our life. So I asked the Taxi driver did he merely “believe that” or did he “believe in” Christ. Through the interaction that followed I was convinced he really did “believe in” Christ, even though he was a little confused about some doctrine. I also sought clarification concerning his understanding about faith and works and he agreed that it was not his works that save him, only Christ. I quoted for him Eph. 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 I encouraged him to meditate on these verses.

I also asked him a hypothetical question to clarify some things for him without making him defensive about the teachings of the Catholic church. I said, “if you were to talk to some of those who attend Catholic mass with you, would they have this understanding that being a Christian would involve more than “believing that” Jesus is the Messiah? Would they understand that being a Christian means we “believe in” Christ?” He told me that he thought that some of them would not have this understanding. I further asked him if someone were to ask most of his church members if they would have any assurance that when they would die they would go to heaven, what would they say? (This question was to prepare the stage for my question to him about this and yet limit the potential for his defensiveness). Then I asked him the same question concerning himself. He said that for him, he would hope he would be able to go to heaven. I then quoted for him 1 John 5:11-13. I explained to him that these verses taught that he who has the son has eternal life and then asked him if he had the Son? He said he did. So I said according to this verse what do you have? He said, I would have eternal life. I further reminded him of what I said about Eph. 3:8-9 and Titus 3:5 and further clarified to him that no matter how much good we do it will never be enough. He thanked me for explain these things to him. He also said he felt like that God may have a purpose for him but he wasn’t sure what it is.

 I suggested to him that being a taxi driver he has many opportunities to have many conversations with people about the Lord. It was an important mission field. I also said that God could use him to help the people in his church understand the difference between “believing that” Jesus is the Messiah and “believing in” Him. Before I left the taxi I prayed for him that God would bless him and his family and open up doors for him to talk to more people about Jesus.

 It was a good reminder that not only can we look for opportunities to share our faith every day, but we can look for opportunities to encourage others to make the most of the time they have to reach out to others and tell them about Christ! After all God has a mission for each of us no matter what our training or background!

Uncle I’ve notice you have a lot of little animals on your dash board where many taxi drivers keep their Buddhist statues. I then asked, “why not any Buddhist statues?” He remained quiet in response so I asked again. This time he said in his broken English…”I am….freethinker.” So I asked, “what about your family?” In reply (and to my surprise) he said his wife and two of his five children were Christians.

Immediately my mind was flooded with a ton of possible questions I could have asked him in response to his previous revelation. I was most curious what kind of “Christians” they were so to get a better idea I first asked, “I am curious…what church do they attend?” He said he didn’t know. I asked, “but haven’t you ever visited their church?” He look back at me and said no (to my surprise again). So I said, “Uncle, but you free thinker…right? You must go visit?” He smiled to my attempts at broken English and my approach. He said,  “I go jogging on Sunday morning.” (He is 72 years old and has been driving a taxi for 23 years).

I could see my approach wasn’t working…so I tried another. So I said, “Uncle you know that Chinese emperors use to worship only one God, right…the God of heaven (Tian). Isn’t it pronounced Shang Ti,” to which he nodded. I followed up with “Uncle did you know that there are a lot of similarities between the Chinese language and the bible?” I then proceeded to pull out the tract I usually keep in my pocket (Discovering God in Chinese Characters). I said for example the Chinese word for righteousness literally means “Lamb over me.” At this point I wasn’t sure what he was picking up from what I said because of his English difficulties. Uncle I said, “can I give this to you to read?” He took the tract and said,  “I am sure my wife will be interested to read it.” I further added, “let me put my name and e-mail on the back in case you have any questions you can contact me.” He seemed appreciative of my offer to not only give him the tract but also to offer my contact info. I explained a few more examples in the tract but wasn’t sure if he caught it because of his broken English.

After a few minutes I decided to change the conversation to other topics so as not to overwhelm him with spiritual dialog, especially since I wasn’t certain how much of my English he was really picking up. As I was getting out of the cab he was about to  hand me the 50 cent change that was due me from the money I gave him and then I saw another opportunity to make him curious to read more. So I said, “Uncle keep the change but don’t forget to get your wife to read the tract to you” to which he nodded that he would. Certainly it was 50 cents well spent!

In reflecting on this experience I was encouraged that God had a divine appointment for me this morning with this taxi driver, especially since I don’t get many opportunities anymore to talk to taxi drivers since I am always driving my car. I am praying that God will use the tract in his life and his family’s interaction with him to help him to take that step of faith before too long (Since he is 73 years old). Today I was given a little reminder that God is always at work in people’s hearts. You and I just need to discern what is God doing and get behind it and make the most of the opportunities He gives us! I trust that God will use this experience to stimulate your thoughts and help you to consider what opportunities God may have for you this week!

I pointed to the statue and said, “so is that a Buddhist statue?” (knowing it was not but knowing it might create an open door. FYI, I was making the most of the situation). He answered me that no it was a cat. Now I could have asked him many questions at that point.

I could have asked if there was any significance in a cat being on a dash board of a taxi where many taxi drivers keep Buddhist statutes, but I felt that the conversation would cause me to drift further away from where I wanted to go with the time I had with him. I could have just asked him if this cat statue was significant to him for any reason. Again I felt I would have digressed too far with the time that I had. 

So the next thing I asked him was “So are you a Buddhist” to which he replied to me that he was. Now rather than ask him what he meant by Buddhist (clarifying question), I sought (in this circumstance) to clarify this by giving him an example. I told him that my wife is Chinese Singaporean and her parents are Buddhist and have many idols in their home but pointed out that their Buddhism is not a strict Buddhism, it is more a combination of Buddhism and Taoism. Then I said, “I’ve noticed that a lot of Chinese Singaporeans, who say they are strict Buddhist, are really not because there are certain things they desire (Like wining the lottery or etc.). He agreed with me that many who call themselves Buddhist are not strict Buddhist (somehow implying he was more of a strict Buddhist). So I asked him, “So is it really possible to be a strict Buddhist because none of us can actually live without any desire?”

Now this must have triggered something because he became very silent after I said this. So I used this silence to provoke his thoughts further and move him closer to a spiritual dialog about Christ. I said, “Do you know what Jesus taught about desire as opposed to Buddha?” I waited a few seconds to see if he would reply but again he was silent. I could see my question caught him a little by surprise, so a few seconds later decided to press the conversation further. I said, “Whereas Buddha taught that the answer to man’s problem is that we are to get rid of desire (all desire), Jesus taught that instead we were not to give up on the idea of desire, but develop the right desire.” After I said this I just waited to see if this would hook his interest to go further in the conversation. Yet he didn’t say anything so I tried next a clarification question. “So have you heard anything like this before?” He nodded his head yes but didn’t say anything else. So I asked another question, “Do you have any Christian friends” to which he replied yes. I asked, “have they told you things like this?” He said yes but he didn’t elaborate further and his body language communicated to me he was not very interested in further dialog about Christianity. So I put the focus back on Buddha. I pointed out to him that Buddha himself taught that he was not God and only claimed to point to the truth. Yet it seems like I had finally hit a wall and any further dialog would not be very profitable. But at least I had made him think a little deeper about the kind of Buddhism he really believed in which could lead to further questioning of his beliefs to create more open doors for deeper spiritual dialog.

Every day we may not have the opportunity to share the full gospel with our friends, co-workers, and even strangers, but God can use us every day to help them take a step closer, even if it merely means getting them to consider whether their own beliefs are solid enough to build their lives on.

Recently my wife’s boss invited both of us for lunch along with a few of her colleagues (My wife’s boss is a Christian but her colleagues are not). As a result I got to talk to one of her colleagues who was originally from mainland China. Through the course of our meal enough was said that gave him a good idea about what I do and about me being a Christian. Now normally if I have an opportunity to witness to a person from China, I jump at the opportunity! But this time I was more reluctant to move into a spiritual conversation because (to be honest) I was concerned about how my spiritual dialog could impact my wife (as in office politics). I also know my wife is a little timid about witnessing to others so I literally pulled back on the trigger and didn’t ask him the spiritual questions that I would have asked him in any other situation if the conditions for dialog were similar.

Questions like: I am curious, are you aware of the fact that there are more Christians in China than in the U.S. where I am from? Then I would wait for his reply and consider what to say next. I might have also asked him to begin with something like, growing up in China, were you taught anything about different religions? If so which ones interest you the most? I could have also asked him questions like:

• Do you know any Christians? If so, what have you learned from your Christian friends about Christianity?
• Is there anything about Christians that you like or admire?

This then could have led to deeper spiritual questions like:

• Have you come to any conclusions personally about who Jesus Christ was? This might potentially lead to an opportunity to share the gospel with him maybe for the first time? (if he is open to hear)

I realized what I did in this situation is cover up the light that I did have. Here is the important principle I was reminded of. Obedience first is always better than sacrifice. Let me explain, sometime as Christians we put our focus on uncovering the darkness (making significant sacrifices so that others will see the truth (being a missionary, etc). Now certainly this is important but yet our first step should always be to be careful not to cover up the light that we already have and that God wants us to shine in our circle of influence now! I see this principle of focussing first on simple obedience to God in our lives all throughout scripture even in the Old Testament when God said to Israel over and over that He does not delight in their sacrifices when their hearts are so far from Him (See Is. 1:11-15). Samuel reminds us that “obedience is better than sacrifice.”(1 Sam. 15:22).

So the question I want to challenge all of us to consider is what are the specific ways that we might be covering up the light (for various reasons) that God has given us in our daily encounters with our non-believing friends? What is God asking us to do in order for us to walk in obedience to Him and not conceal the light we already have? These are questions I am pondering this week in light of my missed opportunity. The good news is that my wife and I already agreed to invite him over for dinner sometime where we might get a chance to take the conversation a step further. I trust you will glean some truth from my experience that will help you to reflect upon your daily witnessing opportunities.

He went on to talk about the fact that it wasn’t because he got retrenched, it was because he couldn’t get along with his brother whom he’s been working with in the business for the last 10 years. I could tell in his voice there was some deep hurt because of this so I next sought to “listen” and “empathize” with his situation. I said I was so sorry to hear that this happened to him and gave him some time to talk a little more about this. A few minutes later after some more casual conversation I decided that the time was ripe to move the conversation in a more spiritual direction.

Pointing to the three Buddhist statues he had sitting on his dashboard, I said, “Uncle I notice that you are a Buddhist…are you a devote Buddhist?” He replied that yes he was a devote Buddhist. I explained to him that I was surprised by his answer. I explained to him that I meet (notice I am putting this in the third person not focusing on his belief but others) Buddhists in Singapore all the time who tell me they are devote Buddhists, and yet they also seem to want to be the first in line for their lottery ticket. He smiled after I said that but repeated again that he was in fact a devote Buddhist. The other thing I told him about my experience with “devote Buddhists” is that “It seems difficult for them to really live out their beliefs because as a Buddhist, the moment you desire to stop desiring, you are still desiring something.” He smiled again…but his body language this time gave me the impression that his fortresses were starting to crumble.

I next wanted him to understand that people who call themselves “Buddhist” actually hold different perspectives sometimes and are unclear about their beliefs themselves. I mentioned for example that my Chinese Singaporean wife and I were Christians but that her parents were folk Buddhists and they have many different idols in their home and worship different gods for different purposes. I asked, “Uncle why do Chinese have this perspective of worshiping different gods?” He said, “maybe because they hope to get something more…the more the better.” I said, “But why would they ask a lesser spirit for help with something rather than the One who created them?” Furthermore I asked, “Why should they feel any obligation to these lesser spirits?” To make my point I asked, “Uncle, shouldn’t we have a greater obligation to our parents than our distant cousins?” He nodded in agreement. I further explained, “didn’t the Chinese emperors at one time worship only one God, the God of Heaven (Tian) called Shanti?” He acknowledged that this was true. So I asked, “Shouldn’t we feel more obligation to our parent, Shanti, rather than these lesser spirits?” At this point he retreated from his “devote Buddhist” perspective and confessed to me that he really didn’t practice any religion (though he called himself a Buddhist) and didn’t really believe in anything. I said next, “But don’t you believe that you were created…you didn’t just come here by accident right?” He reluctantly agreed (I could tell he even felt uncomfortable admitting this to me). So now I could build on this agreed belief.

I said, “Out of all the religious leaders who ever lived, which one do you think is giving us the right path to God?” He paused for a moment and didn’t know what to say next. I continued, “For example, let’s say you were coming to end of your life and you met Jesus and other great religious leaders and each suggested a different path, whose advice would you take? Wouldn’t you take the advice of the one who’s been to the other side of life and come back to tell us about it?” He paused to reflect on what I had said. I could see now by his reaction that I really had gotten him to think more deeply about these matters, much more than he is accustomed to. I further added, “As a Christian, I believe that Jesus is so unique compared to other prophets. For example, I know that Buddha claimed to point to the way, and Mohammad claimed to be a prophet of God, but that Jesus Christ is the only major religious leader that ever claimed to be God and then he did three things to proof this. He lived a sinless life, fulfilled prophecy written hundreds of years before he ever existed, died on the cross and rose from the dead.” I further added, “Now if Jesus rose from the dead he has power over death and if he has power over death he must be God because only God has power over death.” Then I asked him “Don’t you agree that if you are making decisions about the afterlife it would be better to consult someone who’s already been there to tell us about it?” He paused and reflected and nodded (as if to say “yes that makes sense”).

Then I proceeded to try to build heart bridges for him. I told him that Buddha did correctly put his finger on the problem that man has by pointing out how bad selfish desires are. I told him however that Jesus had a different solution to man’s problem. He didn’t see the answer as having to get rid of all desire (I explained to him earlier how hopeless this process is). I said that Jesus saw the answer is developing the right desire, “As a Christian I believe that when we invite Christ to come into our life he can change us from the inside out so we no longer desire to do bad things that Buddha was so concerned about, but we desire to do the good things that God wants us to do.”

I realize I had given him a lot to think about and he seemed reluctant to go further and since we were nearing my destination, I backed off of the spiritual conversation to talk about something else. As I was ready to open the car door and get out, to my surprise, the last thing out of his mouth was, “I enjoyed our conversation.” I realized that because of my conversation with him, he might be open next time to going even further in the spiritual dialog with another Christian. It was a good reminder to me that as Christian, if we are going to make progress with some people over a period of time, “we must give ourselves permission to sow and we must make efforts to till the soil so that we can sow effectively.”

Let me share one example from my own life recently to clarify what may be involved in tilling the soil here in the East. I trust it will stimulate your thinking in the area of pre-evangelism.

A few weeks ago after I finished speaking at a church in downtown Singapore, I got into a cab to make my way back home. On this particular night I was really tired (I had just spoken for 2 hours) and had no desire to engage the taxi driver in spiritual dialog or any dialog for that matter. Despite that, I told God, “Lord I’m really tired but if you want me to say something to this taxi driver, you will need to make it clear to me you are already working in his life and in this situation.”

I didn’t say much to this taxi driver but for some reason he started talking to me (to be honest, I wasn’t really sure of what he was saying to me as I wasn’t really listening very carefully since I was so tired). A few minutes later, I realized the taxi driver was saying some things that I don’t hear taxi drivers ever say on their own without me asking them probing questions. He was talking (for some reason) about how all people are basically good. Immediately I recognized that this was the sign I asked God for and so I started to listen more carefully. So I asked him, “Uncle, (this is a term we use in Singapore in talking to older men, even those we don’t know), do you really believe that all people are basically good? Again he repeated something to the effect that yes we are all basically good and amplified this even more. After he paused for a moment, I said, “Uncle, let me explain why I asked you this question by telling you a story. One day I was talking to my wife’s Uncle (who is a Chinese Singaporean) who is a Confucianist (a follower of Confucius) and reminded him that Confucius taught that man is born basically good. Yet I said to my wife’s uncle you would never know it by the way some of these old ladies push each other out of the way to sit on a seat on the MRT (Train).”

At that point, I told the taxi driver that my wife’s uncle laughed at what I said because he realized that there is something inside of us that, although we can do good at times, has a bent to do what is bad. I explained to him that I am a Christian and explained to him how the Bible teaches us something different about mankind other than what Confucius taught and pointed out this did seem to match with our experiences with people, if we were honest with ourselves. Realizing he was beginning to lose this argument (that all people are basically good), he did what many people do when the feel like they have bitten off a little more than they can chew, he changed the subject to something else that he thought could help get him off the hook and escape the pit he had somehow fallen into! “Well,” he said,” it really doesn’t matter because all religions are basically the same.” So after a pause in the conversation, I asked him, “Uncle do you really believe that all religions are basically the same?” He paused for reflection and then he repeated that yes he thinks we all do believe the same things. In response I said to him “Certainly I would agree with you that there are some things in every religion and culture that we all believe is right or wrong. We may all believe we should be kind and loving to others, but it is not in our similarities where we are distinct, but it is in our key differences. Then I said “Uncle, did you know there are some major difference between Christianity (remember I already told him I am a Christian) and all the other religions?” He paused for a moment and said no he didn’t. Then I said to him, “Uncle, my understanding is that Buddha claimed to point to the way, Mohammed claimed to be a prophet of God, but Jesus Christ is the only major religious leader who ever claimed to be God, then he proved it by doing three things: He lived a sinless life, he fulfilled prophecies written hundreds of years before he was ever born, he died on the cross and then rose from the dead. I asked him “Have you ever heard this before about Jesus?”

His goal from this point on seemed to be centered on trying to water down the impact of my statements about Jesus’ claims, so he ignored answering my question and immediately launched a different tactic. “No disrespect for your beliefs,” he said, “but I’m sure if people in Jesus’ day were living today and they saw modern day magicians, they would probably think they were God also.” It was clear in his response that he definitely had some hard soil that needed to be ploughed up before he would respond in a positive way to anything related to the Gospel. It seemed obvious now that this was what God had intended for me to do in this divine appointment. Again I challenged his assertion. “Uncle do you really believe that if people in Jesus’ day were living today and saw the magicians today they would think they were in fact God?” I continued, “Certainly they might not be able to explain how they do things, but would that be enough to make them conclude that they are in fact God?”

As he was pondering, I continued, “It seems to me that only someone who actually died and then came back to life (and so has the power over death) could make the case for this kind of claim.” I further pointed out to him that I know of a Christian magician who does many of the tricks that people do today (Andre Cole) but said during his performance that the kind of thing Jesus did in being crucified and rising from the dead is on a different level than anything magicians can do today. Now at this point he seemed unsure of what to say next, so for the first time in the conversation he kept silent.

While it seemed that I did make some progress with tilling the soil of his mind, it was clear that I would not make much more progress with him that night. The Holy Spirit would have to do a greater work on his heart before he would be open to going much further in this conversation. So I changed the subject and asked him questions of a non-religious nature to let him off the hot seat.

As I reflect on this experience I am reminded of the fact that every day can be just like Christmas. Every day we can and should look for those divine appointments to help others take a step towards Christ. Certainly this is something we should not forget as we enter to the Christmas holiday period.

For some reason today, I sensed that there was an openness on Mary’s part that I could probe a little further. So I asked her, since she was a free thinker, “Have you come to any specific conclusions about who Jesus is?” She replied to me that she had not and it was difficult for her to know what to make of Jesus. To clarify further what I was trying to get at in asking her that question, I told her the story about my conversation with a Hindu student one day. This Hindu student has said to me he was very comfortable with his Hindu beliefs. I told her that I said to him, “I am happy that you are comfortable about your Hindu beliefs, but I have just one key question for you, what are you going to do with Jesus because he didn’t just claim to be just like any other religious leader?”

Then I continued to ask her, “Do you know that Jesus did some significant things that are different from other religious leaders?” She nodded yes that she did understand this. So I probed further. I asked her if she believes the miracles Jesus did, and specifically the miracle of the resurrection. To my surprise, she said yes and that she believes that Jesus really did die on the cross and then rise from the dead (though I know she is not a Christian). This further probed her to ask, “I know Jesus really did die on the cross. But why would someone do that for another human being?”

At this point I asked her if she understood that the Chinese word for “Righteousness” literally means “Lamb over me”. I told her that my former next door neighbor from China asked me a similar question when she asked why Christians believe that Jesus is like a lamb. I explained to Mary then the role of sacrificial lamb in the Old Testament. The sacrifice of the lamb symbolized the taking away of the sins of the people of Israel. I explained to her that in a sense when Jesus died on the cross, he was our sacrificial lamb who died as a substitute to take the place of what we owe because of our sins. I then went on to explain what I mean by sin is that God created us and then we all decided to go our own way rather than do things in God’s way. I tried to use an analogy to explain to her what it means practically for Christ to die in our place. I said to her, “Let’s say you have terminal cancer, what is going to happen to you most likely? You are doing to die right?” She agreed. I said “This is just an analogy but what Jesus did for you and I is that he took our “cancer cells” and put in his own body. What would happen to Jesus if he did this? He would die right? What would happen to you, you would live right? This is kind of what it means that Jesus is our substitute.” Then I explained that He did this because of his great love for us.After I said this I realized she wasn’t ready to go further that day, I told her that the next time I see her I would give her a little booklet entitled “Discovering God in Chinese Characters” that shows the connection between Chinese words and the Old Testament concepts (Like the Chinese word for Redemption). See www.chinesewomentoday.com

I was just so happy that after several attempts at building bridges to the gospel with her, the door had finally cracked open. In the future it would be easier for me to go even further and find out what is really holding her back from putting her faith and trust in Christ right now. I trust this story may encourage all of us to realize sometimes we just need to wait for God’s right timing and then witnessing to others may become easier than we ever thought possible.