This morning I was reading my Bible on the couch of the hotel lobby when a man sitting nearby asked me, “Are you part of a Bible study group?”
“No, I just like to read my Bible,” I said.
“What denomination are you?” he asked.
“Not really any…I just believe the Bible. What about you?”
“I grew up Roman Catholic,” he said and went on to explain his background and childhood.
“So do you think Heaven is a free gift of something you have to earn?”
“Roman Catholics would say you have to earn it,” he said.
“But what do you think?” I asked.
“You have to earn it,” he replied.
“So, if you have to earn it, your faith is in yourself, right?”
“Well, I suppose…” he said, but then explained at length how everyone’s standards are different and it’s not fair to judge others by your own standard because maybe they have had a different background than you, etc.
“Well,” Sarah (who had now joined our conversation) replied, “maybe God has a standard and, although we can’t judge each other by our own standards, God can judge us by His perfect standard.”
“Well, that could be, but I think that you have to think about everyone’s different background and what is true for one person might not be true for another,” he said.
“So do you believe there is any kind of absolute truth?” Sarah asked.
“No, I don’t think there is,” he said after a moment of thought.
“So you believe everything is relative?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah pretty much,” he replied.
“Are you sure about that?” Sarah asked, (trying to get him to make an absolute statement… )
“No, I’m not really sure, but I heard some people on TV talking about how all of God’s Word is subject to man’s interpretation” he said. “And everyone has a different interpretation.”
“It’s true that there are many people out there who are trying to discredit the Word of God,” Sarah replied, “but I’ve never heard any piece of evidence (whether science, historical, etc.) that discredits the Bible.”
“Well there are theologians that will back me up,” he said.
“Yes, and there are also theologians that will back me up,” Sarah said.
“And that just goes to prove that everything is relative,” he said.
“No, that just goes to prove that some people are right and some people are wrong,” Sarah replied with smile.
He scratched his head, glanced out the front window, and complained that this was too heavy of a conversation to have at ten in the morning. Just then his ride came.
He shook our hands and asked our names. We left him with a creation science tract from Answers in Genesis called, What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? and told him he’d find it interesting.
Afterwards, Sarah and I were discussing the conversation and how it was obvious that he really didn’t know what he believed. In fact, most people don’t. You can tell by the way they keep changing their minds—even as they are talking with you. They don’t have solid ground to stand on. We do, as we continue to stand on the Word of God and Jesus Christ –our never-changing, absolute Truth.
“How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He has said — to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.”
Stephen and Sarah flew to the 
Meanwhile, my parents and I were at the 
Simultaneosly, the Florio family was representing Bright Lights at the CHAP Pennsylvania homeschool conference for us. See a report of their week 
Alexandra drove up from Austin, TX to help us. It’s neat how the Lord provides. Since Alexandra had just interned with Bright Lights for 10 weeks, she already knew how to run the booth. She jumped right in and was a huge help.
Haley and Megan (both 14 yrs old) lead a Bright Lights group together. God gave them both the desire to disciple young ladies independantly. When they met each other last year, they hit it off right away and excitedly made plans to start a group together. Their group has now grown to about 17 girls and they are very excited about what the Lord is doing.
As you can see we were one of the last booths to get packed up…we weren’t moving too quickly at the end of the day.
