No Coincidence

A couple days ago I was running errands and I prayed that God would lead me to someone I could speak with about the Lord. Suddenly I had a thought: Why don’t you walk into Starbucks.
I walked in (I’m never hesitant to enter Starbucks…) and was quite surprised by what I overheard! An older man was talking to another man a few tables over from him about the Creation Museum.
“It’s very interesting,” he explained to the other costumer, “it’s a whole museum in Kentucky based off the Christian book of Genesis. It proves by science how evolution couldn’t have happened. –Very convincing!”
It is not a coincidence that I am here, I realized as I overheard these comments.

I walked over to his table and introduced myself.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I just had to say something,” I told him, “because I volunteered at that museum and have actually spent quite a bit of time there. I agree—it’s a great place, and something our country definitely needs!”
Feeling God was arranging something here, I ordered an iced latte and sat down a little ways over from him. Right away he began asking me questions, not seeming to mind the space between my table and his. (I didn’t mind that gap between our tables either, because this way, since we had to project our voices a little, the whole café could overhear our conversation. 🙂 )
After talking about the museum, I shared a few interesting facts with him about how the Bible has demonstrated it’s reliability in all areas (history, biology, geology, etc.). The scientific facts point toward a literal, 6-day Creation. I mentioned how many people believe evolution simply because they want to. If there’s no God, then there’s no absolute standard of right and wrong, and people can do whatever they want.
He agreed.
After a few minutes of chatting about this, I showed him one of my favorite tracts, “How Can We Know We’ll Go to Heaven?” by Randy Alcorn.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked.
“Sure” he replied.
“Do you think eternal life is a free gift or something we have to earn?” I asked.
“What’s that?” he asked, surprised.
I restated my question.
“I guess I haven’t really thought about it much,” he said after a moment’s thought.
“What’s your opinion?” he asked me.
“Well,” I said, “Romans 6:23 says that ‘the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ So the Bible says pretty clearly that eternal life is a gift–which is great news for us! I know that I could never make it on my own (God’s standard is perfection!) but Jesus died the death I deserved.”
He seemed interested so I continued, “You know, if you think you have to earn your way, you’ll never really know when you’ve been good enough. But the Bible says that we can be sure we are going to Heaven before we die. Like in I John 5:13 where it says, ‘These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life…’ “1 John 5:13
(I like to quote Scripture because I’ve found people respond well and God’s words have much more “power” than my own!)

“I’ll have to say, I really can’t argue with you,” he said. “Most of what I believe I was taught in the Catholic church when I was young. Honestly, I don’t know why I believe some of the things I believe.”

“Well, there are lots of people who teach lots of different things these days,” I said. “so it’s important that we know the Bible well, and compare everything with that, because that is the ultimate truth God’s given us.”

“You know,” he told me, “You sound a lot like my grandson and his wife.”

My ears always perk up when I hear this. This likely means that he has a believing grandson who is praying for him!
“They’ve been trying to get me to go to church with them,” he continued, “And, you know, I should probably go one of these days….”

A thought popped into my head of who his grandson and grandson’s wife could be. Unbelievably, after asking a few questions about his grandson’s wife, I realized that I knew her! A mutual friend had introduced us because she knew we both excited about “Matt 4:19 Fishing”. And here I was, witnessing to her Grandfather-in law. This must be an answer to her prayers?!

(Often it’s more difficult for relatives to talk plainly about Jesus, heaven, hell, etc. because they don’t want to be offensive. But for me—just a friendly stranger in Starbucks—I can say anything and get away with it! )

This is no coincidence, I realized again.

TO BE CONTINUED. (TOO LONG FOR ONE POST! 🙂 ) CHECK BACK IN A DAY OR TWO.