Fishing With Trish...

A group of us went to The University of North Texas yesterday for the first time since students left for Christmas break. It was so good to be back on campus, and I think even our regular hecklers missed us just a little bit. One such student is named Zach and he was there (again) listening to Emilio open-air preach. I talked to him (again) about the gospel and asked him, "Do you know what the first clothes recorded in human history were?" He said he wasn't sure, but then said, "Leaves, right?"

"Yes, leaves. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and their eyes were opened to their nakedness and they tried to cover themselves with leaves because of shame."

"But it wasn't sufficient," I continued.  "Do you know what the first bloodshed was?" He guessed it was when Cain killed Abel. 

"Wrong, but do you know why Cain killed Abel?" He said he didn't really know the story. 

"Because of pride. Cain's grain offering was rejected by God while Abel's blood offering was accepted. They were both giving offerings to God because they sinned. The problem was that Cain's offering was works-based and not what God demanded. Abel was patterning his blood offering from what he had learned from his parents, Adam and Eve.  And where did his parents learn it from?" I asked him.

"They must have learned it from God, right?" he said (uncertain if he was right). 

"That's right. Adam and Eve's efforts to clothe themselves were not sufficient, so God was the first one to shed blood when he killed an animal to cover them rightly. Blood had to be shed. Which was then pointing to a greater reality approximately 4000 years later when He would kill his own son, Jesus Christ the perfect Lamb of God, to cover our sins."

I was seeing a different Zach at this point. His countenance was changing. 

As I was walking away I said, "By the way, did you know that Jesus said he was 'the door'?"

Zach responded by saying, “No. I didn’t know that.”

How many doors were on Noah's ark?" I asked him.

"One," he said.  "Exactly. Meaning Jesus is the only way" I said.

I could see the wheels turning in his head as his eyes got very large and he nodded his head as if to say that he understood. 

I've noticed that happen with other people too after using these bible accounts while witnessing, and so have others from our evangelism team. One of our team members was sharing the Gospel at UNT yesterday for a long time with a girl named Kami, who was all over the place in her beliefs. She believes that God is the same in all religions and that no one can know where they're going for certain when they die. She said she goes to church only at Christmas because she loves the holidays and doesn't think the Old Testament has any value so she doesn't read it. 

At the end of their conversation my friend gave her the same Adam and Eve account I gave Zach and her countenance changed too. My friend told me later, "The change was so obvious that I was a little shocked; but I don't know why, after all God's word is sharper than any two-edged sword!" 

I've found that asking questions really makes people think and be engaged. Asking questions forces them to listen, which is exactly what we want. Appreciate your prayers for Zach and Kami. :-)