The Separation of Religion and Work

By way of history, my employer has not been aggressively anti-religion, in any sense. There is, to be sure, an un-written rule, that religion should not be discussed during work hours. That is best, I whole-heartedly agree. My employer is not paying employees to have religious, philosophical or politiccal discussions. Leave those discussions for lunch or anytime outside of work.

Monday, I invited a co-worker to go to lunch with me today. Although it ended up that I couldn't make it, due to problems we were (and are) having with a server, he asked if I what I wanted to chat about was critical (or urgent, I can't remember his exact words.) I said, no, well, yes. So we agreed we would meet later in the afternoon, in a conference room, to chat.

I had been praying since yesterday, LORD, please give me the right words, even more importantly, the right attitude toward M. I prayed for compassion, and gentleness. I prayed that I might be able to restore a brother.

Flash back a week, I'm in the snack room, at work, and M is there getting something. Just to make small talk, I asked him how life was going. He said ok. He said, how about you, are you doing anything for the holidays? I said, that I wasn't going anywhere, because we had family coming in from out-of-town. I said, what about you, and he said he was going to travel to (I don't remember where but it seems like the Caribbean or maybe he said the Bahamas, I don't remember), with his girlfriend. I was immediately grieved.

You see, a couple of years ago, M. Came to our Bible study at work a couple of times. He came at my invite. He sat near someone else who regularly attended, and while I was delivering the study sheet to her desk, I had the opportunity to invite him.

Now, I have a dilemma. Is M a brother, who needs to be exhorted and corrected to turn away from sin, or is M a non-Christian, who needs to hear the message of the Gospel? As we walked into the conference room, he turned on the light, and I closed the door, and he said, "so, what did you want to talk about?" I had considered trying to lighten things up, by asking him if he wanted to join Amway or something like that, but I decided not to go that route.

I said, "you came to our Bible study a couple of times, a while back, and you haven't attended since, I just wanted to invite you back into fellowship and come to our Bible study." We're planning a special presentation, ah... Sometime around the first of the year, about science and the Bible.

He said, "are you going to discuss the topic of Intelligent Design?" I said, "no, actually we're going to talk about what I've heard called Scientific Fact In Foreknowledge" In other words, we're going to examine statements in the Bible, about scientific findings that have only recently been made. For example, that the earth is round, was written about in the book of Isaiah. Hygenic practices that were written about, and that the life of a person is in the blood. Blood is precious, but not even a couple hundred years ago, bleeding was considered good medicine.

He said, I respectfully decline. I have kind of a questioning skeptical view of things.

I said, that's fine. Do have a Christian background? Would you consider yourself a Christian?

Yes, but I kind of keep religion separate from work.

Okay, are you in regular fellowship at a church.

No.

Okay, well thanks for talking to me.

[Editorial] (as if the previous wasn't editorialized)
Obviously, M has sin in his life that he doesn't want to give up. Maybe he will notice and consider that a Christian was willing to care about him and invite him to a Bible study.

Or, maybe the LORD will give me another chance with M. Outside of work for sure.

God bless...

D and K in the Dark

Pulling into my driveway, the headlights shined onto my garage door, as I got home from work yesterday, I noticed a couple of guys standing on the sidewalk across the street. I was a little hesitant, since it was dark, but I grabbed a couple of "A Gift For You, Money Inside" Gospel tracts with 2 dollar bills inside, and walked up to the two young men.

Hi, how are you guys doing? I asked. Okay, fine they replied. I said, "here, I want to give each of you guys one of these. Look inside." Its real money.

Wow, this is very nice of you they said. And they both shook my hand.

"It's a Gospel tract, do you guys have a Christian background", I asked.

No, they replied.

So, I asked for and got permission from them, to share the Gospel with them.

After I shared three of the Ten Commandments, I asked them, "If God were to judge you by the standard of the Ten Commandments, would you be innocent or guilty?" I asked their names, and I had witnessed to D before, and the other's name was K. So I told K that I would direct my conversation toward him because D had already heard my schpeel.

"Guilty" K answered.

"Would you go to heaven or hell?"

"Hell, I guess."

Then I shared, if they were in court, for crimes they had been convicted of, and they couldn't pay the fine, so they were about to be sent away to prison for a long time. At that very moment, someone they didn't even know, came into the courtroom, and paid their fine for them. So they were free to go, because justice had been met. How would you feel toward the person who paid your fine?

"Are you trying to convert me?", K asked. "Because I have a lot of questions about my faith." he added.

I said, "Do you know what God did for you so that you could go to heaven?" God became a man in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross, and three days later, He rose from the dead. There are two things you need to do though, to receive eternal life. You need to repent, that's Bible talk for change your mind, and turn away from sin, and turn to God for mercy. Lastly, you need to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior.

With that, I could see that K was squirming, so I said "God bless you guys." and left.

God bless...

Scary Halloween

I heavily use Pocket Testaments. Halloween was no exception. I gave away 6 Pocket Testaments and 15 Gospel tracts that night. What an evangelistic opportunity. Kids (and their parents) come right to the door to get a little candy and a little Gospel. I praise You LORD!

Since I work with a number of Chinese people, I have several Chinese/English Pocket Testaments sitting on my desk at work, with a sign underneath, that reads "Take One." Next to the Pocket Testaments, I have a pile of Pressed Pennies. I haven't done all that much fishing at work, but I have had a few opportunities to share with non-believers.