Walmart

I am standing in Walmart, holding a couple of items, waiting on my woman to show up with the cart. A man in his upper 30's approaches me and says, “ Excuse me, sir, but I would like to ask you about Jesus for a few moments.” I said sure, ok." He said, “Do you know beyond any doubt that you would go to heaven if you died tonight?” Now I see where this is going so I said, “Well, frankly, I am a Christian, and I would guess that I know as much or more of the Bible as you do. Yes, I have a strong faith.” “Let me ask it this way; on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is absolutely on fire for Jesus, where are you?” I said the only thing appropriate at this point: “Well, you came up to me in Walmart; I didn't come up to you. So I would give you a 5 and me a 4.” He says, “Can we pray together?” I said the only thing that could be said at that point, “Sure.” We bow, still standing in the middle of the largest aisle in Walmart, near the check out. He says, “Oh Lord...” Long pause; he says again, “Oh Lord...” I look up and say, “Oh, you want me to repeat.” He says, “Oh Lord.” “Oh Lord.” “Come into our hearts.” “Come into our hearts.” “Help us to be on fire for you.” “Help us to be on fire for you.” “Forgive us, Lord.” “Forgive us, Lord.” “We repent of all our sins.” “We repent of all our sins.” “Thank you, Lord, in Jesus name.” “Thank you, Lord, in Jesus name.” “Amen.” “Amen.” He took our a rough piece of folded paper, made a mark near about 20 others, said goodbye, and left the store. Now, I know the reader is wondering why I told this story, what is the moral here? I suppose that a lot of morals could be found.  But I will mention two:

I thought of a passage in 1 John 4 that says, "These things I write to you who believe in the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."  There is great confidence in these words....for Christians.

The second thought of all of this is that the man who came up to me was truly a 5 in being fired up.  But he failed in following the Biblical pattern of how to help people become Christians.  Never in the Bible do we see someone becoming a Christian through a simple prayer.  In Acts 2, when the people realized that they had sinned and asked what to do, they were told to "repent and be baptized."  In Acts 8, the Ethiopian was told about Jesus, and as they came upon water, he said, "What hinders me from being baptized?"  In Acts 22, we see Ananias saying to Saul, or Paul, "Why do you delay; arise and be baptized and wash away your sins."  We see a different process in the book of Acts than what this man was practicing.  But I'll give him a 5 for effort.  

Enough for now.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!