Quite the Evening

The other night I had quite the evening. It was fantastic really, and emotional. Where to begin? Where to begin?

I met up with my old dgroup at Goldbar, a wanna-be coffee shop. We were planning on discussing the Bible: transmission, translation, historicity, inspiration and canonicity. Sound like a mouthful? Yea, it does to me too. We’ll probably be breaking it up into parts =). Only one student showed up so we just hung out. Me, Dan (my old co-leader and good friend), Tim (Dan’s co-leader), and Scotty (one of our students). I am honored to be able to still see those guys. It was a good time of fellowship =).

As we were wrapping up our totally chillaxed-out evening at Goldbar, the owner walked up and asked, “Are those Bibles?”

“They sure are,” I replied. “Are you a Christian?”

“You probably wouldn’t consider ME a Christian, but in some sense I consider myself one,” he said.

From there he jumped all over the place: the Bible’s origin, the canon, was Jesus God or man or both, monotheism or polytheism, the Trinity, the gospel, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, the Reformation, the Crusades, homosexuality, head coverings, women pastors, and the list goes on. He went through all that in no time flat! You can imagine that I had a heck of a time staying focused on the essentials: (1) who God is and (2) how we come to know Him. Ultimately what it came down to was that he didn’t believe one can properly interpret the Bible, and that Christianity is not the only true religion. I did point out his presuppositions to him and challenged him to think through his conclusions. Overall, it was a beneficial conversation. We were encouraged and thankful for the opportunity.

From there I jetted over to my Bucks. I ran into some good friends from Sovereign Grace Ministries (Gilbert). We chatted while drinking good coffee (as opposed to the lame imitation I was drinking earlier). Isn’t it good to catch up with fellow believers you haven’t seen in a long time?

Shortly after they left I bumped into another Regular who attends a local Vineyard church. It was also encouraging to hear of this man’s recent conviction to study the Scriptures.

Starbucks closed … and I was headed towards my truck (honest!) when something caught my eye: two open Bibles accompanied by two individuals reading them. I turned around and asked if they were Christians. Turns out they were doing a Bible study. We briefly discussed Justification by Faith Alone, and exchanged phone numbers.

What a wonderful night =)

If you thought I would post on “The DaVinci Code” film, stay tuned! I’ll undoubtedly post my thoughts, umm, soon.

Until next time,
Rustoleum