Conversation with a lost Catholic

I went out again with our witnessing group tonight and spoke to three people in the one and a half hours that we were out. I spent most of my time talking with Ryan. When I first asked Ryan what he believed happened after death, he said he did not have any firm beliefs ... he just didn't know.

When I inquired further about whether he believed in God, Ryan said that he thought that there was probably a being "up there" looking down on us. I suggested that the God of the Bible was the being looking down on us and that he did indeed see everything we did. Ryan initially stated he would be "pretty alright" in God's eyes, but when we went through the particulars of the ten commandments it became apparent that neither Ryan or I were alright.

In fact, we were *all wrong* in God's sight. He saw the lies we told, our disobedience to our parents, and all of His other laws that we broke. He even saw into our hearts, and specifically I spoke about how he could see every lustful thought we ever had. I explained that all these sins demanded punishment from a just God, but that God in His mercy paid our fine on the cross, rose from the dead, and offers us the chance of eternal life if we repent of our sins and have faith in Jesus Christ.

As we talked, I found out that Ryan had a Catholic background and he seemed to have some understanding of what I was trying to communicate. It seems that somewhere along the way he had professed to believe in Christ, but had not continued to follow him. I tried to emphasis that following Christ is not merely an intellectual assent that fades or does not impact your life, but is instead something you must trade everything for. Our love for Christ must be so strong that our love for our father, our mother, and even our life must look like hate compared to it.

I asked him to reconsider all these things again and use the common sense attitude he professed to have to see if they were true. He thanked me and told me he would consider these things. I pray to God that he was sincere.