 Grants unto you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Well, my name is Eric Shorry. I live in Lisbon Falls, Maine. I Married with three children. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and work as an engineering supervisor for a company that makes dampers gas turbine exhaust systems and expansion joints the power industry I'm also a licensed professional engineer I'm a member of the whales brother in church in Wales, Maine where I serve as a deacon I've been a believer in Jesus Christ for almost 22 years and a member of the Wales Church for almost 14 years It's my task this morning to describe to you what it's like growing up not knowing Jesus The purpose of doing so is to not to draw out your pity or to play on your emotions The goal in sharing this is simply to help you understand the principles and worldview that govern my life Before Jesus This may help you as you interact with others who grew up not knowing Jesus My upbringing is far from the most tragic You will hear about yet. There are plenty of pain disappointment and longing for better circumstances It's through these circumstances that God prepared my heart and mind to receive his son as savior and Lord In the first half of my presentation, I'll share an abbreviated story of my life before Jesus This story is going to focus on what was happening in my life in my life The circumstances that I faced and how I responded to them This will serve as the framework for the second half of my presentation Which will focus on my guiding principles in worldview before Christ I'll start by saying I was not physically or sexually abused so I don't carry that baggage Also, I didn't know I didn't knowingly live in rebellion to God fear of future judgment or Hell or hope of heaven For half of my life religious instruction and practice in my family and my own personal life did not exist There was no personal. There's no childhood baptism or attending Easter or Christmas services There are no prayers with mom and dad or talks about who God was I Can recall only one early childhood memory that might count as Exposure to religious ideas I Remember looking at pictures in a book of locusts and people with boils all over them. I thought were Egyptian I Can remember it because the the people looked terrified by what was happening It was never explained to me nor do I remember reading the captions or surrounding paragraphs to understand that these Pictures were from the biblical account of the plagues of Egypt It was only after I became a Christian that I understood what those pictures were about childhood I Was born before either of my parents graduated high school both under the age of 18 In fact, my mother never attended high school at all and my father dropped out Before he graduated just prior graduation He later earned his GED They married after finding about a out about the pregnancy But this was not the beginning of a happily ever after story The upbringing my mother received had not prepared her to raise a child of her own or to be a wife She was the second youngest of 13 children was mostly neglected However, her mother did take time to teach her how to abuse alcohol at a young age at a very young age My father watched his parents marriage fall apart due to alcohol abuse the experience That he learned there was not used to prevent this possible outcome in his own marriage Alcohol and drug soon became a major part of his life and things quickly got out of control However before things went too far my father decided to join the Air Force and try to force some discipline into his life for completely destroying himself and his family Shortly after joining the Air Force. They had their second son Almost two years had passed since I was born things were not getting easier My mother had two children and she had not even celebrated her 18th birthday yet Partying and drinking with friends provided the desired relief and the stress of raising two boys both on the age of two These habits continued for some time and with them came financial troubles and difficulty raising their two children My father eventually gave up his drinking and partying in order to turn his life around He could see that his children needed him and he decided to change However, my mother would not give up her habits that she had come to depend on They gave her a way of escape from the painful reality of her life and the situation that she was in Before getting discharged from the Air Force. They had their third and final son It had been a five five tough years since I was born Thankfully, I was too young to realize all that had and was happening All I knew is that I was happy to have two other brothers to play with I can't recall memories of my father's drinking and partying, but I can for my mom As I grew older, I became aware of my mother's addictions and worried about her safety Many nights, I would wait up for mom to come home worried that she'd be killed in a drunk driving accident I could not understand why she would do this to herself and to her family I could see that the drinking and the drugs changed her attitude in love toward the family She eventually put all priorities below her need for drugs and alcohol and destroyed the relationship with her husband and with her children My father showed as much love as he could to us kids While dealing with his own pain My father made many sacrifices including his own happiness to keep the family together He spent time coaching and teaching us how to play many sports As time went on, we children became heavily involved in sports and replaced some of the sadness at home with success and friendships on the ball fields Through this, we grew closer to our father and more distant from our mother I remember feeling betrayed by my mother and vowed to be nothing like her Even though I had had a hard time recalling them I'm sure there were positive things that my mother taught me Over the most prominent thing I learned from my mother is what not to do with one's life My second encounter were religious ideas came sometime during middle school I can remember going over to the open door Bible church for Sunday school. This would have been an independent Baptist church My brothers and I one of my brothers and I would be picked up By a school bus in front of our house and taken over for Sunday school without her parents During Sunday school The children were called upon to answer questions from Bible stories But we had no clue what they were talking about After the classroom time was over we were brought over to a gym for sports The time came that the gym Did keep our interests at this time at the the gym did keep our interests for a while But it eventually convinced our parents to stop making us go At the time we spent at the open door Bible church I can't remember anything of a religious nature from it. I can remember being there That's about it High school In high school I followed close to my parents footsteps I too fell in love with a teenage girl and had a son when I was a junior in high school The cycle started over again Neither of us were prepared to raise a child much like my parents over 16 years earlier My girlfriend dropped out of high school But she would later go back for her diploma However one habit that we did not continue was out of alcohol and drug abuse I found comfort and love of my girlfriend. She became the only person I could trust and I needed her deeply With her I felt safe I also had friends and sports to ease some of the pain of home life And despite the home atmosphere I was excelling academically and athletically My third encounter where the religious ideas came during high school I remember feeling left out when my friends were going through catechism Which is catholic instruction before becoming becoming a communicant However, I felt left out I didn't feel left out enough to try it to get into what they were doing I was too busy with schoolwork sports work friends and taking care of my young child I can also remember being asked what religion I was I didn't know how to answer What religion should I be what determines your religion? Is that something you were born with or inherit from your parents? During my senior year home life grew worse and finally ended with my parents divorcing Even though I was disappointed in my mother. I loved her and did not want her out of the family My father has found another woman to love and be loved by and he wanted to start over My mother on the other hand wanted to take care of me and my brothers My mother Was had no means to do so her addictions kept her from performing her responsibilities as a mother So after the divorce she moved out for a while lost contact with my brothers and me Despite these circumstances, I did not drop out of high school I found comfort and love of my girlfriend and a reason to do better than my parents had done before me I started thinking about my own future what was best for my son and my girlfriend My grades and SAT scores were sufficient for getting into college But I also considered joining the air force like my father had done In the end I chose college so I could earn a degree and hopefully got a good paying job This decision put additional stress on the relationship with my girlfriend And trying to figure out our future together Paying for college and supporting a family didn't seem feasible But I thought it would work out somehow I loved my girlfriend very much and promised to marry her But I had not learned how to show this to her properly I was hurting inside invented my pain and anger toward her Not in a physically abusive way, but in words attitudes actions She finally decided she had enough and needed to find someone who would love her and treat her better She could not see how we were going to make it no matter what decision we made About the future I could not believe that she could leave me too My world was closing in around me and nothing was in place to stop it There was no place to call home literally And no one to comfort me at this time As I left high school behind me. I was leaving with my parents marriage recently ending My girlfriend breaking up with me and my sports career over Everything that had throughout high school to give me meaning and a feeling of belonging disintegrated right in front of my eyes I thought how could this happen Everything had been going so well or so I thought What does this mean and what am I going to do now? Little did I know that God was already at work in my life to bring good out of hopelessness and despair Even though I didn't know him college College picked up just where high school had ended. I felt alone and depressed With nowhere to turn to soothe the pain All of my sources of emotional support were no longer there for me to lean on Instead of my parents calling to find out how I was doing My mother would call for money or wouldn't call it all Birthdays and holidays were only a source of pain. So I avoided their celebration Country music became my greatest comfort and my young son the driving motivation behind enduring college The rest of my family was not faring any better One of my brothers had been abandoned in an apartment to cook clean and care for himself My mother was homeless and had been checked into a hospital for trying to commit suicide My youngest brother was brought into a home of his father's new life Was not was only slightly better than the home life. He had just left In this new home. He was not shown love or acceptance And that would affect him for many years into the future The first half of my college experience was mostly depressing and emotional trying time in my life My parents were in no shape to comfort me and my friends didn't understand enough of what was going on to be of any help No, love was coming from anywhere I was all alone What I wanted was someone to fill the hole in my heart, which was emptied very rapidly and without my approval What I didn't know was that someone would be Jesus My fourth and continuing encounter with religious ideas started with a guy named John Who lived in the dorm room right next to mine? He was a quiet soft-spoken guy who was in the same major as me He was projected to graduate the same year as I so we saw each other in the same classes Hi, it was mostly all the words we exchanged during my freshman year Early in the first semester of my sophomore year, my roommate and I had a party To our surprise John from next door came over This was unlike anything I thought John would ever do His actions and words were unlike anyone's I had ever observed before and attending a party did not seem to fit Although I didn't know why he was different. I liked the fact that he didn't just follow the crowd During our party party John and I started talking about some more classes together And to my surprise we had a lot of things to talk about This was the start of a meaningful friendship We got to know each other better through our classes and meals at the dining hall John was the right person I needed to tell me about the message that God had for me John was as intelligent if not more so than I Athletic and outdoor activities honest and respectful Our personalities meshed perfectly I don't specifically remember John telling me about Jesus at first, but he didn't need to His life spoke volumes His attitude towards life his subtle points about sin and his genuine care for others He also gave me a bible and encouraged me to read it So as so as I left in the spring of my sophomore year things started changing in me And I didn't know where they were headed That summer I worked at a GE in Auburn, Maine as a summer intern I was assigned a task that involved making some calculations And predictions for some of their production processes And I got a chance to put some of these to the test After bouncing around some of the other production lines for a brief time I spent an extended time at line eight performing experiments Line eight was operated by a guy named Carl During my many days at line eight we somehow got on the topic of religion and God We undertook many discussions about God I don't remember most of the questions asked or answers given But they had interested me to find out more One line of questioning I do remember was about supernatural things God was doing in Carl's life or in others lives What I think I can glean from this line of questioning is that I had picked up from somewhere that God does unexplainable things Does God show himself to you? Have you ever seen his face? Things of that nature While I don't remember what he told me it got me thinking about God nonetheless Not having been taught anything about God nothing seemed unreasonable for me to ask I was free to discover God just that he had created me to do by asking questions Carl also encouraged me to start listening to a Christian radio station Even though I that's not I didn't know what that was at that time I was specifically pointed to a program that started at six in the morning That was a perfect time because I left the house at about six and work started at 6 30 The six o'clock time slot on this radio station was filled with a program called love worth finding This program was done by a pastor named named adrian rogers the Bellevue Baptist church in Memphis, Tennessee I turned in not knowing what I was in for Adrien rogers talked a lot about who God is and who Jesus is I remember being captivated from the first moment. I started listening and thirsted for more every time it was over I wasn't thirsting for the rhetoric of adrian rogers, but the message of love from God Almost every time I turned it on he would be talking about something in my life. I was having problems with feelings of guilt hopelessness not being understood or loved Along with the explanation of problems I could relate with was a message that somebody loved me more than I could ever know I didn't understand the meaning of that right then in my life But a few months but in a few months things would be very clear as to what that meant Just before returning to school in the fall of 1999 I stopped at my dad's house for a visit While I was there we watched a movie called left behind This movie was adapted from the left behind book series Being unfamiliar with the bible and revelation in particular. This was very intriguing to me Is there really going to be a final judgment? Will people be left behind? More importantly, will I be left behind? These are some pretty serious questions. What is going to happen to me? Is there a way I can find out? With these questions in mind, I started my junior year not knowing my life would be changed forever John and I picked up from where we had left off in the spring of my sophomore year spending more time doing homework and projects and this time discussing God as well Finding people to share concerns and questions with it's pretty easy at college Because most people routinely are sharing concerns about exams and homework It seemed logical to begin sharing other concerns with John At that point it started becoming clear There are other pressing matters in my life that needed attention and not just exams As I first set semester pressed on so did my questioning about God On my frequent trips home from college. I can remember being Comforted by the message on the christen radio station Dr. Adrian Rogers has started a series called meeting Jesus at the crossroads of life It was at this time that I learned who Jesus was and what he had done for me How he came that we may have life May have it more abundantly How God clothed himself in human flesh How he experienced humanity and temptations How he performed miracles and taught with authority How he corrected and forgave how he served how he loved How he was mocked and ridiculed how he was beaten How he was let off to hang on a tree of shame How he forgave even in the midst of agony How he arose from the grave and victory and how he changed lives and history forever He did everything I needed to ensure I was not left behind Having realized for myself how much I needed him and how much he loved me Together with the help of the Holy Spirit, I put my faith in him In my car on the way to work during Thanksgiving break I asked for forgiveness and invited him into my life I received a new life a new direction and the gift of the Holy Spirit And they filled the emptiness inside That was almost 20 years ago that Jesus revealed himself to me I experienced real change in my life that I could not completely understand Many of the desires I once had were beginning to be replaced With desires to know him better, desires to police him and walk with him My response was to try to be obedient After all Jesus had done for me, the least I could do was try to be obedient And follow his instruction for my life Ever since that time I've been thirsting for the word and desiring to love him I could end my testimony here And it would have covered my life growing up not knowing Jesus However, I'd like to continue the story to help briefly explain how we came into Anabaptist circles Shiloh Chapel was the only church in the area that I knew of and so I attended Reluctantly at first After listening to many programs on Christian radio about How a believer needs to be involved with a church I finally got enough courage to go to church I sat upstairs in the balcony of Shiloh Chapel with a lot of people I didn't know And who didn't know me I attended by myself regularly and tried to sing songs that were extremely foreign But full of amazing truth As time passed I felt like I needed to be a part of the church Not just an attendee So I started sitting downstairs and felt more a part of the service As more time passed I eventually got to know some people And felt like I was accepted into the body of Christ One last thing that I knew I wanted to take care of was baptism So in Easter 2002 I was baptized by the pastor of the church It was at this church that I received a sincere milk of the word And grew spiritually It was there that I learned the principles of the doctrines of Christ Such as repentance Faith Baptism Laying on of hands The resurrection And eternal judgment I tasted that the Lord was gracious and for a time I was happy and content With milk During the season of growth I met a Christian girl who attended this church and we fell in love And got married She had a Christian heritage and Christian parents who were both members of the church It was a real blessing to have someone with which to share and to talk About all the things I had learned as a child of God And was still learning as a child of God As time passed I continued to grow thanks to the preaching and teaching of the word And my regular reading of the word I desired to grow and become everything the Bible challenged me to be I loved my Savior and did not want to disappoint him I believed the word of God and desired to live by everything it demanded of me No matter how difficult it seemed to be I had a hunger and thirst for righteousness that I earnestly sought To fulfill in my own life I knew that my life should be lived differently now that I was a child of God I longed for help in putting away the sinful behaviors of the old man I desired to commune with others who had also had the same longing in their souls And I thought for sure I would find them in this church As with all babies there comes a time to wean the babe of Christ off milk And onto more solid food Food that satisfies longer Improves more beneficial for the next stage of growth I had been fed with milk and was hoping others would see that I desired meat But the milk kept coming Now there's nothing wrong with the sincere milk of the word It is needed and serves a purpose But in order for a babe of Christ to go on To perfection or maturity or completeness He needs meat He needs more than the preaching about God's grace or God's love Or resurrection or eternal judgment But how to live as a child of God How to love him How to obey his commandments How to love others Serve them How to lay aside every weight that so easily entangles How to forgive and extend forgiveness How to turn the other cheek How to allow yourself to be wronged Instead of wronging others How to be separate from the world just to name a few In time I started to see that things Bothered my conscience I started seeing things that bothered my conscience It caused me to wonder If those in my church do not love Christ Or want to take his word seriously I wondered why do they not do what the Bible was teaching in some areas I wondered why that they seem to take a soft line on sin And void talking about it publicly I wondered why some seem to be heading into the world That I was so desperate to separate myself from I wondered what was wrong Had God let them down in some way Did they not remember how they felt the day they asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins And the sin burden rolled away I was unable to find satisfactory answers for most of these questions But the one thing I was sure of Was our paths were diverging After many talks and meetings and much prayer The time came for me to find another body of believers Who could help me become the mature man in Christ I desired to be The decision to leave did not come lightly I was leaving the church that nurtured me as a babe in Christ My wife was leaving the church she grew up in And the church her parents continued to worship in We were agreed on a decision to leave But our reasons were not identical However, both sets of reasons were acceptable to each one of us To conclude that a break with our church was necessary After only two Sundays of visiting other churches Let the one we had just left We concluded they were probably not going to find what we needed in these types of churches Yes, these churches were larger and had more programs and preached the word of God But they still presented problems of the conscience That we were looking to flee The following Sunday we visited a brethren church in Brunswick, Maine Have been regularly attending since It didn't take long for us to realize that we had found what we were looking for We continued to appreciate the sincere and simple approach to God's word And the literal observance of the doctrines taught in the New Testament at this church Life principles in worldview So what can we glean from the first half of my life without Jesus? What principles guided me during my life without Jesus? What was my worldview growing up not knowing Jesus? What went through my mind as a child as a teenager and young adult trying to make sense of life not knowing Jesus in his principles Child thinking as a child some of what went through my mind as a child Is probably the same as most children. I hope that we have what we need. I hope I can have fun I hope I make my parents proud And there were some things going through my mind that others probably didn't think about By age 10 I would have been doing a lot of laundry cleaning the house and cooking food for my brothers and I This was not normal among my peers But this was necessary to my mother's hangovers and time spent away from the home Some of the questions I considered were will I have clean clothes to go to school in? How do I cook? How do I clean? Thankfully my mother did teach me those things My age 12 I would have been aware of my mother's drug and alcohol addictions Which led me to wondering will my mother get home safely? An earnest talked about this a little bit with this woman. He has been discipling at age 12 I became aware that I lived in a dysfunctional home I learned this in one of my classes in middle school Up to this point. I thought our home life was normal I hoped others didn't know our home life was dysfunctional As a child we were taught personal responsibility To pick up after ourselves to take care of our things I accepted that I needed to take care of my stuff and that no one else Would have to do that for me We were disciplined family life was not devoid of the check on behavior and of meeting of expectations Some of the things going through my mind as a teenager I want to play sports as much as I can that brought sense of fulfillment sense of joy sense of peace acceptance I wanted to play to do that as much as I could I also had brief thoughts of playing in the major leagues Which said does not happen for most people How do I get a girlfriend does my mom love me? It sure didn't seem like she does Well mom make it home safely tonight What do other kids at school think of me and our family? How do I satisfy my father? My father had very high expectations almost perfection in sports and in school I turned his dissatisfaction into motivation to make improvements where I could But my brothers did not channel this to motivate them They took the mindset of he's not going to be happy no matter what I do Therefore I'm not going to try any harder Also went through my mind is will we have what we need? Will we have enough food will we have to move again? Will there be enough gas in the car to get to where we are going? Will we get new clothes will dad provide these things for us? And I thought it was my dad's job my dad jobs my dad's job only to provide for us I did not try to make sense of things in my home life until I was in high school However, I don't think I realized what was going on until after college in my mid 20s However in high school I did not feel as though I was a victim I didn't ask why is this happening to me? I didn't think I don't deserve this I didn't wonder why in an uncertain name of some deity Allowing this to happen to me What was happening was a consequence of the choices my mother and father had made over the years Nothing more nothing left less. It wasn't my fault or my brother's fault Some personal principles that we grew up with that I grew up with Personal responsibility You work for what you needed or wanted and you didn't expect that others would just give it give you what you needed A work ethic We were taught a good work ethic show up on time work the whole time do what you were told Have a good attitude integrity Do what you know to be right even when you know no one else will find out or no one else sees what you were doing Don't cut corners. Don't take shortcuts. There's also always be better if you do all of what's asked of you Money management There was no instruction in the home concerning money management or saving and planning for the future I don't think my father was against this but my mother only lived in the moment What was witnessed in the home was living paycheck to paycheck and I think that that's all my parents could do We had what we needed even though it didn't seem like it at times And I am thankful for this. I'm thankful my father was able to work I don't think he was ever out of out of work in all the years that he worked He was always healthy and could provide so I'm very thankful for that Paying bills was part of your responsibility and then needed to be paid Credit cards were used to pay for other necessities once the paycheck was spent on bills rent food and this seemed normal Taking out loans for vehicles was normal and seemed to be the only way to do it Money management and running a household from a financial standpoint was taught in high school I remember being very grateful for this instruction and put it into practice immediately With a little bit amount of money that I had to manage Personal justice or a sense of right and wrong I grew up with a functioning conscience and I did allow it to work It was not a redeemed or cleansed conscience, but it did put a check on my bad behavior There were things that I knew to be wrong and were taught were wrong from a social or cultural perspective and did avoid those at times I remember telling on myself when I was a child for doing something wrong Getting away with it, but then telling on myself because I didn't feel like it was right for me to have gotten away with something Consequences followed actions. You break the rules punishment was expected and given There were no excuses for poor performance Neither others nor circumstances were to blame for your poor performance including my home life It's not fair is not something we said in our home. It's not fair is not something we said in our home Whatever happens has happened has nothing to do with fairness. It's just how things worked out and we needed to deal with it Pay attention to what you're doing and don't worry about what others are doing No self pity if something or someone knocks you down get back up and keep going I knew no concept of sin as god teaches The wrong I did was to other people And their rules or to their rules or their stuff I was responsible to them and them alone to make it right My wrongdoing was between me and the one wronged and the only third party offended or upset would have been my parents There was no deity that was wronged or offended to whom I needed to ask forgiveness worldview Origins of life I was taught there was a cause for every effect and that all causes are due to some natural Cause there's no natural occurrence Everything was explained from a naturalistic worldview and the supernatural did not exist except for on tv or in video games Evolution in the big bang would have been the only theories and explanations given for the origins of life I recall no other theory or explanation given until I was in college However a blatant disregard for human life Our viewing mankind as merely higher functioning animals was not the ideas taught or practiced in my community death or afterlife I don't remember having any real thoughts about life after death Heaven wasn't real to me, but I did understand that it was meant to represent something good There was no understanding of sin therefore nor understanding of being lost And so there was no need to be saved from eternal death I did not operate on a workspace salvation system I didn't even know something like that existed until after I became a Christian justice There are consequences for actions break the laws and you go to jail or pay a fine Defending yourself is encouraged and needful You're viewed as weak and neglectful to your family if you don't defend yourselves or them Good guys should win and bad guys should lose America is the good guy and everyone not doing what America says is the bad guy War is not wrong because we are the good guys Defending the innocent and taking out the bad guys Citizenship We were taught to be a good citizen follow the laws work hard pay your bills pay your taxes vote, etc We were taught to be generous and help others and not worry about material things Helping and caring for others was encouraged in practice by my mother and my father This was not done to earn points with some god Or any higher power Nor was this done to cancel out something that we had done we didn't understand We wouldn't have practiced anything like that. We didn't know anything like that. This is simply done to help someone in a tough spot Participation in war is expected and honorable Higher powers There was no mention of god or a higher power or anything like that in the home We were responsible for what happens. We need to accept that and act accordingly So these are my world views. I grew up with this is not what I believe now just to be just to be clear There was no understanding of or desire to know god as far as I knew there was no god But not in a someone told me about him and I didn't believe it way The few times I attended Sunday school I was too young to understand what I was what I was being taught And there is no reinforcement and follow up for my parents I didn't know god and certainly didn't know satan existed Alternatively, I believe UFOs were real And I was mildly afraid of being abducted Aliens were without a doubt more real to me than any god Aliens were not supernatural in the sense that I think about it now They were natural just having a different nature than me I didn't sense that I was out of favor with some god or missing out on blessings from the christian God Looking back. I believe we benefited From his goodness as described in Matthew 5 45 in this way He may get the sun to rise on the evil and on the good and send the rain on the just and unjust Things that christians did that were helpful in coming to faith I was given a bible that was written in modern english I studied Shakespeare and other works written in middle english in high school And that language seemed foreign And reserved for times gone by I don't know if I would have easily understood what was being described had it been Had I been reading it in 400 year old english? That is not to say that I have any problem with the king james. That is what I That's what I read. It's just at age 18 19 I don't know if I would have understood what I was reading as well. That was not my language I was encouraged to read the gospel of john first Jesus was the focus of the witness that I was receiving and I probably would have been very confused With the old testament and how that relates to jesus Now that is not to say that someone cannot start there witnessing from the old testament Work to the new testament and have that be just as successful. It's just not what happened in my case So i'm not coming against that method at all They shared the truth with meekness and fear They did not try to get me to accept it through intimidation or ridicule ridiculing my worldview They pointed out holes in the worldview I had what it was done with carefulness and with gentleness They shared the truth as though they were not ashamed of it They shared about sin and righteousness and judgment in a straightforward manner Without apologizing for how harsh I might perceive it to be I'm actually very very thankful for that one fact that they were very straightforward in presenting those things that are taught in scripture They walked the talk I could tell that jesus was real to them and that desired to serve him I did not perceive or witness behavior that was contrary to what they were sharing with me By this they maintained the credibility and I could trust what they were saying They allowed my questioning to guide their witnessing They did not follow their own script or execute their own agenda Or were able to share what they needed to while addressing my questions They did not shut down my line of questioning as though I were asking the wrong questions They appeared To care about me. I say appeared because I don't know exactly what was in their heart But they did appear to care for me. They showed genuine interest in my questions and my seeking attitude I did not sense impatience from them or that I was a bother to them They only gave me what I could handle I could understand what they were talking about They didn't use a bunch of theological terms or christianese That I didn't understand There was so much more that they could share with me But there was only so much that I could understand without the indwelling spirit And lastly they encouraged me to listen to christian radio This allowed me to hear the preaching of the word They were sharing truth, but they weren't necessarily preaching or teaching to me conclusion Perhaps you've heard this proverb what parents do in moderation that children do in excess or some form of that There may be situations where this is true, but this is not a law. This is not what has to happen Life principles can be rewritten and worldviews can change The gospel truth makes this possible Sharing the gospel truth with others takes preparation Sanctify the Lord God in your heart first Make sure he has the highest place in your heart and mind Make sure he is the one that you lean upon for help and the one you present to others Be ready Actually consider that this is something that will happen to share the gospel Try to figure out what the other person is thinking and what guides their life Try to put yourself in their situation This can be really challenging if your backgrounds and experiences are vastly different However, all people have the same basic needs And these are good areas to make mental notes about or even write them down as you're talking to them And as you do this, this may require multiple conversations and you will have to listen More than you talk to really hear what they are saying and understand their life Rehearse what you would tell someone when they ask you for the hope that is in you Think about answers to questions that you have been asked before However, be willing to let their questions guide the conversation and then inject truth where you can When the time comes present the truth with meekness and fear or reverence for the god How you present the truth is just as important as what you say You're not just trying to put a notch on your belt for making a convert But you're trying to save a soul from death There's a difference between the two and it will show in your conversation in your ongoing relationship with them Additionally and lastly present the truth as though you are not ashamed of it like paul declares in romans 115 For i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ For it is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believes Blessings on the rest of our sessions here