One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven

Here is one more essay I've writte....

After I read the book One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven, I was forever changed. The author, Mark Cahill, approaches the topic of witnessing very differently from any other book I had read. His theses is simply, that if we call ourselves Christians one of the most important aspects of our lives should be witnessing. When we die we will no longer be able to speak with a lost person because, in Heaven there are only believers. I got three keys out of this book that really helped me step out of my comfort zone and witness. First, I learned that witnessing is a skill, and like all skills it takes time and practice. I also learned that when you get rejected, you should rejoice because you are storing up treasure in Heaven and the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon you. Then I learned that it is ok to not know all the answers. Just because I don’t have every word in the Bible memorized does not mean that I shouldn’t share my faith.

Shortly after reading the book, my friend and I went to a local mall to witness. My friend, Leslie, and I decided to grab something to eat before we started witnessing. As I sat across from Leslie I found that I was scared to death. We talked and ate at the food court for quite a while. We both knew we were there for witnessing, but it was as if we were glued to our seats. Thankfully, we both had copies of The One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven. We got them out and searched the pages for encouragement. In the book Mark says not to see the people you are going to witness to as strangers, but as friends you haven’t yet met. With those words in mind, my friend and I hopped out of our seats and we told each other that this was just practice and it was ok if we didn’t do everything perfect.

As Leslie and I walked around the mall we spotted an older man wearing a t-shirt that was offensive to our president. I remember standing there, looking at that man and wondering how he would react to what Leslie and I had to say. As my friend urged me to go over and talk to the man, I remembered two scriptures that were in Mark’s book that had to do with rejection.
1 Peter 4:14-15 “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.”

Luke 6:22-23 “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.”
According to these scriptures, I had no reason to be afraid of this man’s reaction to the truth of God.

When I think about the conversation we had with that man, I get very confused. That man was very blinded, he was firm in his beliefs and would not listen to what we said. But, he did not get angry with us. He was generally nice; he just wouldn’t listen to what we said. He asked a lot of questions that we found we could not answer without having to spend a long time thinking of an answer. Forty-five minutes after we begin talking to the man we said our goodbyes and thanked the man for our conversation. As we walked away, my friend and I were somewhat discouraged. We felt like we had somehow messed up because we couldn’t come up with answers to everything the man had asked. We felt like fools. Once again we had to go back to the book, One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven, to help encourage us. Mark says, “ God tells us in Psalms 14:1 ‘The fool has sad in his heart ‘There is no God.’ The fool is the one who doesn’t believe in God. You are not a fool just because you do not know an answer to a question.” Mark also suggested to get the person’s email and to tell the person that you will research until you find a clear answer to their question.

My friend and I learned a lot from just one trip to the mall. We did not count our trip as a loss, but instead we counted it as practice. We learned that rejection is not the worst that can happen while witnessing. We regret that we did not write down the man’s questions and then later email him answers, but again, we counted it as practice. We were just getting our feet wet and we long to continue to share the gospel with others.

Sara Chapman