Teens Talking

This was sent in by Claire in Half Moon Bay:

Hey, I’m Claire. I’m 17, and I teach kids Bible clubs with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). I came to Covolo to teach the Sunday school class for the Faith Tabernacle Church on one Sunday. Afterwards, I was sitting in Loretta’s car with my friend and fellow teacher Tamara when Israel, a 19 year old guy we had just met a short while ago, came over and asked what we were doing. I responded “Just baking in the car”, because it was a really hot day, and although we had the car doors open, it was still stuffy. He asked if he could join us, sat in the back seat with Tamara, and promptly asked us what kind of drugs we were doing. I didn’t realize until later that “Just baking in the car” could be taken as a drug reference, so it’s important to watch what I say. After it was straightened out that I don’t do drugs we talked about church and how to get to heaven.

His understanding was that you won’t get into heaven if you do bad things. Of course his standard of right and wrong were relative and came from himself, not God. The conversation led away from morality, to personal life and I got to know a little more about him, but I was praying for it to transition back to God so I could give him the gospel. It finally did, and since he thought morality led to salvation, I took him to the law.

I pulled out my Bible and went over the 10 Commandments, in order to prove that mankind cannot be made right with God on our own. From there I explained how Jesus fulfilled the law, and died to take the punishment on Himself that we deserved. I used the example of a courtroom, with God as the judge, Israel as the guilty, and Jesus stepping forward to fulfill this undeserving teenager’s sentence. Loretta also helped explain the atonement, and how God is merciful to us, yet just because sin must be punished. It was hard to keep the conversation centered on the gospel because he was clearly interested in Tamara and myself, so we ending up talking for more than a half hour. He had a lot of questions which I did my best to answer, but I had to leave before I could finish the message of the gospel. We gave him a New Testament and encouraged him to read the book of John. I haven’t heard from him since then, but I keep praying. God brought him right to us, and I know what I said made him think. It was such a blessing to give him the truth in a confident, straightforward way! God is so good!!