Gasoline and The Book of Mormon

So last week I was at the gas station. It wasn't my best of mornings, I'll admit, due to lack of make-up, no shower and wearing whatever covered me just to get in and out of the house quickly for this task. And wouldn't you know it, there I was trying to hide and the gas line chokes out a bubble spraying about $4 dollars all over my hand and shoes. As I assessed this stinky mess, one made worse by the wind now howling between the car stalls, I hear a voice from behind me and see a young man dressed in slacks, white shirt and black tie approaching me in the reflection of my car window.

"Excuse me ma'am, how are you today?"

"fine, great."

"Um, can I ask you a few questions...?"

Then he began asking me if what I believed, I never looked up, ashamed of what I must look - and smell - like at this point, so I began to wash my windows hoping he would just give up. I told him about the YL ministry I was involved in, and that I believed in the Bible as the Word of God. He said things like, "that's great...but as a good Christian, don't you feel that you should be studying all the gospels?" I responded with, "I try too, they are in the Bible." He handed me a pic of a the Book of Morman and told me that they were the missing books of the Bible from the Americas and that I should be studying them.

I was ashamed. Here I was trying to dodge this guy, but I didn't know enough about Mormonism to give him a hefty argument as to why I knew that the Bible was the infallible, only Word of God. I just took the card and he left.

I drove home feeling like a failure. God had asked me to speak the Truth and I was too wrapped up in my own discomfort and appearance to want to debate this man, and truthfully, I wouldn't have known what to say.

So I went home and did what I do best, I researched. I won't put what I found here, it's just too lengthy, maybe I'll break it up into different posts. But what I do know is what I believe, that we were born into sin because of the fall. (Ge 3:16-24; Ro 3:23; 5:12-15, 17-19; 8:19-22 Eph 2:1-5; 1Jn 3:4). That Jesus Christ defeated that sin, and defeated death giving us eternal life - should we choose it. There is only ONE God. He is not a man, and didn't 'learn' to become God. (Dt 33:27; Isa 43:10; 44:6; 45:5, 21; 46:9; Mal 3:6; 1Co 8:4; 1Ti 2:5; Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). He does not have a wife. He is omnipotent, all powerful, the beginning and the end, and doesn't need 'intelligences' supporting Him. (Ge 17:1; Job 36:22-23; 42:2; Isa 14:26-27; 40:13-14; Jer 32:27; Mt 19:26; Lk 1:37; Ac 17:24-25; Rev 19:6). That's just some of it....

I will give the guy props though, if only I were brave enough to walk up to a complete stranger and ask about their beliefs. I do try to be open-minded about others beliefs and want to know more about each of them. I think it helps me to understand them and my own beliefs more clearly.

I do think it's one of my 'jobs' here during my short stay on this rock to tell others about Jesus, but I believe in sharing the gospel primarily through my example, and through those I meet and build relationships with. I am definitely not a bull-horn, standing on a crate proclaiming the damnation of the masses kind of Christian.

One good thing came out of all of this, I was able to see where I need work, and I learned a lot about Mormonism and its differences of what I believe as a Christian. Maybe that's what it was all about anyway.

Verse to Ponder: Isaiah 43:10 (NIV) "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.