A few years ago I was flying out of Chicago after speaking at a teacher’s conference. Plane flights are great for getting into spiritual conversations because you have a captive audience. On this flight I was seated next to a young lady named Linda who was returning to San Diego to be with her boyfriend. The flight was showing a movie and after some friendly conversation she started watching the film. The movie was a science fiction drama I knew would open the door for a spiritual conversation. All I had to do was read my book, wait and pray. Once the movie was over I knew in my heart that I was going to be given a chance to share Christ. I started right in and to my surprise she really wanted to talk about religion and God. An even bigger surprise was every question she asked, when I answered, she said things like, “Wow I never thought of it that way;” or “That really makes sense now.” I was bewildered because most spiritual conversations I have, seldom does anyone agree with me. In fact I was so astonished I was at a loss for words, which is strange for me. During the next 30 minutes we talked about Christ, sin, punishment, and the church in general and I soon realized we were about to land and I needed to move her towards salvation. So we went through some key passages, such as Romans 3:23 “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” to show her the need for forgiveness. Finally we were taxing on the runway and I recited from memory Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” When I finished she said she believed what those verses said and that “Jesus was Lord.” At that point the airplane came to a stop and I had to say goodbye. Even though I had no opportunity to follow-up on her decision I am trusting through the work of the Holy Spirit she made an eternal decision for Christ. Maybe someday I will see Linda in heaven.
Have you ever been in a similar situation where during a spiritual conversation the person responds in a positive manner and wants to know more about Jesus? When that happened, did you feel prepared to answer his or her questions? The goal of my blog is to help prepare you to talk with people like Linda.
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