And the Doorbell Rings

Saturday morning a nice young lady with two sweet little girls came ringing our doorbell.  One little girl handed me a flyer, and my ears closed as I turned it over in my hands quickly trying to discover who these people were.  Without any thought, I asked, "What church are you with?"  When the answer, "Kingdom Hall," came, I again spoke without thinking, "Oh, well, I'm a Christian" and handed the flyer back to the dutiful little girl.  When the woman then began to equate her beliefs with mine, I retorted that I was pretty sure Jehovah's Witnesses believe things about Jesus that don't agree with Christian doctrine.  Unable to articulate these differences off the top of my head, I sincerely told the woman and her daughters that I was sorry they were being deceived and that I would pray for them.  At that they left my doorstep and headed to the next house down the street.

Not exactly pleased with the way I had handled (or not handled) this opportunity, I quickly called a man from our church who just recently started a ministry to the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.  I told him how I had turned this woman away before even thinking to invite her back for further discussion and asked him when he would be available to join such a discussion should she accept the invitation.  He told me anytime next Saturday would work for him, and I got off the phone hoping for an opportunity to catch the woman before she left the neighborhood.

I watched from my front door as neighbor after neighbor turned this woman away.  Finally, she made it back to the van which she and another family had apparently carpooled in, and they drove back down the street towards our house.  Heart racing, I walked to the end of our driveway and waved them down.  They pulled right over, she reluctantly accepted my invitation to return Saturday morning at 11:00, and they drove away.

A short while later, my doorbell rang again.  The two women from the van had returned to ask me what specifically I wanted to discuss with them and to give me some literature that would correspond to that topic.  I took the booklet entitled What Does the Bible Really Teach? and told the woman that I would like to discuss our differences of beliefs on Jesus.  They wanted to stay and talk right then, but since we were getting ready to head out to run some errands, I was able to again get her agreement to return (this) Saturday.

Travis and I are preparing spiritually and academically for this meeting and are praying fervently that our speech will be seasoned with salt and full of grace.  I am sincerely grieved that these people are being deceived and am praying that God will use this meeting to begin the process of this family finding the Truth.

We would appreciate your prayers in these upcoming days.  May God be glorified.