Reaching the Marketplace for Jesus

Smokin' a Cigarette and Waiting to Meet Jesus 

Jamal was sitting at the bus stop, smokin’ a cigarette and waiting to meet Jesus.  

Last night Mike, Brian (a new kid learning personal evangelism) and I headed up to Brooklyn, MD to walk the streets and see if we could talk to anyone about Jesus. We hadn’t walked two blocks from the car along Patapsco Ave when we came across a young man sitting at the bus stop. 

I grabbed a tract out of my breast pocket, walked up to the young man (tract extended toward him) and told him we were inviting people to church. I asked him if he had a church that he attended. He told me that, no, not for a long time – and then he got a sad look on his face, sort of melancholy.  

The tracts we use are from Sword of the Lord and they say “What if?” on the front cover. As he took the tract from my hand and looked at it, staring at the front cover, I asked, “What about you? What if something were to happen to you tonight? Are you 100% sure you’d go to heaven?”  

He said, “As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I won’t be going to heaven.”  

I asked him if he would mind if I took a few minutes and showed him what the Bible said about how he could know and never have to worry about it again the rest of his life. He told me that he would like to know that. I sat down next to him and introduced myself. He told me his name was Jamal. 

As I sat next to him I asked him to open up the tract. As he looked at it I pointed out Rom 3:23 and told him that God says we’re all sinners. He said, “yeah, ain’t that the truth.” I asked him if he could think of any sins he’s committed in his life. He nodded his head “Yes” and kept staring at the tract. I showed him where it said in Rom 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. We talked about having a job and doing your best and then your boss says he’s not going to pay you. I asked Jamal if he would demand his wages. He said, “Of course.” I told him the wages we earn for sinning is death. We talked for a minute about death and hell and that, if we are sent to hell we have to stay there for ever and ever and ever and can never get out. 

I told him that there was good news also. I told him that God doesn’t want us to spend eternity in hell, that He wants us to be in heaven with Him. That He wants that so much that 2,000 years ago He sent His Son to earth to take our wages for us, to die on the cross for our sins. We read Rom 5:8 together and talked about God proving His love towards us, while we were sinners and that Christ died for us. I told him that Christ died for me, that He died for Mike and Brian, that He died for Jamal, that He died for the terrorists that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

We talked about how that didn’t mean that all the world got to go to heaven. I told Jamal that God wasn’t going to force anyone to go to heaven. That He offers His Son’s sacrifice as a free gift that we just have to accept. We read Rom 10:13. And I started to talk about calling on the name of the Lord. Then, for some reason, I thought I’d change things a bit. I told Jamal that there is a verse that a lot of kids learn in Sunday School. It’s John 3:16.  

As Jamal moved his cigarette away from me and “hid” it by his right leg he started to quote it to me. He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” 

I interrupted and said, “That’s God’s part, do you know the rest? Do you know our part?” 

He continued, “… that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

I thought to myself, don’t start crying now, then I said, “Jamal, believe means to trust completely. Have you ever been on an airplane?” He nodded. I said, “When you get on the plane you walk down the companionway and, upon entering the plane, you turn right. If you turn left you’ll go into the cockpit where the pilot sits. You don’t know that pilot, you’ve never met him. You don’t know where he went to pilot’s school, you don’t even know if he went to pilot’s school. But you’re going to put your life in the hands of a man you’ve never met and trust him to take you somewhere you want to be. Trusting in Jesus is the same. God wants us realize we can’t get to heaven by any thing we do. He wants us to trust Jesus 100%, both feet in the plane, and trust in Him alone as our only way to heaven.”  

I said, “Can I ask you a couple of questions?” A nod. “Do you know, like we talked about earlier and like the Bible says, that you’ve done some sins in your life, some things that God isn’t too happy about?” Another nod. “Do you believe that, like we just read from the Bible, there is an eternal wage for sin?” Again a nod. “Do you believe, now God’s listening so be honest, do you believe that 2,000 years ago God’s Son came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for you and rose from the dead three days later?” One more nod. 

I asked Jamal, “Do you mind if I say a little prayer for you and then I want to ask you one more question?” 

This time, as he nodded and said, “yes,” the half finished cigarette flew out into street. 

We bowed our heads and I asked, out loud, that God would convict Jamal’s heart and that Jamal would be able to humbly ask Jesus to be his Savior. Then I looked up at Jamal, stared him in the eye and asked, “If Jesus is willing to accept you just the way you are, and He is, would you be willing to accept Him as your only way to heaven and ask Him to come into you heart right now?” 

Jamal said, “Yes.” And I led him through a sinner’s prayer. I told him it is what you believe in your heart that counts. I asked him if he really meant it, if he really asked Jesus to be his Savior. He told me he did. I said, “If you really meant it, shake my hand.” He reached out and, with a firm grasp, shook my hand.  

I went through some assurance verses with Jamal, gave him a little New Testament I had in my pocket and showed him the Gospel of John. He gave me his address and, with smiles all around, he told Mike and Brian that he was a child of God on his way to heaven. 

I asked him, “Are you 100% sure if something should happen to you that you’d go to heaven?” 

He said, “Yes, Jesus is my Savoir!”