A Whistling Man And A Barking Dog

By Pastor Bruce Oyen
E-mail: bk_oyen@hotmail.com

    On Thursday, October 13, 2011, I stopped at a gas station fill up my car with gas. When I got out of the car to do so, I heard a whistling man and a barking dog.  The man was on the other side of the pump, putting gas in his car, whistling merrily as he stood there. He might have been 75 years old. The dog, a cute, little brown one, maybe a chihuahua, was in the man's car, barking protectively at anyone within 100 feet.
    When I got the gas pump going, I said hello the man. He seemed friendly as we exchanged greetings. Then, I jumped right into the subject. I asked him if he believed in the Lord. He said he did. He also said he reads the Bible. He had a thhhhhick accent of some kind, so it was hard to understand some of his statements. But it seems he said he was a Mormon, and liked President Obama. Instead of getting sidetracked from my desire to speak to him about whether or not he knew Jesus Christ as his Savior, I took what few moments we had at the pump to speak to him about salvation. Then, I offered him a pamphlet called, "God's Simple Plan Of Salvation." He graciously took it, and read the cover. If the man is a Mormon, he knows nothing about God's simple plan of salvation. They have to work hard for it. To learn about the beliefs of Mormons, click on this link: http://www.cultwatch.com/mormon.html. This website gives links to other sites which provide information on the beliefs of different religions and how they compare with orthodox, Bible-believing Christianity.
    So, what lessons can we learn from this brief conversation at the gas pump? Consider these:

1. Sometimes we must jump right into our subject of making the Gospel known to others. The time at the pump would be short. It was "now or never," as the saying goes.
2. Don't let politics, religion, the weather, sports, or something else sidetrack us from making the Gospel known to others. Stick to the message: a person either already knows Jesus as Savior, or needs to know him as such.
3. It is better to make an attempt at making the Gospel known to others than to wait for the perfect situation to do so, or until we feel we know enough Bible verses to do so. If we wait for these things, we might never get the job done.
4. Luke 8:11 compares the Word of God, which includes the Gospel message, to a seed which is planted in the ground. A seed isn't much, but it has the potential to produce a water melon, an oak  tree, a pumpkin, corn, and many other things, depending on what kind of seed it is. So, we should look at even brief encounters with others as an opportunity to plant the seed of the Gospel in their hearts. We don't need to give them a 15 minute lecture, or a profound book on Christian theology, to plant this seed. Sometimes it all starts with a few friendly words, or a short Gospel pamphlet, or both. But that divine seed, when planted in their hearts, can take root, they can believe it, and the end result will be another person forgiven and given eternal life by Jesus Christ.
5. Keep Gospel literature available to give to others. Gospel literature is about one primary subject: why we need to receive salvation from Jesus Christ, and how it can be received. Earlier in this article, I said I gave the man at the gas pump the Gospel tract called, "God's Simple Plan Of Salvation."  Many persons have become Christians because of this tract, which is available in many languages. If you want to read it in English, click on the following link. It can be copied and given away. Here is the link to it: http://www.godssimpleplan.org/gsps-english.html  If you want to look at the home page of the website, click on this link: http://godssimpleplan.org/. This will allow you to see how many languages it is available in, and you can make a copy of it in any of those languages.