Monday Bible Study

What do you do when a mission field comes knocking at your front door? How often does someone come around wanting to talk about spiritual matters? One Friday back in August, two women from a local religious sect came to my front door and asked if I thought we were living in the End Times. I said, “Yes I do.”

Then they asked, “Do you feel like you know much about that?”

Eschatology – the study of the End Times – is one of my hobbies, so I answered, “I feel like I know a little bit about it.”

They got all excited and wanted to know if they could come back the following Monday and have a Bible Study with me. I said okay and made sure I told my wife, Alice, about it. She said I could have them in the living room if I’d leave the front door open. They came back, we had a good 40-minute study, and I never saw them again. Two days later two men came to the door and said they had been talking to these women, and they thought I might have some questions about what I believe. I assured them I had no questions about what I believe, but I did have quite a few about what they believe, and told them they could come back the next Monday if they wanted to discuss it further.

I’ve been asked why I bother. I could’ve told them I wasn’t interested in what they were selling and sent them on their way. I’ve done that many times in the past. But I had sat in on a similar Bible study back in May that my old friend, Laran, was having on his front porch in Randolph County (Ala.) with a member of the same faith. Laran said the study usually went about a half-hour, but that day it went about 90 minutes. I realized then that developing a relationship would be the only way to reach someone whose beliefs are just about the exact opposite of your own.

So for three months now, almost every Monday I’ve met with Keith and someone else from his local congregation. So far I’ve had eight members of that local congregation in my living room, primarily their most learned men, and they’ve all left hearing the Gospel, and hearing their beliefs refuted while I defend what I believe. They may be using me as a training ground for their folks, I don’t know. But while they’re in my house they’re not knocking on anyone else’s door. And I’m having the best personal Bible study times I’ve had in years. Not so much on Monday afternoons, though those generally go quite well, but on the other days of the week as I’m preparing for Mondays, which I consider to be frontline spiritual warfare. And God has carried me through it so far.

I’ve let them know my Mondays are clear the rest of this calendar year, and I look forward to the weekly mission field that comes knocking at my front door…