Do you know?

I have a reader named Dennis, who is 19 and loves to draw and read History books! He is very talented and knows English well. He is studying right now to be an electrical engineer at his technical school here in Donetsk! He actually finished this week with his degree, and he has to defend his diploma tomorrow! We have had many good conversations since he has been coming to read with me! He told me the first meeting we had that he was a Christian, and we ask everyone what religion they are on an information sheet when they come to our lessons. When I hear that someone is a Christian, I make many assumptions I guess you could say. I assume that they know stories of the Bible, that they know why we celebrate certain religious holidays, and that they want to tell others about Jesus and what he has done for them! This is not the case with Dennis because these assumptions are just that...assumptions! We were talking about this holiday they celebrate here called Easter, maybe you have heard of it! Most of you hopefully know why you celebrate this holiday, but just in case you do not know why I will tell you! We celebrate Good Friday as the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross, and that Sunday we celebrate Easter as the day Jesus rose from the dead! Almost everyone celebrates Easter here, and they take food to their church to have the priest sprinkle holy water on it and the people. Dennis has celebrated this holiday for many years, but he just found out why the other day! We were talking about celebrating Easter, and he asked me if I knew why people celebrated it! I told him why it was celebrated, and he told me thank you for explaining it because he never knew and did not want to ask! I was shocked by this conversation! I was excited to study with him more, and get to know what else he believes and why he believes it! So today we were talking about the story in Luke when John is preparing the way for Jesus in the wilderness, and Jesus comes and is baptized! After we read the lesson, I asked him if he had ever heard this story( I always ask this question after every lesson I read with people)! He told me he had never heard of John or the story of Jesus being baptized-again...wow! I was super excited about the opportunity to get to talk to him because there alot of good things to talk about in this lesson for non-believers or those who do not know much about what they believe! So we started talking about what it meant for the people who were waiting for the Christ to come, and he agreed that it was a good thing because they would receive forgiveness for their sins and have hope for a better life! Then we talked about what the Good News was that John was talking about for the people! I asked him what was Good News to him and what John meant when he told the people the Good News! He said that the good news was Jesus coming to give people salvation, but he said that he has known about this since he was born so it was not really good news to talk about! I asked him that he knew about the Gospel when he was 3 years old, and he said he thought so because he said where else would he learn it from! I told him I didn't actually comprehend what the Good News was until I was 12, and he was surprised! I then shared with him how I was a bad person who did bad things before I knew Jesus personally and was baptized for the forgiveness of my sins, and he could not believe it and asked what some of these things were! While I was sharing, I could tell he was thinking about alot of things and making some decisions about the Gospel in his mind! It was exciting to see him thinking about things because after I shared I asked him what he thought about what I had told him! He told me he was thinking of things that he has been doing his whole life and whether or not they were good or bad things! We also talked about how cheating and lying is always bad, no matter if it is big or small, all sin is sin and is bad before God! Then we got into the topic where John talks about Jesus separating the good grain from the straw, and I asked him what he thought that meant! He said they were things- the good grain=good things people do and the straw= bad things people do! I told him I thought he was talking about people, and that the good grain=Christians and the straw= non-Christians! This really confused him because he didn't think anyone would be burned in a fire for doing bad things and not following God! I told him that's what the Gospel was for because it meant that Jesus could make the straw into good grain if they wanted to change! This is such exciting and good news because it means we do not have to die in our sins! He just looked at me bumfuzzled and still looked like he was thinking about it! I asked what he thought about all of that, and he said it was very interesting and he had never thought of it like that before! It was so neat to see God working on his heart right in front of me! It is the most awesome thing in the world to see God working in someone's life, and to share the Gospel with them! "The word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" Hebrews 4:12! I hope you have a passion to share the Good News with people because it is a very powerful thing! You never know who will need it, even people who claim to be Christians may need to hear about it!