Conversation to Conversion

What is the purpose of spiritual conversation?
We all engage in spiritual conversations hoping that our friends and family members will be drawn towards God and eventually to an encounter with God thereby leading to a conversion.

Here is a unedited testimony of one of our Singapore cell leaders who attended a 3 months' intensive leadership program I helped facilitate some years ago.

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hi pastor

not sure if mine is considered a spiritual conversation :)

last sunday my viet fren accepted the Lord as her Savior.
actually she was married to a singaporean who is hubby's fren who was also a Christian but have not been attending church.
once in a while if i meet her i will share with her but she was not ready.

recently she has to wash away the foetus (twin) cos they have no heartbeat and she was very sad n also having some problems with her hubby.

she told me she wants to go to church and pray but her body was weak so she cant go...

last sunday she came and after the service somehow i just felt the prompting to ask her does she want to accept the Lord.
she said yes and put up her hand.

Thanks and Best Regards.

<>< <>< <>< <><
In His Love

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My reply to her was that this certainly was a spiritual conversation (or a series of spiritual conversations) that led to a conversion.
This is ultimately what we all hope that our spiritual conversations will lead to. Hooray!!!

Testimonies - Spiritual Conversations

In response to my blog / e-mail yesterday, one of my ex-cell members in Singapore, who has now grown to be a cell leader, was also excited to share his testimonies of spiritual conversations and connections.

I was so thrilled by his inspiring testimonies and I thought it would be good if I can share them with you. He has allowed me to reproduce his e-mail which is slightly edited to preserve confidentiality.

May you be blessed and inspired ...

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Hi Pastor

Thanks for the sharing and I can envisage the excitement you and your wife had.
I too had an interesting encounter with my office colleague - rather, my landlord.

In one occasion, he asked about cell group and the discussion or spiritual conversation started from there. After about two weeks, I boldly extended an invitation to him to visit my cell group. Today, he is attending the cell group - despite the fact that he is staying at Spanish Village while our cell is some distance away at Yew Tee. There is still a some way to go in terms of spiritual development but I trust that each time he attends the cell group, he will be encouraged and the Word of God will convict him to be more serious with the things of God.

On another occasion, I had the opportunity to work with someone in China who is representing our products. When we first met, he asked if I am a Christian. Soon after that, we chatted more on spiritual matters beyond our work-related conversations. He got baptized recently and what's more, his only colleague also got baptized.

He aims to set up a company in China based on Christ culture. Frequently he would ask for my advice / direction when he is unclear about certain gray issues on business dealing. Meantime whenever I have the chance to travel to Shanghai, I would support him with Christian Chinese reading materials. Recently I managed to link him to a cell group in Shanghai which my Singapore cell group visited on a mission trip some years ago. He is learning to flow with the Spirit and pray in the Spirit.

At the end of the day, when we are willing, the Lord will open the door and opportunities.
Indeed, it brings great satisfaction in being an ambassador for Christ.

Blessings

Spiritual Conversations

Last week, my wife and I were truly blessed to meet pre-believers whom we can engage in spiritual conversations. Having spiritual conversations just thrill us because that is what we as disciples are called to do - Make friends and witness to them the reality of God's love and hope.

My wife was attending a conference and she booked into the cheapest hotel room to save her company money. Interestingly, she was upgraded and got a better room with better bed than another colleague who paid a higher price for a supposedly upgraded room.
To top off the blessing, she was staying in the same hotel with a pre-believing colleague. Then in one of those moments during dinner, her colleague asked her why she is a Christian. That was an opportunity to share how God is so ever-present in my wife's life - through her ups and downs. Her colleague was open to the gospel message. We await how the Lord works in her heart.
God is good.

As for me, I had asked a builder to do a minor repair on our bathroom ceiling lamp area.
In the course of the repair work with me chatting alongside him, he asked me what I did for work.
I told him I am a pastor on Sabbatical.
He said "Oh really!"
He shared with me that he is from Church of England / Anglican and came to NZ some 30 years ago when he was 22 years old.
I asked him which church he attends.
He was tongue-tied for a moment. He said he attends church once a year.
Then I shared with him about Mt 28:19 to go and make disciples.
I shared with him that the verse didn't say to go and make converts.
This is a great punch line to be followed with the next question.
I asked him whether he wants to be convert or a disciple.
He wants to be a disciple.
This is just like the story of my badminton mixed doubles partner - which I shared in my earlier blog.
Invariably, they all want to be a disciple.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Nevertheless, the seed is sown.
The builder said that if he has a spiritual problem he will call me.
Although said in jest, we may never know...

May you too be blessed with thrilling spiritual conversations - with colleagues, fellow students, people whom we "happen" to bump into etc ...