Pastor Greg Laurie shares a personal account of an interesting encounter with a nonbeliever.

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

I find it amazing how people reject Jesus Christ without even taking time to consider His claims. Talk to someone about the Christian faith, and they sometimes will say, “Well, I am not into that. I don’t believe that.”

“Well, have you ever read the Bible?

“No.”

“I actually have a Bible here right now. Would you—”

“Put that thing away!”

Bring up the name of Jesus or the fact that you are a Christian, and it often will stop a conversation cold.

A while ago, I was visiting a city for some meetings in preparation for a Harvest Crusade. As I was walking around, I decided to stop at a place for some clam chowder. The guy who had taken my order was very sociable and chatty, so as we were talking, I said, “Hey, I was wondering if I could put up one of these flyers? We are holding this event.” Then I handed him a flyer for our crusade.

He read it and said, “Wait . . . wait . . . that is a Christian band.”

I said, “Yeah, it is a Christian band. It’s a Christian event. We are here to talk about Jesus Christ and how to come into a relationship with Him.”

This guy came unhinged. I just listened to him. I didn’t interrupt. I just let him go for a while as he told me why he did not believe in the gospel, the Bible, and so forth. Then I asked him what he believed in, and we talked a little more.

And here is what I have found. Christians are accused of being intolerant, yet I find that is actually not the case. Instead, I have found that the most intolerant people are those who talk the most about being tolerant.