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A lot of my ministry during the week involves what I call “reasoning.” It involves counseling, answering questions, or explaining Scripture to individuals. Sometimes this happens randomly, but I prefer to visit certain individuals at specific times or days during the week.

There are many important tools for reasoning….

But the most important by far is an open Bible.

I don’t have an issue with electronic bibles on phones or tablets. But when trying to explain God’s truth to people an open copy of the Bible is necessary because it provides less distractions. In my experience the phone or tablet will get people more interested in that item than the Scripture on it. Also, turning a physical Bible towards the person so they can read it FOR THEMSELVES is very powerful.

Notice I say it must be an OPEN BIBLE

This is incredibly important because SCRIPTURE must be the foundation of my beliefs.

When reasoning with someone who disagrees with me on an issue it’s interesting because they don’t want me to talk about the Bible. One man who I was having a discussion with last year became VERY ANGRY after I pulled a Bible out of my bag. He kept telling me he wanted to talk about “facts” instead of “myths” (which according to him the Bible was filled with).

This animosity towards the Bible comes from the fact that their beliefs are based on personal opinion, while mine is based on Scripture. Therefore they want me to move from the Bible to defend beliefs with the “facts” which are only personal opinion. Of course the real issue here is the Lord uses His word, NOT MY OPINION!

Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit speaks to us, and convicts using the Word of God. It is Scripture that according to the Lord is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Hebrews 4:12). When I move from Scripture to my own personal wisdom, it just brings confusion.

Though Satan and the person screams for us to stop, we must not stop using Bible

Yesterday I was having a conversation with an unsaved friend who told me that God, and Jesus (along with everything else in the Bible) were myths. I calmly held the Bible in my hand out to him and asked “can you show me that from my Bible?” After asking a number of times for proof the Bible was a myth (and getting none) I calmly packed up my Bible and left.

This doesn’t mean I’ve quit trying to reach him, but in that moment he refused to listen to Scripture. So I stepped away and will revisit again when he’s willing to listen.

It’s better to close the Bible and walk away for a short time than to close it permanently and stand on my own beliefs