{"id":4516,"date":"2012-12-13T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lightbearers.org\/?p=4516"},"modified":"2021-04-22T16:13:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T00:13:04","slug":"this-is-ministry-victor-and-lindsays-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/this-is-ministry-victor-and-lindsays-story\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Ministry: Victor and Lindsay\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a white door. There\u2019s a \u20185\u2019 on it. Two ARISE<\/a> students, Victor Carreiro and Lindsay White, stand beside the apartment door and knock. There\u2019s a post beside Victor that he leans upon, his hand plays with a chip in the wood. Lindsay can be seen taking a few glances in the direction of a cat with lopsided shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, can we ask you a few questions?\u201d Victor asks the young man in front of them. He is wearing basketball shorts and a white t-shirt, he is blonde, skinny, and stiff in posture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d Tucker responds, that\u2019s his name, \u201cbut I don\u2019t want to step on anyone\u2019s toes with my answers.\u201d After Victor and Lindsay assure him they won\u2019t be offended, he agrees, they begin and the survey goes well.<\/p>\n

Through the survey the students found out he is an agnostic, a seeking agnostic, but nevertheless in doubt.<\/p>\n

Victor looks at him inquisitively, tilts his head to the side and inquires, \u201cWhat is your greatest obstacle for belief in God?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucker unfolds his arms, \u201cA lack of evidence,\u201d he confesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I present an <\/em>argument for His existence?\u201d Victor wants to know.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victor then begins to elaborate on the Kalaam Cosmological argument and explains its premises to Tucker and the way they harmonize and lead you to the logical conclusion that God exists. Victor has made himself known around his classmates as a man of information. A former skeptic himself, God has gifted him with an ability to take very abstract information and present it clearly to those around him. And at this moment, the Spirit takes Victor and his partner, Lindsay, into a dance with Tucker. They will go on to tackle many of the young agnostic\u2019s questions and unravel some of the obstacles in his way to God.<\/p>\n

As Victor finishes he asks, \u201cSo, Tucker, can you see how believing in a transcendent, timeless, eternal, spaceless, and personal Uncaused Cause follows if we grant the premises of the Kalam cosmological argument?\u201d Tucker nods. \u201cBut you\u2019re a smart guy,\u201d Victor continues, \u201cand you probably caught on to the fact this argument does not bring us to the Judeo-Christian God, right? Tucker smiles and nods, actively listening to where Victor is going next.<\/p>\n

He walks him through some arguments for the validity of the resurrection of Jesus. He answers all the questions and the way in which it makes sense with what history agrees on: Jesus died, His tomb was empty on the third day, and the Christian movement exploded shortly thereafter. Tucker continues to be intrigued.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t usually talk to Christians, but I have never heard it explained so intellectually.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the whole conversation, Victor and Lindsay are continually impressed that Tucker is a very sincere agnostic. His questions are heartfelt and he very much assesses the answers given to him. Their conversation continues for almost an hour, questions and answers, inquiries and responses, the one being used by God to proclaim and the other being softened by God to receive.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of their conversation, Tucker just blurts out, \u201cWhy did God literally<\/em> have to shed blood for the sins of man?\u201d<\/p>\n

They talk about human stories. Human books and movies and the way they are littered with strife and conflict, the way the plots usually square good versus evil and how human-created heroes so often find their heroism in giving their lives, handing themselves over for the sake of the greater good. These well-known stories, the Avengers and Star Wars of culture, so often feature redemption\u2014so often feature a valiant hero who gives his life. Victor claims that this testifies of a very human longing for redemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to admit,\u201d Victor argues, \u201cif this story of the cross is true, then it is the greatest act of love in history. Think of it,\u201d he continues, \u201cit depicts a God coming down from His throne and dying for His enemies who sinned against Him. Though their crimes were directed at Him, He bore their punishment for the sake of their reclamation,\u201d he ends softly.<\/p>\n

Tucker is very thoughtful as this ends.<\/p>\n

Lindsay then pipes up, \u201cAnd think of it, life is in the blood. Of course a life needed to be given for the reclaiming of a life. His blood being shed represents that!\u201d<\/p>\n

The question and answer continued for some more time, but soon it was 7:30 p.m. and work called Tucker. Victor and Lindsay needed to get home too. They say their goodbyes and exchange numbers. Tucker is very interested in meeting again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t usually talk to Christians, but I have never heard it explained so intellectually,\u201d Tucker exclaims.<\/p>\n

Victor and Lindsay walked away from Tucker\u2019s apartment having provided a sense of clarity which he did not have before. In the same way Victor had played with the chip in the wooden post beside him, the Lord used the pair to crack a chip into the hardened doubts and confusions in the mind of Tucker.<\/p>\n

And this, is ministry.<\/p>\n

Victor Carreiro and Lindsay White studied in the 2012 ARISE program<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a white door. There\u2019s a \u20185\u2019 on it. Two ARISE students, Victor Carreiro and Lindsay White, stand beside the apartment door…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/This_is_Ministry_Victor_and_Lindsays_Story.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-1aQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4516"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13580,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516\/revisions\/13580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}