Sharky, you are definitely due some praise for your efforts, so here is your helping.......Keep working hard my friend. But I must say this. When people have a stranger start asking them questions like, "Are you a good person?" and "Can I drill you to see if you are who you say you are?" they either feel attacked, insulted, or they get indignant with feelings that you think you are a saint. I will not tell you to stop, but I will suggest that you might think of "tuning" your methods, so to speak.
The main goal of witnessing is to bring people to Jesus. Nothing more nothing less. After that, Jesus does the saving, not us. Glory and praise to God in Jesus' name forever, amen!
In witnessing, bringing people to Jesus, we are showing people that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and they, too, can have a relationship with him, and that he WANTS a relationship with them.
The non believer wants and needs to see the face of Christ for them to say, "I believe." Everyone needs to have the spiritual experience FIRST, and then God's truth will be revealed to them through the scripture. The non believer will get nothing from reading or hearing scripture, they must believe first.
You need to find out if the person believes that Christ merely existed as a man and died, or if he lives on eternally. Find out if they believe in the resurrection.
This is where the actual witnessing comes in. You have to show that person how Christ showed you his face, how YOU witnessed his saving grace in you.
The overall key of the conversation is to make it about CHRIST, not the person. It isn't about me, it isn't about you, it is about Jesus.
Bringing people to Jesus, that is the goal, and our duty as Christians.
Jesus feeds the five thousand:
Mark 6:35-39
By this time it was getting late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."
But he answered, "You give them something to eat."
They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it them to eat?"
"How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see."
When they found out, they said, "Five--and two fish."
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.
You know what happens next, right? Jesus told the disciples that it wasn't about them, nor up to them to feed, clothe, shelter, or save the people. All they needed to do was bring them to him, and he would take it from there. This is why we witness.
You need to open up your heart to them, not attempt to extract theirs from them. Make it real, make it human. Tell them a story, YOUR story of salvation. Get their attention focused on Jesus and let him captivate their hearts with feelings of hope.
The only questions you need to ask are:
What is your relationship with Jesus Christ?
If they answer, "I don't have one" now is when you need to witness.
So lets play it out here. You are the non believer and I have just asked you what your relationship with Jesus Christ is, and you answered that you don't have one. I am now witnessing.
And this is my true witness in real life also, here it is.
I was once the source of a world full of trauma for other people, including my own immediate family, and seeing what it did to those people was my greatest trauma. It made me sick.
I wont repeat the things I said, but I havent always been a Christian. The way I treated Christians and people of other religious belief was absolutely apauling.
My parents started out raising my siblings and me in the Christian life. We went to church, I participated in plays and played musical instruments and all those things.
It turned out that the pastor of our church was beating his wife while ministering to the congregation.
My father removed every Bible from our house and sat us all down and told us that Christianity was the devil and to stay away from it.
I look back now and think my father had misplaced his trust. That he trusted and put his faith in our pastor, a mere man, instead of God. He was worshiping the pastor instead!
After all that I became a very manipulative person. I was a bully. Not physically, but worse, mentally. I sought nothing more than to crush the minds of others and take their will from them.
I was a starved soul, empty of all life, so I took everyone elses.
It wasnt long before drugs were involved, and then it became that I would do anything to get the money I needed to get them. I stole from my own flesh and blood, and manipulated them into giving me money or other things that I could sell for the money.
It appeared that I had made everyone hate me.
Then one day I found myself sitting on a cold, hard, cement bed, and trying to stare out a small clear spot in a window that was completely fogged so no one could see out of it. I was behind bars.
Even after all I had done, it was all of those very same people that I had crushed and stolen from, and manipulated, both my own flesh and blood, and even more so than them, people who werent even related to me came to me to help me! I couldnt believe it. After all I had done.
When they needed me most, I abandoned them and left them for dead, but when I needed them, they were there in the blink of an eye. I had seen the face of God!
All of those people that I had persecuted are now my greatest allies in life. How could I possibly go back!!??
I believe God is real, he is alive to me, and I will never forget the day he showed me his face.
Just tell them your story. If they decide they want a relationship with Jesus, then they will have one. But say nothing more after that than a good luck! or a have a good day!, etc. Praise them, and THANK them for listening to you, and make sure you thank God, in Jesus name right there for them to see.
Good luck brothers and sisters! God Bless creation.