Friday Night Notes

the end of a very busy week...

My pastor and I were out street preaching for 3 hours tonight. It was only -14 Celsius, but strangely, it felt colder...guess I'm becoming a whiner with age.

I'm afraid that we'll have to wait longer for that revival we've been praying for. The hearts were hard. It really never ceases to amaze me just how much my countrymen, for the most part, hate God and His Word. I mean they really HATE Him. Whether they heard our preaching, or read our Gospel signs, or saw the cover of one of our tracts, the reaction (again, for the most part) was one of loathing and disgust. And then came the mockery, the hard speech, and the cursings. I guess we, and the people in the marketplace were fulfilling 2 Timothy 2:1-5 :

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

Another thing that struck me tonight: taking the Lord's name in vain. You know what I'm taking about: "oh my gawd!" or "jeeeeezusss". You know, there are people out there that don't believe that "not taking the Lord's name in vain" isn't about a saying "gawd" or "jeeeeezusss", but rather, they believe it meant swearing falsely in the Lord's name. What does Rand say about this? NONSENSE!

Have you ever asked yourself: "why do people who want no part of God use His name in vain so often in their conversations?" The reason: Because there is a commandment, from God, against it. People who want no part of God are the children of Satan (just like the Pharisees were). Satan controls and hardens these people; they are his. Satan hates God and takes pleasure in the violation of God's commandments, so he moves his people to say "gawd" or "jeeeezusss" in vain.

Anyway, it was all pretty grim tonight, but hey! God was glorified by two wacky preachers, presenting His Gospel to our little part of the world.

With that, I'm going to bed. Good night, dear readers.