Friday Night Notes

Rand is wearied from his day...

FOUR big hours of street preaching tonight. My pastor thought we should take advantage of the mild weather to put out an extra hour of evangelism (it was 4 degrees Celsius tonight, not typical Canadian weather for January). The market was full of people tonight, and I mean full. It would seem that it wasn't only us preachers who decided to take advantage of the mild temperature. Here are the notes:

The Good:

1- Had a conversation with a Muslim. He was somewhat open to what I had to say. He explained to me that he had two problems with Christianity: the first was the multitude of denominations which all claimed to be Christian, and the second was the Trinity. I answered his first objection by asking him if everyone he knew which called themselves Muslims were necessarily Muslim. That took care of that. I then answered his second problem by explaining to him that the bus shelter he was standing in was proof that something could be three, and still be one. The bus shelter had length, it had width, and it had height; and while all these measurements are individual and separate, they still make ONE bus shelter. I left him to his thoughts.

2- I'm not sure if this really fits in the "Good" category, but it made me smile. An Asian fellow walked up to me and said: "Can I ask you something? I would just like to know where the..." He paused when he noticed I was holding a sign. He read it. He then said: "Maybe I shouldn't ask you after all..." And that's when I started smiling. You see, most likely, the man was about to ask me where the strip club was, or some bar, and when he saw the Gospel, conviction did it's work. He knew I wouldn't approve of what he was going to ask me, so he opted to ask someone else.

"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another)." (Romans 2:14-15)


The Bad:

1- John 3:16 and a Gospel tract entitled "God, Jesus Christ and you" I was offering to those who walked by me. Hardly the most offensive stuff one can come up with. Yet I couldn't believe tonight just how negative the response was to these two statements. Well over 90% of the people who walked by, after reading the Bible verse or the title of the tract, responded with a deep and frustrated sigh, or an "oh... gawd!", or some other display of revulsion. My poor country, it's playing out Romans 1:21-32 to a tee.

2- A man named Barry stopped by as I was preaching. He listened quietly for awhile which was good, the problem was, he didn't stay quiet. Barry was obviously drunk out of his mind, so I didn't want to get into too deep of a conversation with him (you can never get to far with someone who is under the influence of alcohol). Anyway, things degenerated when Barry decided to make crude comments to any and all women who walked by us. The last thing I wanted was for the public to think that I was associated in any way with this Barry, but he wouldn't leave me alone. Thankfully, that nonsense only lasted a couple of minutes. He took a some of our literature and left.


Friday Night Confession:

Okay... I'm a very, very bad man. I got a warning from a by-law officer tonight, and she wasn't to pleased with me. You see, often when we go preaching, we bring this little amplifier with us so that our voices can carry over the noise of the city a bit. We don't blast it, we are quite conservative with the volume.

That being said, we are not suppose to use the amp, because there is a by-law against public speaking with an amplifier. My pastor refuses to submit to this by-law because it is obviously meant to shut down street preachers. Proof: one can sing, "rap" or play musical instruments with an amplifier without any limits on volume, but preaching is a no-no. So we were using the amp tonight and I got threatened with a 300$ ticket.

So I've made up my mind. My voice is strong enough now, I can preach without the amp without too much difficulty, so no more amp for me. The by-law is wicked, but opposing it can become a bad witness, so there.

"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour." (Romans 13:7)


Okay, that's it for me tonight... I need some serious sleep. Take care dear readers...


Rand


Update: I just realized something as I was waking up this morning. I now know why that by-law officer was so irritated. You see, when she came by, none of us was using the amplifier. Without proof we were using it, she couldn't give me a ticket. That's why I got a good scolding instead of a 300$ ticket. Can you say: "phew!" Or maybe "thank you Lord!" is a better expression to use.