Friday Night Notes

more from the un-edumecated street preacher...

Two and a half hours of street preaching done tonight. I fared much better than I thought I would. I've worked a 50-hour work week, so I was pretty wasted by tonight. Despite the fatigue and the usual resistance from ungodly men, I pressed on, declaring the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His honour and glory alone.

The marketplace was quite busy tonight with the usual ungodly attractions; from the disturbingly sick art gallery which attracted a host of snooty, rich, and mostly homosexual crowd, to the common tavern with its "good-old-boys" and loose women, each of them looking for their next wicked thrill. I walked in the midst of all this with a Gospel sign that had John 3:36 on one side, and John 3:16 on the other; sometimes stopping to preach. Then the thought came up in my head: "for some of these souls here, reading my Gospel sign or hearing my preaching... it will be the one and only time in their lives in which they'll hear/read God's unadulterated, pure, 100% Revelation." That thought really motivated me tonight, helping me work past my fatigue, and ignore the frigid temperatures.

I had a few interesting one-on-one conversations, and I distributed a fair number of Bible tracts. I was mocked and maligned a few times, but nothing overly grievous. The Lord deal with every individual soul as He sees fit.

Here are some highlights/lowlights of my evangelistic endeavour:

1- Oh yeah! Did I mention I was an uneducated idiot who needs a real job?

A man came out of a restaurant to smoke a cigarette. When he heard me preaching the Gospel, he turned towards me and started mocking me by cursing and blaspheming God's Name. I asked him what his problem was, but he answered with more blasphemies, so I opted to ignore him and just keep preaching.

Seeing that he was being ignored, he upped the ante.

"Get a real job, you loser!" he yelled. "You're probably one of these University wash-outs who tried to make something of themselves, and failed miserably, and now look at ya! Let me guess, you tried to be a chemist or something, and you just couldn't hack it!"

I'm not kidding one bit, that's the nonsense he was spewing out. So I walked towards him and said:

"Are you sober enough to listen to reason, sir? 'Cause I have something I'd like to show you."

I pulled out my work badge and showed it to him.

"You see, sir," I began, "I am a biochemist. I didn't wash-out of anything. I went to school and was quite good at it, thank you very much. You think I'm a fool because of the Gospel? Fair enough, but just be sure that the guy preaching the Gospel before you tonight, isn't half as stupid as you would like him to be."

Realizing that his argument was exposed as pure nonsense, he switched the charge against me. The charge now was that I was hypocritical; that I should be practicing acts of mercy for the poor rather than preaching the Gospel. I just walked away. My pastor once told me: "if you answer a false charge from someone you are dealing with, and the person responds with another charge, just walk away, you're wasting your time."

2- The Romanist that isn't that Romanist:

A young woman walked up to me as I was preaching and asked me what kind of Christian I was. I answered that I was a Bible-only Christian, a Baptist by denomination. She then claimed she was a "catholic", which meant she was Bible-only too.

"No, I don't think so," I replied to that assertion.

"What do you mean?" she exclaimed. "Of course we're Bible-only!"

"Miss, if you read "catholic" catechisms, you will find that they add "traditions" and the edicts of various popes to their faith," I answered. "They most certainly are not Bible-only. Miss, what does the Second Commandment say?"

"Oh man!" she said, "I don't know. I'm not that catholic!"

"Well let me help you then," I continued. "It says no statues, no images for the purpose of worship. N-O-N-E."

I then went on to present to her just how wickedly idolatrous Romanism truly is. In the end, she realized that Romanism wasn't Bible-only, and she thanked me for my insight. I have a feeling the whole conversation was purely academic, but I will pray that the Lord will use our time together to start a great work of grace; the work of salvation!

3- Another Pharisee nickel for my jar:

A young man interrupted my preaching and told me that the Lord Jesus Christ most certainly wouldn't approve of what I was doing.

"He would just let people live, man!" he said. "He wouldn't get all preachy with people."

This kind of stupidity is rampant amongst the liberal denominations in Canada. I tried to give him a bit of the Gospel but he would here nothing of what I had to say. Instead, he called me a foolish, hypocritical Pharisee.

Another nickel for the jar.

4- O that the Lord would give life:

I shared the Gospel with a man named Brett. It was a civil, honest exchange, but both of us knew, it was all purely an academic exercise. Brett was having a cigarette outside a bar, and he had no real interest in seeking God, and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. He just wanted to know what I was all about.

So we talked. He asked some questions, I did my best to answer, and I made sure to give him the Gospel. It was a good conversation, but without the Second Birth, that's all it was... a good conversation. I told him, before we said our goodbyes:

"I know this is all purely academic to you Brett (he nodded his head here), but it has to become more than that; and I will pray for you, my friend, that it would become more than that."


And that, in a nutshell, was my night of street evangelism. I must say, I'm really getting into the groove of this "lone ranger" evangelism. My pastor hasn't been out with me in months now (due to illness), and I thought it would be harder on me than it actually turned out to be. There hasn't been any threat of violence towards me, no serious intimidation whatsoever against me, where being by myself could pose a problem. Praise God.

That being said, I do ask all my brothers and sisters in the Lord to pray the Lord of the harvest (Mark 9:38), that He would either heal my pastor soon, or send me a partner to come with me. The Lord did send His disciples two and two (Mark 6:7), and I think that that's the best way of going about street evangelism.

With that, dear readers, goodnight, and have a great weekend. Have a glorious, and holy Lord's Day.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism