Friday Night Notes

preaching the Gospel to the spiritually dead...

The Lord blessed my pastor with stronger health this week, so I wasn't alone tonight for my customary night of street preaching. The two of us split preaching duties over the three hours we were out there; while one preached, the other distributed Bible tracts. The marketplace was real busy tonight, so we were able to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to countless souls. The Lord save (and harden) whom He will.

It was, yet again, pretty depressing when we observed the reactions of the people to our preaching and the Word of God on our Gospel signs. The blasphemy, the mockery, and the all around apathy for God's Word was all around and the more we appealed to our audience, the more vile they got. My pastor summed it all up pretty well when, near the end of our time of evangelism, he said:

"They're sooo bad."

On the upside, there were a few good events tonight. First, I made friends with J.P., a panhandling drunk who is often around, begging for money. I was able to share a bit of the Gospel with him and he said he had respect for me. I told him I would pray for him, that he wouldn't be another Matthew, but that the Lord would save him from his current unprofitable way.

Second, I got to share the Gospel with Collin, the parking garage attendant, again. He told me he would try to come to come to church this Lord's Day. I really hope and pray that he'll do just that. It is extremely doubtful that Collin is born-again, but he is favorable to us, and to the Gospel. My hope is that further exposure to the Truth would cause him to truly consider, in a personal way, the salvation that is in Christ Jesus.

Third (and this one really made me smile), I had a rather unexpected reaction to my evangelism tonight by a young lady. She didn't curse at me, she didn't blaspheme. She didn't spit on me or attempt to hit me. She didn't mock or make any sort of crude gesture. Quite the opposite! She looked at me with a tender, caring expression on her face... and blew me a kiss.

The most aggravating moment tonight came when I conversed with a young lady who professed to be a Bible-believing Christian. She had a problem with my John 3:36 sign.

"That isn't the Good News," she said, "aren't you afraid you are going to be turning people off?"

"The Gospel is supposed to turn sinners off," I replied, "but to God's elect, the Gospel is life and they will come to Jesus by the preaching of God's Word."

Well, she wouldn't have any part of that! She insisted that Christians had to only show forth "love" toward the unconverted, not condemnation. Talking with this woman was such a pain. She claimed to know the Bible, yet she would say the most ludicrous things (like her claim that Jesus didn't preach about hell to the unconverted), and by far the worst moment came when a sodomite came by with a question:

"What do you think will happen to homosexuals when they die?"

"1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is clear, my friend," I began. "No homosexual will enter into the kingdom of God, and that means homosexuals will be cast into the lake of fire. Homosexuality is like fornication, adultery and other forms of sexual immorality..."

I was going to mention his need of repentance, but the woman cut me off with her "loving Gospel":

"Well, because of my belief in the Bible, I don't believe homosexuals will go to Heaven," she began. "But God loves you! It's important for you to know that no matter what, God loves you."

At this point, I was looking for a wall so I could knock my head against it. I sighed an enormous sigh of relief when she finally left.


That will be the notes for tonight, dear readers. I again apologize for the lack of blogging these last few weeks, things have been so busy at work, at church and with the family, it's difficult to get into the proper frame of mind to blog. I'll try to get back to it in the next few days.

Good night, dear readers. Have a blessed weekend.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism