Friday Night Notes

more from the whining preacher ;-)


There she is... my favorite Bible tract. No fancy art work, no cartoons, no nonsense. Even if it never makes it into the hands of sinners, just the reading of the front cover is a powerful witness. "God, Jesus Christ and You." The second the eyes of the unconverted come upon this title, they have a decision to make: "do I want anything to do with God and Jesus?" I don't even have to say a word. I simply present the tract, and let those who pass by make up their own minds.

I distributed a fair number of these tracts tonight, but overall, the reactions to our evangelistic effort was the usual: mockery, disdain, hatred. Still though, I thank the Lord my God that He provided us with safety and for three hours, the thousands of souls in the marketplace of my city heard or read something of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are a whole lot of people who, after tonight, are without excuse.

The whole effort went far better tonight as far as the preachers were concerned. There were moments when my heart and mind weren't focused on the Lord as they should have been, but in general, I would say we laboured well (by far, better than last week). Here are some of tonight's highlights:


1- Standing up for the preacher:

In my six or seven years of street preaching, I have occasionally come into contact with carnal men who, despite their carnal minds, have an affinity or respect for our endeavour. They think that "we have guts", and they like us on that level. I had a short conversation with four young men of that type tonight. I spent most of my time speaking to one of them, and what I got from him was that he and his friends were up to no good tonight, but he insisted he was a Christian. The conversation didn't last long enough for me to deal with him, so I simply encouraged him to seek God by reading the Bible, and to go to church on the Lord's Day.

It was right after that admonishment that the four men started to walk away from me, and another man, coming out of a bar yelled a most vile obscenity at me. I have developed quite a thick skin to such wickedness, so I really didn't think too much of the wicked statement, but I wasn't the only one who had heard the obscenity. One of the four young men heard what was said to me, and he really wasn't impressed. He turned around and started walking towards the man from the bar. I knew if I didn't do something, a fight would probably break out, so I got into the young man's way, and gently laid my hands on him and said:

"It's okay, my friend... don't worry about it. I appreciate what you are trying to do for me, but it's okay... just let it go..."

The young man relented and repeated a few times that he had a tremendous amount of respect for me. He took one of my Bible tracts and said goodnight. The Lord bless him for his concern. May God show him much favour, in Christ Jesus.


2- Mike, the drunken, fornicating "Christian":

I was walking down the street with the 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign when a man from inside a bar called out to me. He asked me why I was walking around with a Bible sign. I explained that I was reminding the people of God. I then applied it to him, saying:

"You see, my friend, you have forgotten God. Or at the very least, you are trying to put him out of mind, 'cause if you did put your attention on God, you wouldn't be in that bar right now!"

Mike (that was his name) wasn't too pleased with that assessment. He gave me the old: "what's wrong with being in a bar?" So I asked him:

"Mike, what kind of things happen in a bar?"

"Drinking..." he answered.

"And..." I continued.

"Fornication..." he continued.

"And..." I said.

"Okay, okay... I get it," he answered (it should be noted that Mike, an unconverted soul, realized what I was getting at faster than some Christians I have dealt with about bars in the past).

In the minutes following the above exchange, it became clear to me that Mike was drunk, and he was out looking for women. He couldn't say two phrases without using the F___ or some other curse word. It was clear, Mike wasn't converted, but still, Mike insisted he was a Christian.

"Mike, you are trying to tell me you have had an encounter with the Living God, but there is no change in you," I explained.

I wanted to show him that when a soul is genuinely converted, "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17), but I guess the Lord wouldn't have me share any more with Mike, since his friends decided to come get him to whisk him away, and two of my work colleagues showed up to speak to me.

The Lord have mercy on Mike. He wouldn't take a tract... I just hope the Lord will save him from his self-deception, and genuinely save him.


3- The Ukrainian sisters!

As mentioned above, the Lord brought two of my co-workers (they are sisters, not in the religious sense, they both have the same parents) to "my street corner" tonight. I appreciated their kindness and concern for me, especially when they probably thought what I was doing was kind of crazy. We had a nice time talking about work, and about my evangelism.

I love it when people from my work see me preaching downtown. It's a great witness for the Lord. You see, taking these two ladies tonight as an example, they know me. They know that while I'm weird, I'm not a fool, nor am I an uneducated dummy (which sadly, is how I am perceived by most on Friday nights). So they both got to see their colleague, an able lab technician and an all around "decent guy", taking the Bible seriously, and proclaiming the Gospel.

And it doesn't end there! The workplace rumour mill spreads the word (and hopefully, the Word) faster than lightning. The Lord use our meeting tonight as He sees fit. As for me, I will pray for God's blessing on both these two kind ladies.


On that note, dear readers, I'm closing the notes. I'm preaching on Sunday evening, so I need to get some rest. I plan to spend the day tomorrow in the Word, and prepare for the Lord's Day, which means tomorrow will be a sweet day.

Have a great weekend, the Lord bless you all...


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism