Friday Night Notes

another night of labouring in the "hellhole"...




Sister Cathy mentioned, in her last comment on this blog, that her husband manned my post in the marketplace last week. After a night of evangelism there, he returned home tired and weary and declared that we laboured in a hell hole. After tonight's endeavour, he won't get any argument from me.

I'm slowly, but surely, getting past being bothered by the ridicule and vitriol cast in my teeth when preaching the Gospel downtown; what I am still terribly bothered by is just how absolutely ignorant and hard-hearted the people are when it comes to the Gospel. They hate it without having the slightest concept of what it truly is. They loathe it. They really, really do. It doesn't matter if I spend our three hours of evangelism preaching only "positive" aspects of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, or if I warn of the coming judgment and the reality of Hell. Whatever the message, whatever the tone or disposition....

They really, really hate the Gospel.

And I'm not just talking about the party goers, and the drunkards. No, no. There are plenty of religious people who walk by us on any given Friday night. For the most part, they are embarrassed by us. They think we mean well, but we're kind of stupid in the way we preach the Gospel (which, incidentally, is the method they read of in Scripture... if they read the Scriptures). My pastor spoke truthfully when he said to me:

"You know, Rand, the Sunday after the Rapture... the "churches" will be full. There will be services and lots of people will be in "church" after the Rapture of the saints."

A lot has happened tonight. A lot. There is no way I'll post it all here... I'm just too tired, and I don't think you'll all appreciate a five thousand word post. So here are the highlights and lowlights of our night of street evangelism, rapid-fire style:

-While I was preaching the Gospel a man came by and yelled out in a demeaning tone: "Haven't you ever heard of Darwin?" I asked him what he did for a living. He told me he was a lawyer. I then told him I was a scientist, and if he wanted to talk about Darwin, then he should come over and have a chat with me. He declined.

-I had a great talk with brother Bob of the Open-Air Campaigners tonight. We don't associate ecclesiastically with the Campaigners because they are thoroughly Arminian, but still, I truly appreciate their zeal in presenting what they know of the Gospel of Jesus every Friday night. It was good to encourage and be encouraged. The Lord bless brother Bob and his group.

-I had a nice long Q&A session with two ladies tonight. They really wanted no part of the Gospel, they assured me of that much, but they did want to know more about what I was doing and why I was doing it. We had a pretty good conversation and I pray that the Lord will use our discussion to either save these ladies, or deal with someone else through their "Christian education" tonight.

-In the middle of my second round of preaching, a very drunk, very high, and very agitated man came over wanting to "straighten me out". The effects of what he was on was so powerful, he was borderline violent. I knew if I didn't take charge of the conversation, if I didn't deal with him sternly, he would become a very big problem. So in the middle of his antics, I got right in his face and said: "my friend, if you died right now, you're going to go to Hell because you are a drunkard and a blasphemer." He tried to protest by claiming he was really a "good guy", but I told him that God's standard was higher than his, and that he needed to live his life God's way, not what he thought was "good enough". Our conversation lasted roughly 15 minutes, and by the end, the young man had settled down quite a bit. He told me he respected my beliefs and received one of my tracts (quite a turn-a-round... thank you Lord).

-The Lord gave me the opportunity to speak with Collin, the parking garage attendant, again. He has come to our meetings a couple of times now, but while he claims to be born-again, I see no evidence. I need the Lord to help me deal with Collin. He's a religious, nice guy, but I know that he hasn't given everything over to Christ. I know that he is still holding on to the world. I need wisdom to show this dear soul that he needs to seek the Lord with all his heart (Jeremiah 29:13).


That's the notes for tonight. Please, brothers and sisters-in-the Lord, continue to pray for pastor Tim and I; that the Lord would bless us in giving us utterance, a sound mind and love out of a pure heart in all of our evangelistic efforts. I would also appreciate your prayers for my daily walk with the Lord. I need some reviving, no doubt about it.

Hope you all enjoy the video clip of Pastor Tim's preaching.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism