Friday Night Notes

human garbage???


Well, it's Friday night, and for this child of God, that means it's street preaching night. Pastor Tim and I made our way to the same spot in the marketplace, with the same message: repentance to God. The response, for the most part was the usual. That is, mockery and scorn. That said, through our efforts, several souls have Bible literature with them and many have heard something of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

All and all though, it was another quiet night; the pubs and bars weren't by any means full tonight. Praise God. That will probably change as we get closer to Christmas and the wicked start their shopping sprees and planning "Christmas parties". You can count on the unconverted to use any excuse to do evil; and when it comes to doing evil, there is no place like the marketplace.

We didn't exactly "feel the love" tonight. While we heard "God bless you" from a few souls, we were treated to some pretty nasty words. One man, a shop owner, came out of his store twice, to make sure we knew what he thought of us. In a thick French accent, he said:

"You preachers are garbage. Human garbage. Why don't you go to Iraq or Afghanistan with the other garbage."

Then there was a young woman who was begging for money. When we refused to feed her addiction(s), she lashed out at us with this charge:

"You guys are probably a couple of sick pedophiles."

And finally, there was a drunk fool who yelled out that my whole life was meaningless. All his friends got a good laugh at my expense. The Lord forgive them.

We did have some profitable conversations. Nothing that looked like the salvation of the Lord, but a few chats that might be the beginning of something good for some souls. I spoke with a man about the error of the Jehovah's Witness and he was very appreciative of my insight. Pastor Tim dealt with a young woman named Roxanne, who was and is in quite a mess. She is living in a shelter and her life is obviously in turmoil. Pastor Tim shared the Gospel with her and she paid close attention. Her head was bowed the whole time and she responded very earnestly to Pastor Tim's words.

It was a real treat to watch Pastor Tim deal with this young lady. The scene reminded me of a poster we had in the lab where I work. It was a picture of a bear and her cub tucked against her belly. The caption under this image was: Unprecedented Power and Sensitivity. You see, pastor Tim, in a way, is very much like the bear in that picture. Decades of street evangelism has made him tough and strong in the face of all sorts of adversity; and yet, this battle hardened preacher still has the ability to show sincere and tender sensitivity when dealing with souls in trouble. I pray the Lord will teach me to be such an effective evangelist one day, and I pray for Roxanne's soul.

Finally, I had a big downer tonight. I think I messed up in my dealings with a man who came by to thank me for preaching the Gospel. We had a nice talk, but it became evident that while he claimed to be a saved man, well, I just don't think he was a saved man. I believe he was a somewhat religious man, but that's about it. Despite this gut feeling, I never addressed my concerns to the man. I just went along with our nice conversation until the man left with a smile on his face. When he left I thought to myself:

"This man probably needed to leave you grieved, like the rich young ruler. Instead, he left thinking that all was well with his soul and that we are both 'brothers'."

Anyway, the man did take a Bible tract. I pray that if my gut feeling was correct, that the Lord would use that tract to get the man thinking about his true spiritual condition. The Lord be merciful to him and may He teach this poor excuse for a preacher to deal more prudently and earnestly with souls that come to him.

With that, I close the notes for tonight. Tomorrow is another evangelistic effort, so I need to get to bed. Tomorrow is the Mammon Parade (aka: the Santa Clause parade).

I'll keep you posted.

God bless you all, dear readers.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism