Friday Night Notes

a sense of dread...

I get a nasty feeling that pastor Tim and I were preachers unto condemnation tonight. While we never know what the Lord will do, there really isn't much of anything positive to report. We were mocked, cursed, and grumbled at repeatedly by pretty much everyone we dealt with. Despite all this negativity, I preached the Gospel for the glory of my God, and I was blessed.

There were an unusually high number of homosexuals in the marketplace. There must have been some kind of gathering/festival for them because there numbers were quite larger than usual. No one hates us more than the sodomites. I mean the lude, vile, disgusting insults they come up with... it's quite an ungodly talent! What's hilarious is that often, after serving us a good portion of insults and curses, they cap their diatribes with: "You're so hateful!"

I had a chance to share a few words with a young homeless lady tonight. I've seen her around now for a few weeks, and I had been meaning to share the Gospel with her, but she would never give me any time (always too busy begging for money for her next fix). Well tonight, probably under the influence of some kind of illicit drug, she came to me and said:

"So, you want to buy me dinner?"

"No," I answered quickly, "I don't want to invest in your misery. You realize that you're killing yourself on these streets, right? I've seen lots of young ladies over the years, in your exact situation, and none of them lasted too long. You know what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I know," she replied, "but I don't really care, I've almost died once before... no biggie."

"If you had died," I began, "or if you were to die tonight, what do you think would happen to your soul?"

"I've already thought about that," she answered while rolling her eyes at me. "I'm all good."

With that, the young lady left, still somewhat insulted that I would not buy her dinner at one of the restaurants. I tried to continue the conversation, to keep her from going away, but she would have nothing of what I had to offer. The Lord have mercy on this poor soul.

Collin dropped by again tonight. No change with him. Please, brothers and sisters, continue to pray that the Lord would truly convert him and give him life, eternal life.

I was really affected by the plight of my audience tonight. While being sorely mocked by a group of sodomites, I prayed that the Lord would give me a right spirit to both endure and show genuine love to these men, and the people of the market at large. It was then that I had this thought:

There is surely a man out here tonight who will trade away a chance at eternal life and godly peace for a cheap punch line at my expense to impress his ungodly friends. This man will go on through life avoiding the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ like the pest, and whenever faced with it, he will continue to blaspheme, curse and mock. He'll justify himself by claiming that the preachers are stupid/hateful/crooked/hypocrite and therefore, merit the full extent of his contempt. He will live his life this way, and then he'll die.

Much to his shock, he will awaken in agony. He won't understand what it is going on. He'll think he's in Hell, and he will blaspheme against God, claiming that the Lord did wrong by him. He'll wonder how he could be in this terrible place without having had the chance to defend himself in the presence of God. He'll then put away such questioning and look anywhere for relief, but he will find none.

After what will seem like thousands of years without rest or relief from the flames, he will be called out of Hades and his spirit will be joined to an indestructible body. At first, in his ignorance, he may think that the Lord "came to His senses" and was finally going "to do right by him". His hopes will quickly be dashed when he realizes that he, as a guilty sinner, will now be judged before a Holy God. This is where the poor man will get a terrible sense of dread; he will be all too aware of the mountain of evidence against him. Every wicked thought, word and act... all of them, right there in the open.

The verdict will be swift and just: GUILTY. The man at this point will be beside himself. Just the thought of going back to the flame will send him into uncontrollable distress. He'll cry out: "But that's not fair, I'm a good person... I've made some mistakes, but nobody's perfect... I just didn't know anything about this, no one told me!"

The man will then be ushered into the Lake of Fire, Hell. He will be tormented both spiritually (like in Hades), and physically... forever. Adding to his torments will be the terrible thought of the day he turned his chance at godly peace and eternal life into a cheap punchline at the expense of a Gospel preacher, to impress his ungodly friends.

Those of you who think that this thought is some sort of hope for retribution, let me assure you, it's not. What this thought did for me out there tonight, was remind me of just how hollow and meaningless the cursing and mockery of the wicked are; they truly are nothing to get worked up about. When one considers the true plight of the unregenerate, it is near impossible to feel anything else but a deep sadness for them.

The Lord forgive all them who were vile toward us tonight.

The Lord have mercy.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism