Friday Night Notes

the devil's masterful work...

Before making my way downtown for our Friday night of evangelism, I was reading about the "report" on "reasonable accommodations", which has received a whole lot of press in Quebec. Two aspects of this report caught my attention. Number one: it took a panel of well 'edumacated' professionals months to arrive to the "let's move on" conclusion. No doubt that was tax money well spent... cough... cough. Number two: when asked to remove a crucifix from the provincial legislature, Premier Charest said, and I'm paraphrasing since I heard this on the radio: "these relics are historical, they USE to mean something, but they don't mean the same thing today." They use to mean something. Wow. That pretty much sums up what has happened to Christianity in Canada, and our night of evangelism only confirmed this assessment.

I was in absolute awe tonight at the major victory the devil has pulled in my city, and by extension, in my country. We preached the Gospel of Jesus, we presented Bible verses on signs, we offered Bible tracts, but by in large, what we got as a response was looks of indignation and mockery. In the eyes of the vast majority, the Gospel is something that once meant something to an "unenlightened" society, a superstition which died somewhere in the 1960's; which means that we are perceived as dim witted simpletons who are stuck in some sort of ancient philosophy. Dear readers, I know that many of you have no idea just how heartbreaking it is to see this vast majority, believing themselves to be wise and enlightened, and yet be so obviously foolish and in complete darkness.

I dealt with a man tonight who claimed to be a believer. He told me that the Lord had "saved" him when he was a young boy. The man is a panhandling drunkard. I told him that the Lord never saved him and that he was serving the devil. He angrily asked me how I could declare this with such certainty, so I answered: "A month ago, we had a conversation and you admitted you were a drunkard. Those who are under the bondage of the bottle, are under the bondage of Satan. If Jesus had saved you, you wouldn't be serving the bottle/devil." This reply was so concise and logical, the man didn't have a single argument to offer against this wisdom. Yet, he walked away to beg for more money, for the next bottle.

Moments later a young man interrupted my preaching to pridefully declare that he was an atheist, as if this was some sort of diplomatic immunity against divine judgment. I told the young man that one day, he would definitely believe in God. He swore he would not. I said: "My poor friend, the day will come when you will stand before the Living God at His judgment. On that day, I very much doubt you will be able to deny God's existence." I know these words rattled him somewhat, but a couple of seconds is all it took for him to harden his heart and walk away mocking.

Then there were the Muslims and the Romanist. What a mess. Right there before me were three Muslims all claiming to have some sort of relationship with Allah, yet all of them were in the marketplace, out for a "good time" along with the heathen. None of them having any measurable righteousness or any true faithfulness to their religion, but still, somehow they were alright spiritually. I tried my best to show them that they were following a false god which only existed in their own vain minds.

"You aren't Muslims," I said, "for if you were Muslims, you wouldn't be here tonight participating in all the nonsense that is here in this marketplace. You are unfaithful at your own false religion, and to make matters worse, you just sink down deeper by creating another false god, this one more carnal than Allah."

They didn't like my assessment of their faith in the least, but it was pretty difficult for them to argue effectively against it. That's when a Romanist, who had stopped by to hear what the fuss was all about, piped up and said: "we Catholics believe that whenever people of different faiths argue with one another, God isn't in it." Oh dear. I just had to raise my head up to Heaven and just sigh at the nonsense. I asked the Romanist whether the apostle Paul was then vainly wasting his time when he argued with Pharisees and heathen idolators on his missionary trips, and his answer was: "well, Paul was a man, you know...". That's when I ended the conversation. There is only so much nonsense I can take.

To cap off our miserable night of street preaching, we dealt with a young man we had spoken to a few weeks ago. The young man professes to be a Christian. He can recite, by heart, tons of Scripture. He definitely understands salvation by faith in Christ alone. All this said, the man won't work. Let me be clear here: it's not that he can't work. He just plain won't work. So, he goes around downtown, just like a drunkard panhandler, begging for money. We have tried on several occasions to show him, from the Scriptures, that the apostles worked and that we are even given this very specific instruction:

"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

To no avail. The young man claimed to know the mind of God better than us and affirmed that for him to work, pay rent, buy food... etc... is akin to being worldly. Oh dear.

So... mockers, scorners, fake Muslims, fake Christians and really, really messed up Christians. What a night. I'm going to bed now. The Lord use our evangelistic effort as He sees fit. I trust we glorified Him.

Have a good weekend and a blessed Lord's Day, dear readers.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism