Friday Night Notes

two, mostly quiet preachers...

What a strange night of... well... I don't know if I should even call it "street preaching". It was definitely a night of evangelism, but very little preaching got done.

Pastor Tim is giving his vocal cords another 2 weeks to completely recover from that nasty infection that plagued more than a month ago. So the actual street preaching was up to me again tonight. Thing is, around lunch time today, I started coughing. Nothing serious, but a nagging, incessant cough nonetheless. By the time 7pm came around, I was getting worried. My throat felt swollen and I could definitely see how it was going to cramp my preaching ability. By the grace of God (and probably a bit of my own obstinence), I managed to preach the Gospel for about an hour; the first hour pastor Tim and I spent in the market.

Then my voice was completely extinguished. I could hardly even speak softly with souls that came to talk to me. I was a bit annoyed... okay, I was really annoyed... but we were still able to give out Bible literature and hold up our Bible signs in a very busy marketplace. Thousands of souls read our signs and a fair number of sinners took some literature with them. The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit. To Him be the glory.

There are nights when a preacher really feels and sees the spiritual war taking place in our fallen world. Tonight was one such night for me. Unable to speak, I was able to just quietly consider the state of the lost all around me. To get a sense of life in, as John Bunyan put it, the City of Destruction. It's a city filled with revelry, folly, vanity, hopelessness and desperateness. I sometimes wish I could shake people out of their state of spiritual death, yell out to wake them from their slumber of death... but I know better. So I continued on doing the one thing that save men out of destruction: evangelism and prayer. Basically, I looked to God to do what He willed.

A man called me a hypocrite tonight. I was walking across a street corner with my Bible sign and he yelled from his car: "You're a hypocrite Bible-man!" I few thoughts came into my mind. I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. My first thought was: "Why, yes, yes I am. In more ways than one, I am a hypocrite." My second thought was: "I wonder if my accuser is innocent of this sin?"

Moments later, a woman at the back of a very long limousine rolled down the window just to blaspheme the Name of Christ. "F%$# Jesus!" she screamed repeatedly. This sad sight reminded me of an incident that took place at my workplace a few years ago. An irritable and backbiting co-worker of mine came into the lab I was working in to complain about another workmate. Trying to keep the peace and not wanting to be guilty of gossip, I just let the person curse and insult our co-worker without interjecting anything, or joining in any way. That was a wise move. Our colleague was just behind one of our instruments, he had walked in quietly, none of us had heard him come in. I'll always remember the look of embarrassment and culpability on the gossips face when she was found out.

Can you imagine what that poor woman will feel like when she realizes that the Lord was there present, as she cursed His Holy Name?

I dealt with a young man for several minutes tonight. Never got his name. I wish I could have conversed with him more easily/effectively, but well, you know... . I don't know if any good will come of our small chat, but we covered a number of topics concerning the faith and he was definitely respectful of my positions. Hope the Lord will do something good in the man's life.

That's the Notes for tonight, dear readers. I have a busy weekend ahead. Please pray for me. I need good health for the coming weeks. I need the Holy Spirit to help me prepare a few sermons. I need the Lord to give me courage and strength... the market can be a very intimidating place when it gets busy in the spring/summer seasons.

Good night, dear saints.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism