<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:13)

Friday Night Notes

Saturday, June 12, 2010
good night of preaching... terrible week...


Now that was one spectacularly terrible week! Am I ever glad it's coming to an end. Good friends of ours have announced they may be moving several hours away, a total disaster at my workplace and Pearl, a dear sister-in-the-Lord, lost her unborn baby. I must admit, I approached tonight's street preaching endeavour with a really heavy heart, but the Lord refreshed me and helped me by giving me a relatively easy night of evangelism.

Very little cursing and mocking toward us tonight, and a number of saints were in the marketplace tonight, many of them giving us a "thumbs up", or an "Amen!", or a "God bless you!" It was nice to not feel so alone out there.

The few souls that opposed themselves to our preaching didn't stick around very long, or we were actually able to show them their error(s). One young man, for example, walked up to me and claimed that among other things, the Lord would forgive everyone (including the devil), that Charles Manson was the devil (not a devil, but the devil himself), and that the Lord was returning very soon to give the Earth to Africans (because "the last will be first"). I'll admit I let out a long sigh before I answered his strange doctrines. The shocking thing is this: after I made end of my long list of corrections, the young man said:

"Wow... you really know your stuff! I'm not saying I agree with everything you said, but thanks for stating your point of view."

Another man, claiming to be a complete atheist came by and told me he admired my "guts" in preaching the Gospel in the marketplace. We spoke for a few minutes about what he thought of the Bible, and the gist of what he said was this: he thought that following the Bible when it comes to human-to-human interactions was really good and important, but he didn't have anytime for God or anything "super-natural". I told him that he had respect for the Second of the Greatest Commandments, but that he was missing the all important First! I encouraged the young man to read and study God's Word... it could make him wise unto salvation.

Moments later, I spoke to a man named Mike, a nominal Romanist who recognized the problems (both doctrinal and practical) with Romanism, but didn't know what to do or where to go. Pastor Tim often brings with him a booklet which spells out the dangers of Romanism and teaches the reader the real Gospel and what it is to be genuinely saved. So I quickly fetched that booklet from the good preacher and gave it to Mike. I encouraged him to study the booklet carefully and to start seeking God in the Bible. I hope he will.

Finally, I had a sad/funny conversation with a young woman as I was preparing to leave the market for the night. The young lady (which had way too much metal attached to her face) asked me if she asked God to forgive her of her sins, would she be okay? As in, clean slate. Perceiving that the young woman wasn't interested in repentance, but rather, a quick fix, I challenged her with the following question:

"Imagine you are married, and you apologize to your husband for something really bad you did. Now imagine that just two short days later, you did the exact same evil and sinned against your husband. Tell me, what was your apology worth in such an instance?"

The young lady's answer: "I got to go."

Lord have mercy.


With that, I close the notes, dear readers. Have a blessed weekend... the Lord bless you all!

Rand

Labels: