Canada Day

as well as it could go... under the circumstances...

And that ladies and gentlemen, marks the end of another Canada Day street preaching endeavour. I'm thank the Lord that He gave me the ability and will to go out there a proclaim the Gospel of Jesus for a good 7-8 hours; that said, I'm really glad that's over.

While our weekly street preaching endeavours can be seen as "end-of-the-week, final pushes", our customary day of evangelism on Canada Day (Canada's version of the 4th of July) is more like an 8-hour marathon. No breaks, no distractions, just preaching the Gospel and handing out Gospel tracts all day. I thank God for his sustaining hand on us today, and that He undoubtedly, as He did for Job, set a hedge around us. Today was a safe and unhindered day of street preaching.

We had to deal with all sorts of weather, but thing never really got out of hand. There was a nasty little wind that made it difficult for us to walk around with our Gospel signs, but again, the Lord strengthened and helped us. It also rained twice this afternoon, but on both occasions, the rain only lasted a few minutes. My tracts hardly got wet. Thanks be to God.

We didn't have too many one-on-one conversations with the lost today. Don't really know why, just turned out that way I guess. I had a long conversations with a gang of ungodly young people. They did their best to portray me as an idiot, but I kept my cool and answered their folly calmly and intelligently. They eventually got tired of wickedness and left. Interesting thing happened after however: one of the young men in the group separated from the gang and walked back to me...

"Excuse me, sir. I just wanted to apologize for how my friends treated you. It wasn't right and I didn't like it."

"That's alright," I replied, "don't worry about it. I would, however, like to share the following warning, my friend. It's worthy on serious consideration..."

"What's that?" the young man inquired.

"Evil company corrupt good manners," I replied.

The young man agreed with assessment and promised he would not allow himself to become so wicked and vile. I hope he's right. The Lord be merciful to him.

It was just pastor Tim and I out there today representing our church so we probably didn't hand out as many Bible tracts as we have in the past (when there was 4-6 of us), but we did hand out a fair number nonetheless. People from all walks of life would read the Bible signs we were carrying (you can see a couple of them in the above picture), and then would take a tract from us if they were at all interested in the Gospel. I was surprised to see just how many souls extended their hands to us after reading our signs, desiring some literature. The Lord use His Word as He sees fit.

On a couple of occasions, Christians came by to encourage us, though to be honest, many of them ended up either annoying me or disappointing me. You see, a number of the believers who came by to see me today weren't doing any type of evangelism, despite the hundreds of thousands of lost souls surrounding them. The bulk of them were downtown to go to worldly shows and concerts; quite literally, out playing with the world. It boggles my mind how a fellow brother or sister-in-the-Lord can walk by those who are labouring for the Gospel sakes and continue on their way to vanity and sin. I had one brother tell me that what I was doing was "bang-on", "awesome", and "of the Lord"... yet, when I suggested that believers everywhere were commanded to "go out into the world and preach the Gospel", the response I got was on par with "what are you crazy!" and "not for me!".

Another thing somewhat downed me today. As we were making our way home this evening, pastor Tim said something like: "well, things went about as well as they could go." I know what he meant and I probably shouldn't read anything into it, but I can't help but find it terribly disappointing that after 8 hours of evangelism, with little to no signs of salvation of sanctification to report, that we should conclude that "things went about as well as they could go." We were kept safe. Yes. We were allowed to preach unhindered. Yes. Those are good things, I acknowledge it. But I think you all understand, my brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord, I would put up with a lot of aggravation and hardship to be used of the Lord in the salvation of men, the revival of His church, the awakening of my community/city/country. I wish that "us doing well" was more than just "we didn't get clocked or fined today."

Well... I trust the Lord was magnified and exalted by our efforts today. To Him be the glory, honour and majesty, forever and ever. Amen.

I don't think I'll be going out preaching tomorrow night, I have a number of things to take care of at home. If I do go however, I'll be sure to post my usual Friday Night Notes.

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


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism