Friday Night Notes

as bad as a Muslim terrorist...

Another cold night of street preaching in the books. Snow was all gone, but there is no doubt, winter is revving up. Despite the chilly temperature, the marketplace was busier tonight than its been for a number of weeks now. No doubt, Christmas get-togethers and parties will keep the market busy for the next few weeks.

Got my evangelism partner back tonight. Pastor Tim's work schedule finally eased up this week, so he was able to come out with me for three solid hours of street evangelism. After 3-4 weeks, the good preacher was clearly a bit rusty! He needed his little amplifier when he preached the Gospel... his voice was/is out of shape.

We didn't give out too many Bible tracts tonight; I didn't hand out anywhere near the number I gave out last week. I did have a few conversations with sinners, but none of them showed any promise. Here are a few examples:



1- A young man came by and told me that he knew there was a God, and that he should be serving him, but found himself always chasing after sin. I quoted James 1:8 to him and while he agreed with the statement, he quickly went back to his pity party. He did his best to show me how difficult it was for him to follow the Lord, to which I replied:

"Have you been spending any time in God's Word?"

"Well, just a bit," the man replied.

"God's not going to speak to you directly, my friend," I began. "If you want God to show you the good and right way, and be your "help and exceeding great reward", you'll have to read the Bible."

To that, the young man contradicted me, claiming that God had and would continue to reveal Himself to him supernaturally, minus Bible-study. He then began to explain to me how he's had visions of God, and special revelations. By this point, I had given up on the conversation. The man walked away annoyed that I didn't buy his folly.

2- Two men, obviously under the influence of alcohol, interrupted my preaching with a variety of questions. One of the men was quite aggressive and I was beginning to worry that things would get out of hand. Thankfully, his friend was far calmer and respected my efforts; he began to defend me and at numerous times he rebuked his buddy's aggressiveness. In the end the calmer one of the two took a Bible tract and thanked me for my work. The other just walked away bitterly.

3- Dealt with a disgruntled pseudo-Muslim. I say pseudo-Muslim because while he claimed to believe in Islam, he was distributing invitations to a hip-hop dance club. He first charged me with being a brainwashed, militant fundamentalist, no better than the men who were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When I asked him if he really, really believed that my offering Bible literature and preaching repentance and faith was on par with killing 3000 people in the name of Allah, he backed down somewhat.

He then changed tactics. He encouraged me to put away the Bible signs and literature and "go out and find a woman." I promptly told him that I had a wife, and four kids to boot! The man was floored, only being able to offer a "really?" I finally tried to reason with the man, telling him that instead of making wild assumptions about me or my motivations, perhaps it'd be best if he gave me and my message a fair hearing. Sadly, he wasn't interested, though he did shake my hand in the end, and walked away. The Lord have mercy.



It was a pretty rough night, all and all. Some of our Bible signs were kicked to the ground repeatedly, we were mocked, and there was plenty of backbiting going on. Can't say any of it really phased me tonight. I guess I'm toughening up some.

Regardless, the Lord be magnified and glorified by our work.

Have a blessed weekend, dear readers.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism