Friday Night Notes

finally back to the preaching routine...

It had been awhile. The Holidays, various trips away from home and illness all contributed to a poor attendance on my part for our weekly street evangelism. It felt right being at our preaching spot in the marketplace. I thank the Lord my God for giving me both the ability and the will to be out there tonight, preaching the marvelous, wondrous Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I was surprised just how many things had changed in the market in just a few weeks. A popular little clothing store near our preaching spot was closed down, and the restaurant right in front of our preaching spot was closed for renovations (looks like they will be doing some serious work in there). Both these closures, no doubt, contributed to a quieter night of evangelism; that and the winter cold!

The night started out pretty well. I had a long conversation with a young man named Benjamin, a Romanist who, at first, was concerned for my well-being; he asked if I was keeping warm in the cold winter air. After reassuring him that I was well equipped to take the cold, he asked me about how my faith differed from Romanism. I pointed out the major differences: salvation by faith alone, worshipping in spirit, the priesthood of all believers, and holding the Bible as the sole rule for faith and practice. After expounding on all these, I get the feeling Benjamin was quite undone. He clearly seemed overwhelmed by the information I offered him. He accepted a tract and I invited him to attend our church service on the Lord's Day. I hope he takes me up on my offer.

At around 9pm, Pastor Tim took over the preaching duties and I took a walk to another street corner to hand out Gospel tracts. About 5 minutes later, I took a peak down the street to make sure the good preacher was safe and well. Imagine my horror and shock when I saw two police cruisers parked right in front of our preaching spot. I quickly made my way to Pastor Tim, only to find him having a friendly conversation with a police officer. Both were having a grand old time!

Turns out the police officer was an acquaintance of Pastor Tim's. When I asked about the officer to Pastor Tim, he replied: "Years ago, a man attacked me while I was preaching. Just as things were getting really out of hand, that officer appeared out of nowhere, grabbed my assailant, cuffed him and took him away. Since then, we've been great friends!"

After those two warm exchanges, like the weather, things got pretty frosty. The few favorable responses we got were questionable at best, and then there were the unfavorable/unsavoury responses. One young lady told me to "*$%# off" when I kindly offered her a tract. Then there was a steady stream of blasphemies (towards God) and mockeries (towards us). Despite all this, however, no one threatened us directly, no one harmed us. Praise God! Even our Bible signs nearly made it all night without being kicked to the ground. With five minutes to go in our 3 hour street preaching endeavour, a wicked young lady pushed our Romans 6:23 sign down to the ground. The Lord have mercy on her foolish soul.

While it was pretty quiet downtown tonight, both Pastor Tim and I handed out a good number of tracts, and hundreds of souls heard something of the Word of God tonight. The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit, and may He be glorified.

Lord willing, I will be at my post next week... thanks again, dear readers, for keeping up with my preaching escapades... and please dear saints of God, remember to pray for my health...

Very Sincerely,

Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism