Friday Night Notes

one for the powers of darkness...

It was a tough end to a tough week. A number of setbacks throughout the day had me tied up in the lab until 8pm, which means I was over an hour late for street evangelism. When I finally caught up with Pastor Tim downtown, I noticed someone had knocked down one of our Bible signs (seen here). I suppose it was a foreshadowing of how our night of evangelism would go.

As I put the sign back up, I realized that it was our John 3:16 sign. That really struck me. It wasn't the usual 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign which often generates anger because it reminds the wicked that their actions are sinful, and those sins will be punished. No, now it's John 3:16 that gets tossed.

It's getting bad out there.

We struggled all night with adversaries who drove us from our preaching spots. A wicked beggar with his awful guitar playing, a deranged man who yelled out obscenities at everyone he laid eyes on, and an employee of a nearby bakery all took turns at mocking and disturbing us to the point we had to walk away. On a couple of occasions, both Pastor Tim and I wanted to stand up for ourselves and show a little fight, but the Holy Spirit kept us from such folly. Not always easy this business of not rewarding evil with more evil.

Nevertheless, we soldiered on. We endured the cold (as frigid wind blew into town around 9pm... it was pretty nasty), tried to not pay any mind at the laughter/obscenities, and preached the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We handed out a fair number of Bible tracts, and a couple of Christians did come by to encourage us, which is always much appreciated. The Lord use our efforts for His honour and glory, and may he richly bless those who blessed us tonight.

Rand's tough-guy moment of the night: a drunk homosexual that Pastor Tim and I have often dealt with in the past walked past the good preacher as he was teaching. I could tell he was eyeing one of our Bible signs to do some damage, so I made haste and stood next to the sign. When the wicked soul took hold of the sign to knock it down, I swiftly pulled it out of his grasp. He never saw me coming... his shocked look was priceless. He then told me that our sign was in the way, and that if I didn't remove it, he would call the police. I said: "Go for it." He then pulled out his phone, and pretended to look for the number, but after a few seconds he realized I wasn't at all intimidated. He walked away quite annoyed.

Lord have mercy on him.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism