Friday Night Notes

we truly are... a curious bunch...



The market was pretty busy for a cool October night.  Pastor Tim and I were out again for our night of open-air evangelism, and we ministered the Gospel to lots of lost sinners.  I didn't hand out a lot of Gospel tracts considering the numbers of people that walked by me, but I did have a good number of one-on-one conversations with sinners.

I spoke to a Frenchman by the name of Jean-François, a Romanist who had visited a number of different churches, both Romanist and Protestant.  He seemed to have some knowledge of Scripture, and a genuine interest in the faith, albeit in a very academic way.  He definitely was quite curious about our faith and practice; I would even go so far as to say that he was rather impressed at our devotion to God.  I shared the Gospel with Jean-François for a good 20-25 minutes, stressing his need to be born-again, and to cling to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He took a Gospel tract from me and thanked me before walking away.

I also spoke to a young lady, who while quite intoxicated, wanted to hear me speak of my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and why I spent my Friday night evangelizing.  I shared the Gospel with her and explained that my evangelism was my "reasonable service":

"God has been real good to me over the years," I said.  "He saved me from a destructive life in the here and now, and he saved my soul from Hell.  Obedience to His commandment to "go out and preach the Word" is the least I can do!"

The young lady was impressed with the logic and beauty of my reasoning.  She also accepted a Gospel tract and eventually walked away with a boyfriend who didn't seem to pleased that she had been speaking with me.  The Lord be merciful to them both.

Right after this conversation, I watched a small group of Muslim women walk by our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign.  They were covered from the tip of their toes to the tip of their heads, like the more fundamentalist Muslim women dress.  What I found interesting is, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 would agree with Islamic teachings, yet the women all laughed at the verse and thought it was a pretty silly statement.  Covered from head-to-toe... a semblance of religious faithfulness... and yet, no faith whatsoever was demonstrated.  Sad.

Before leaving for home, after three hours of evangelism, I spoke to a couple of French-Canadians who wanted to know more about the Faith and why I preached the Gospel in the market.  It was a good conversation, and both men were surprised at how reasonable I was.  They both realized after just a few minutes that I wasn't some poor dope who got brainwashed by a "weird cult".  We all shook hands, they took some Gospel literature and wished me well.

A lot of good conversations tonight.  There was a fair bit of nonsense also, but I don't feel like dwelling on that tonight.  Sometimes, it's just too depressing to think about.  You'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't be) by all the nonsense people have convinced themselves of, through the influence of television shows, or the ungodly articles of wicked men.  They come to me often, thinking themselves to be great authorities in matters of faith because they read something by Richard Dawkins or seen some fictional Hollywood movie.  Again, its all pretty pathetic.

The Lord have mercy on my city and country.


Rand