Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:13)
Friday Night Notes
Saturday, November 25, 2006
welcome to the carnival...The marketplace had three preachers tonight as brother Laz was once again able to join my pastor and I. This cold November night was by far one of the "wackiest" nights of street preaching I've experienced. Everyone of us found ourselves dealing with people who, for a lack of a better term, were kind of odd. Examples:
My odd encounter:A deranged man walked up to me as I was preaching and criticized my preaching. Now I'm not saying the man was deranged because he criticized me, I'm saying he was deranged because of the manner by which he criticized me. First, the man was EXTREMELY agitated. He literally trembled. Second, the man slurred his words... alot. I definitely smelled a whole lot of booze on his breath, but I don't think his problem was merely drunkenness. Rather, the man seemed, well, deranged.
"You shouldn't be condemning people," the man angrily said, "you should be offering bread to the hungry, not throwing stones at them!"
"Show me a hungry man, my friend, and I'll buy him a lunch," I calmly replied.
"They're everywhere!" the deranged man shouted angrily.
"Show me one," I calmly replied.
Unable to spot anyone in need of any kind of sustenance, the man became increasingly agitated. With a trembling voice, he started charging me with being an evil, self-glorifying hypocrite.
"Why are you so agitated, my friend?" I politely asked. "Just calm down and tell me, do I know you?"
"No, you don't know me," he answered sternly.
"Do you know me?" I asked.
"No, and I don't want to know you," he answered pridefully.
"Fair enough," I answered, "but then, why are YOU the one coming to me, and if you don't know me, how can you claim with any certainty that I am guilty of any of the charges you are laying against me?"
At this point, the man was clearly muddled, and his confusion just caused him to go further off the deep end. He started biting his finger
(yes, he actually repeatedly bit his finger... it was quite a sight), and charged me with playing mind games with him
(apparently, I've learned the "old Jedi mind trick"). He then walked away screaming obscenities at me, and I thanked the Lord for being delivered from this harsh, unstable fellow.
"There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked." (Isaiah 48:22)Brother Laz's TWO odd encounters:The first came from a small group of charismatics that came by to speak to brother Laz as he was preaching. This small crew actually walked out of a limousine to chat with Laz. Sadly though, encouragement was not in their plans. Instead, these charismatics wanted to pray for Laz to evangelize in a more "loving way"; the whole "repent and believe or you will perish in you sin" thing really wasn't doing it for them.
So here's my poor brother-in-the-Lord, surrounded by these hypocrites who were out partying, having to listen to their vain prayer in which they of course, asked the Lord to give him some sort of "show-y gift" and to teach him to preach a more "positive" message.
I can't remember hearing brother Laz breathe a louder sigh of relief than when those charismatics left.
The second crazy encounter brother Laz had was with Presbyterian minister. This priest of Baal actually had the nerve to declare he was a minister of God, and at the same time rebuke brother Laz's evangelism technique.
"You should go to restaurants with friends and acquaintances instead, and try to speak to them about the Lord," he said.
I don't know if the Presbyterian church in Canada still have
the book of Acts in the Bible, but if they do... I know one of their ministers who might want to spend a little more time studying it.
Pastor Tim's odd encounter:Two young men came by to speak to my pastor as he was walking around with the Gospel sign
(probably trying to keep warm). Both men introduced themselves as Christians who had gone to
St. Stephens University, a "Bible school" in New Brunswick. At first my pastor accepted their claim, but as they talked for awhile, my pastor became more and more perplexed by their bizarre claims and ideas. Somewhere in the conversation, my pastor inquired:
"Is Jesus Christ God?"
The two men wouldn't answer the question directly. They said Jesus was the Son of God, but wouldn't commit themselves by saying, either way, whether Jesus was actually God. At this point, my pastor realized these two young men were definitely not saved.
"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son." (1 John 2:22)At this point, my pastor questions like:
"Are you guys born-again?"
"Do you believe every word of the Bible? Is it the literal Word of God?"
"What makes you Christians?"
Their answers made it clear that they played philosophy with the Scriptures. They denied the inspiration of the Bible, and their concept of what makes a Christian a Christian was faith in... faith. If you don't understand this, dear brothers and sisters, you are not alone. They downplayed the importance of faith in Christ alone, replacing it with just having some faith. At this point, my pastor just let it all out:
"Guys," he began, "let me be clear with the two of you: there isn't ONE CHRISTIAN MOLECULE inside you. You have both been indoctrinated by a school system that have made you 100% unbelievers. The Bible speaks of you when it speaks of some souls who
"ever learn and are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy 3:7)The two men got pretty angry at this point, so we put an end to the conversation. In the end, they were quite content in philosophizing with the Scriptures and making them say whatever made sense to them, and so long as they are comfortable doing this, the Holy Spirit isn't doing anything for them.
Before I close the notes, I want to mention a few sweeter moments. I spoke with two men who are just about as low as one can go, I mean they are completely wasted by drugs and alcohol, but they listened to the Gospel tonight. They were both quite respectful and I promised them I would pray for them. Would you join me in praying for George and Noel?
I also dealt with three young ladies. All of them were quite respectful, but two out of the three weren't all that interested in the Gospel. One of them, though, was quite kind and attentive. She asked me when we met for church, and thanked me for sharing the Gospel with her. Was the Lord doing something there? I truly hope so.
And with that, I'm off to bed. I apologize for the lack of blogging these past few weeks, things have been busy and I just can't find enough time to post things that I feel would truly glorify God and be a blessing to you all, dear readers. I hope to have things back to normal in the next few weeks.
Keep me in your prayers, dear saints of God...
Rand
12:40 AM
As i read your blogs on events of your street preaching I am saddened. All of the recollections you write are of people that are drunkards, hypocrites and atheists. Not only that but you are mocking them and their lack of "divine" knowledge. From what I've read you havn't said anything on anyone being saved and walking with the lord, or telling someone that you love them even in the state that they are currentley in. Rand, please take a step back and realizing what kind of message you are sending by saying these things to people. Not only are you not aiding them in any way... you are turning them off of any interest they had in Jesus to begin with. Please Rand, show love
Friend, you wouldnt know the Gospel if you tripped over it. And let me assure you that the school you are attending wont teach you what it is either.
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is, and has always been an offence to carnal men.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. ( 2 Peter 6-8 )
On top of that, those who actually repent and come to trust the Lord have and will always be few in number.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
Now caring nothing for the Bible, and not liking this whole concept of few being saved, a false professor/teacher such as yourself, tries to get away with broadening the way. You refuse to let the Gospel of Truth be an aroma of death unto death to those who are dying (2 Corinthians 2:16), so you make sinners feel good, IN THEIR SIN. Sinners then go on in rebellion against God, thinking that Jesus loves them anyway
all the way to Hell.
Sam, you are hypocrite and ignorant of the Way of Truth. Repent and believe on the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Open your Bible, ask God to reveal the truths therein to you, and prosper. The way you are on right now will only condemn you to everlasting fire.
I know this is hard to take. I know that your first instinct will be to claim Im a blind, hateful, conceited creep, but I assure you my friend, Im probably the best friend youve ever had. Your best friends are those who tell you the most Truth. It requires much love to stand against the continual waves of insults the wicked hurl at us and remain steadfast in giving them the only thing that can save them: the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope, I truly hope that the Lord will end up showing you as much grace and mercy as He has shown me
which I assure you is immeasurable!
Later,
rand, i am a student advisor at St Stephen's University and there's a couple things i'd like ot say in regards to your post.
i appreciate your boldness as you share that Jesus is Lord with people on the street.
it is a complicated and unsure to share with you a way in which i disagree with a point of view you take in this post.
i think there is a place for judgement but it is not with people, it is with God. our job is love and truth, mercy, peace and justice. and even those things can get grossly misdirected by our own grasping attempts to make them serve our ends and not God's ends. now i know you want God's ends and not your own, that is clear and i respect that.
But though Peter was rebuked as a neccesary part of his walk with Jesus, most of his time was spent being encouraged and taught by Jesus as a part of his community. Jesus walked with him on his journey, through his questions. even when Jesus says to Peter, 'get behind me satan!" (presumably worse than having 'not a christina molecule in your body) it is obvious that Peter can the next moment be very close to Jesus. so it is not as simple as saying 'Jesus is God' but in all our interactions seeking to be the incarnation of His power, His truth, His mercy.
telling people that they are not Christian because they question tenents of the Christian faith is simply not Christ-like. Jesus went after the manner of the religious, their disposition towards those with heavy loads already on them.
think about the people in our world, go on, think about them. think about the massive oppression they are under and they do not even know it. they don't know it rand! they are oblivious even though they are hit with Jesus stories since they are little kids. even those who are on the Christian journey must question their roots in order that they might pull out the bad ones, those molecules that are not of God.
i like your intial compassionate approach and i agree that many Christians i know simply have never met a street preacher and all they know is the horrible characatures they see on TV or the worse realities that we see on religious TV shows. i do however think your friend needs to give an apology to those students, perhaps over this sight, so that he does not remain in sin. we all do it but we must move away from accidentally tripping up those younger in the path of following Jesus, or the milestone will be for us.
peace of Christ
joel mason
community advisor, SSU
Joel,
SSU is an ungodly institute which forms agnostics, not Christians. This is proven by your website, by your comment, and the two students we dealt with a few weeks ago now.
"i think there is a place for judgement but it is not with people, it is with God."
Nonsense. Such a view makes Matthew 7:15-29 of absolute none effect.
"telling people that they are not Christian because they question tenents of the Christian faith is simply not Christ-like."
Nonsense. If there is no good fruit, there is no good tree. Your disposition is contrary to the example left by the Lord in Matthew 23, by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:7, by Peter in Acts 8, and Paul in 1 Timothy 1:20.
The "no-judgement" theology is a wicked, unbiblical theology.
"even those who are on the Christian journey must question their roots in order that they might pull out the bad ones, those molecules that are not of God."
Oh boy... Joel... you may be a very religious man, but you most certainly don't know the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joel, if a person is NOT born-again, they are NOT on "the Christian journey". And if one is born-again, such an one does NOT "question the tenets of the Christian faith". Why? Because:
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
"i do however think your friend needs to give an apology to those students..."
Oh dear, you'll have to do a far better job at convincing me of sin, my poor friend.
"peace of Christ"
"There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked." (Isaiah 48:22)
Repent and believe on the Gospel.
Consider these passages concerning judgment of others - in their context (KJV):
Matt. 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Matt. 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Matt. 7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
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Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Luke 6:36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
By the way, I think the expression, "peace of Christ," is a common farewell that is usually directed at the recipient not the sender. It appears as though your application of this verse would, therefore, be referring to you.
Ry,
Let me show you why you are not a Christian. Let me show you why you are NOT a Bible person:
First, you quote the first three verses of Matthew 7, but you refuse to consider these verses in light of Matthew 7:15-29. You quote Luke 6:35-37, but quit there. You don't quote Luke 6:43-49. Why do you do this? Because you care very little in understanding and obeying the Scriptures.
I am a Bible-believing, born-again Christian. I read and study the Bible. Not just part of the Bible. All of it. When I hit a difficult passage, I make every attempt to apply it, no matter how uncomfortable it may make me.
Case and point: You take the first three verses of Matthew 7, and that's "king" for you. You make Matthew 7:15-29 of complete none effect. I, on the other hand, consider both passages and apply both; which means, I do not judge with unrighteous judgment (such as judging according to race, social class, personality), but I do judge the spiritual fruit of men. I do this in order to recognize the true saint, from the wicked false teacher.
Ry, your type of "Christianity" is a dime-a-dozen. There really is no wonder why the church is so weak today, when we consider just how many of you there are filling "church" pews every Sunday. Beware Ry, your hypocrisy will one day be brought to light:
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." ( Revelation 3:15-18 )
Repent and believe in the Gospel (the whole Gospel) of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(and btw... I know all about "Peace of Christ" being a signature like "Blessings" and such... while I believe it is clear you wanted to scorn, I want to make sure all understood that what I wanted to express was that Joel knew nothing of the "Peace of Christ.)
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Saturday Afternoon Notes
Saturday, November 18, 2006
the mammon parade...
"And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks." (Acts 16:16-24)"After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. And the same time there arose no small stir about that way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen; whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre." (Acts 19:21-29)Both these passages in Scripture have the same theme: M-O-N-E-Y! In both cases, God's people got in trouble because the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ threatened the cash flow of the wicked. And wherever the Gospel is preached, this invariably happens. Why? Because the Truth is free, and it sets people free. From Romanism to Hinduism, and every false religion in between: there is a whole lot of money to be made! Whether it be for idols or indulgences, false teachings can almost always be found out by looking at the price tag.
Today, like the apostles of old, my pastor and I picked up our Gospel signs and headed to a parade devoted to the most popular false god in the West:
Mammon. What parade is this you ask?
The "Santa Clause Parade".
We walked several yards ahead of the parade, showing thousands of people (many of them young children) our Gospel signs which had the following verses on them:
John 3:16,
John 3:36 and the first part of
1 Timothy 1:15. For the most part, we were received with a good measure of respect. Many children asked their parents what was written on our signs, and many parents actually read the Scriptures to their children. Praise God!
The other blessing of our evangelistic effort was the sheer number of people who read the signs. There were thousands and thousands of families lined up on over 4 kilometers of road, all of them, at some point, having their eyes on verses from the Bible. Surely, some of these souls are God's elect...
Sadly though, our evangelistic effort wasn't only blessing. There was a few instances of persecution along the way. Most of our adversaries hated the fact that we were messing their commercialistic festival by bringing the Word of God. There is a whole lot more money to be made with Santa than with Jesus, that's for sure! I recall one of the organizers of the parade walking up to me, and in a very unimpressed tone, saying:
"What do you wish to accomplish by all this?"
"My hope is to remind these people that the greatest and most important gift in the world cannot be found in any shopping mall," I answered.
She had no reply. Other than that, there was the usual "you're stupid", "go home" and "you bleep-bleep-bleep", but thankfully, especially when one considers that there were many children around, these were few and far between.
Now I have to say... I'm pretty weary and tired. This week has been a pretty rough one, and all this work at the end of it really drained me down to nothing. Friday nights are pretty hard on me, emotionally. The hatred and continual mockery takes it's toll. So when I am called to pull a "double shift" (
so to speak), well, it's rough. I covet your prayers, dear saints.
Have a great Lord's Day,
Rand
6:09 PM
Hi Rand
I understand what you are getting through. I would like to invite everybody that is doing something difficult for the LORD to meditate on these verses. Be sure that I need to meditate it myself also! I truly believe we all do!
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for may sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" Matthew 5: 11-12
How come we have so great difficulty to rejoice and be exceeding glad? I am not saying this in a blaming spirit. The "rejoice" is an imperative! Let us ask the LORD to give us the grace of being able to apply this verse when we get through "hard times". We tend to forget that it is a grace to suffer for HIS sake.
Forget us, O LORD, and make us apply your HOLY WORD when we are suffering for THEE!
We will continue to pray for you and please do not forget to pray for us. We covet your prayers also!
Your brother IN CHRIST
Marcel Longchamps
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Friday Night Notes
back to "doing the stairs"...Another week coming to an end, which means another Friday night spent preaching the Word of God in the marketplace of my city. My pastor, brother Laz and I were the evangelists on this c-c-cold night, and we toughed it out for a good three hours.
Did I mention it was c-c-c-cold??? 'Cause it was cold. I don't know what I'll do in a few weeks when we start going into the -10 degrees Celsius, because, right now, it's slightly above 0 degrees Celsius, and I was freezing. Now before you all start calling me a wuss, bear in mind that the humidity level in my part of the globe is extremely high right now, which makes it feel much colder than it actually is.
Anyway, when the chills start setting in to us preachers, there is only one remedy: the stairs. Yes, the stairs. Right behind the place where we preach, there is a multi-level parking garage, with several sets of stairs which connect the different levels. To warm-up real fast, we run up and down these stairs as fast as possible. We probably look like idiots (why would that bother us, we're called 'nuts' just for preaching the Gospel), but nothing gets the circulation going like "doing a few flights of stairs". There is a downside though: it's extremely tiring... especially in the evening of the last day of a long work week.
So when we weren't running up and down stairs to keep warm, this is some of the events that took place tonight...
Poor, dumb Rand:After going around the market with a Gospel sign, I made my way back to our preaching "spot" for my shift was coming up (
to preach, that is). A couple walked past me, and with a very patronizing voice, the woman said:
"I'm so sorry... I really am... for the kind of life you're living."
The hate-crime:I was preaching in front of our
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign, when a young man came out of a nearby restaurant and said:
"Can you turn your sign around, man?"
"No," I replied. "What's the problem?"
"You can't go around with a sign like that," he continued. "It's a hate crime!"
"Call the cops," I replied.
I tried to explain to the young man that the passage he was so offended by was from the Bible and that he was going to have to answer to it one day, but he would have none of that. He left cursing and mocking.
Dave, the drunken Romanist:Three young men came by as I was preaching. Two of them mocked and cursed grievously against me and walked away. The third man though stuck around and took one of my Bible tracts. He told me he was a "catholic" and that, though he was drunk, he still believed he was in a good position to teach me the merits of Romanism.
The conversation was a short one.
I drew is attention to the sin of idolatry which infested the Romanist religion. I quoted to him the
Second Commandment, and just like clockwork, he immediately started to attack the inspiration of Scripture by saying:
"Yeah, but the Bible's been translated so many times, how can we know if any of it is true?"
At that point, I knew that dealing with this man was going to be a waste of time, so I told him I would pray for him, and I encouraged him to open his Bible, and actually give it a chance. His name was Dave, and I invite you, brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord, to pray that the Lord give him no rest, 'till he seek God in His Word.
"The Worst Kind":My pastor has been dealing with a Romanist woman for a number of weeks now. She always walks by us on Friday nights, on her way back home. This woman is a SERIOUS Romanist. Definitely not the garden-variety hypocrite type. So anyways, my pastor and this lady have it out again: she tries to show him the importance of praying to "Mary", using images/graven images to assist in worship, and all other manner of Romanist nonsense, and my pastor attempts to straighten this poor woman out.
Well, when my turn to start preaching came up, I dropped off my Gospel sign, leaving it with my pastor, who was still with the lady in question. I then moved a few yards down the street to preach. When the conversation between the Romanist woman and my pastor ended, my pastor walked up to me with a smile on his face and said:
"You know what that woman just said?" he began. "She said that I was a good man, and that I was going to Heaven, though I will be missing out of many 'blessings'. But as for you Rand, she said that as a former Romanist, you are the 'worst kind'.
He then tapped me on the back, laughing hysterically.
All and all, it wasn't a great night. A lot of mockery, a lot of insults. Matthew, the drunkard threatened us a few times. Very few tracts were given out this time around. But one thing is for certain: God was glorified in the market tonight.
Please continue to pray for us. Tomorrow is the Santa Clause parade in my city and we are going out with our Gospel signs. We're going to show everyone that the most precious gift they can look for this Christmas season isn't in any shopping mall:
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23b)Rand
12:27 AM
It is very interesting to see how people are mixed up about us christians.
They have pity on the way we live and we are the most blessed and joyful persons on this earth.
They accuse us of being hateful while we are loving people, especially if we love them enough to get the precious gospel to them.
They pretend to believe GOD and they do not believe the Holy Scriptures to be truly the Word of GOD.
They accuse us of being "the worst kind" while they do not see that they are in the worst and biggest cults of the world (the Roman catholics).
Well, we should not be surprised of that because they are blind. They may be sincere but they are still bling.
We love you Rand. Continue the good work in Ottawa. It warms our hearts to know that you love the LORD enough to receive all these mockings for HIS NAME'S sake.
May our SOVEREIGN LORD gives you precious souls. That is what we are praying the LORD every day.
ditto what Bro. Marcel said.
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Blog Updates
Monday, November 13, 2006
a bit of free advertising...I just wanted to draw your attention, dear readers, to three blogs I have added to my links
(near the bottom of my sidebar).
First, there is
Modern Day Magi. I have long been impressed with this Australian blogger. His posts are usually pretty deep, and theologically sound. I would have linked him long ago, but we had a rough disagreement over how to best deal with false professors; we even disagreed with what constituted a false professor.
Despite this rough patch, the quality of
MDM's posts just never failed. So, while we may disagree on matters of biblical separation, his puritan approach to the Scriptures and his ability to transmit rich Truth in relatively short posts makes him worthy of a link on my blog. Do check him out... you won't regret it.
Second, we have
Everyday in Grace. Some of you will recognize this blogger's nickname (
Ann_in_grace) from my comment box. This Swedish sister, as far as I can tell, is a John MacArthur/John Piper type Christian. She is relatively new at blogging, but she posts often enough.
I see in her an honest affection for the Lord, and she seems diligent at seeking Truth. So,
click here and see what Ann_in_grace is up to.
Finally, we have
Sharing Jesus. My wife was the one who, quite providentially, found this blog (
I'll leave it to her to give the account). This dear brother, simply known as
"a witness" is a Ray Comfort/Living Waters type Christian, which means that we would probably differ on a number of doctrinal matters. That being said, as the title of this blog implies,
"a witness" uses his corner of cyberspace to give accounts of his evangelistic efforts, and as far as this the theme of evangelism is concerned,
"a witness" and I are kindred spirits.
For his honesty and his zeal, I have linked
Sharing Jesus to my blog. I can only hope that by reading his posts, some of you, dear readers, will be moved to go out and preach to Gospel to all of Creation.
That's it for now. Expect a few more changes to my blog over the next couple of weeks; nothing dramatic, just a little tweaking here and there.
See you all later!
Rand
Friday Night Notes
Saturday, November 11, 2006
welcome back, preacher...
It's been awhile, but I finally made it back to our Friday night of street preaching. My pastor and I took three Gospel signs with us and made our way to our usual spot proclaim the Truth that is in Jesus. I took the first hour of preaching to test voice/lung capacity and I am happy to report that my voice held up, and I don't think I coughed at all tonight; looks like I'm finally over that nasty infection!
I was a bit rusty at first, but by my second round of preaching, I had found much of my groove again. What a discipline mass evangelism is! I mean I was just out for two weeks, and I was pretty out of shape, both physically and psychologically. By the end of our three hours of ministry, I was seriously drained; but God's Word again refreshed me:
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Galatians 6:9)We distributed a large amount of Gospel literature tonight, far more than usual. That was the upside. The downside is that we were seriously and grievously maligned and reviled by several individuals... and I mean GRIEVOUSLY. Again though, while it is never a pleasant thing to be insulted and mocked, the Bible comforts me:
"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." (2 Peter 2:21-23)Here are a few events, still lingering in my mind, concerning our time of street evangelism:
1- Explaining the signs:I had a good conversation with a man of Arabian descent. His English wasn't very good, but we were still able to communicate effectively. He asked me to take him through all our Gospel signs, to make sure he understood every word; I gladly read and explained
1 Timothy 1:15, and
1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
The man accepted a Bible tract, and I invited him to church on Sunday. He said he knew of our church since he lived nearby, and that he'd try to make it out on the Lord's Day. I will be praying that he do just that!
2- Spitting on the Lord Jesus Christ:In the
first chapter of the book of John, the Lord Jesus Christ is called: the Word. So in a very real sense, what a person does with God's Word, he does to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So imagine my chagrin as I watched a young man, who was unimpressed with my preaching, spit on one of our Gospel signs. Without saying a word, the young man then walked away pridefully, thinking he had taken a great stand.
If the Lord doesn't save the poor wretch, I can't even imagine the terror he will feel as he stands before the One he spat on.
3- My friend, Andrew H.In the middle of my second round of preaching, a man walked by, and then turned around towards me. The second I got a good look at his face, I recognized him. It was a brother-in-the-Lord I use to fellowship with when I attended the local
AGC church; this would be back in my college days
(a long... long time ago...).
Andrew hadn't changed a bit. I mean the man hadn't aged a day. We had a short conversation to catch up on what was happening in our lives, and then encouraged me to keep preaching. He offered to get me a cup of coffee to help keep me warm, but I was actually in good shape with all the sweaters I had on (
lol).
I thank the Lord that on a night where I was literally swimming in a sea of insults and mockery, He sent me an old friend to warm my heart with words of encouragement and genuine brotherly kindness.
4- The two Muslims and the Buddhist:Right when I was getting ready to head home, two Muslims came by and asked me questions about my Gospel sign. After answering their questions, one of the men asked:
"Can we come to one of your meetings, even if we aren't Christians?"
"Of course!" I answered.
It was a this point that the Buddhist showed up. He had alcohol on his breath, so I knew that I wasn't going to have to deep of a conversation with this man. I did however have the opportunity to share a bit of the Gospel with him, and answer some of his questions. Sadly though, in very little time, the conversation became a vain discussion on the different views and practices of each of our faiths. It was all pretty vain, and wicked, so I made sure to put a stop to it with a: "Well, have a good night gentlemen, and remember to read the Bible."
And that's the notes for tonight. I again thank the Lord my God for giving me the opportunity and ability to serve him by proclaiming the Gospel of peace to hundreds, if not thousands. I also pray for my brothers and sisters who, God willing, will do the same tomorrow in Quebec; God bless you guys.
Good night, dear readers...
Rand
Saturday Afternoon Notes... from Quebec!!!
Sunday, November 05, 2006
God bless them...
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. (Matthew 9:38)I got an e-mail today from a brother who lives in Quebec, and it brought a great deal of joy into my heart. It was a summary of their evangelistic, street preaching effort; complete with pictures of their work, as you can see here. The whole e-mail was basically a French version of my Friday Night Notes.
There were four evangelists preaching the Gospel and distributing tracts yesterday in the most ungodly province in my country, and the response to their work was pretty much the same as the response we get from our street preaching: lots of mockery, plenty of scorn, and the occasional good conversation. The report stated that one man received the Gospel pretty favourably and there is hope he would come to church. Let us pray for the salvation of this soul.
I really praise God for this report. I praise God that while I have been down with this sickness, the Lord has sent out 4 labourers into the mission field, and they faithfully presented the Gospel to the lost. Dear saints, please pray for these brothers and sisters, that the Lord would protect them in their endeavours, that He would keep them faithful in working at the
Great Commission, and that He would use their work to save His elect.
Rand
Ps: my brother-in-the-Lord made a good point, in his e-mail, about the frequent charge that evangelists are stupid and uneducated. He wrote: "Next week, if everybody is there, there will be 3 among the 5 of us that are studying at the doctoral level in university!" Yep, us evangelists... pretty stoooopid I tell ya!
Still Nothing To Report
Friday, November 03, 2006
boooooo!!!Believe me when I write: I really hate being down for so long.
I really thought about going out street preaching tonight with my pastor, but I never would have heard the end of it from my family if I had gotten sick again. So I decided to delay my return to evangelism for another week. I am feeling significantly better, though I still cough a bit; hopefully by next week, I'll be in top shape and I'll be able, Lord willing, to give you a much awaited (I hope) FRIDAY NIGHT NOTES!
I know that I have been neglecting my blog over the last little while... I am sorry about that, but my life these last few days has been: work-sleep-eat (repeat). I just haven't had the energy to sit and write anything of any significance (and this post is proof... lol!).
I truly hope to be back to both blogging, and evangelism soon. Take care, dear readers, and have a great weekend.
Rand
ps: I repeat... pneumonia/lung infections are real bummers... I don't recommend them.
said…
As i read your blogs on events of your street preaching I am saddened. All of the recollections you write are of people that are drunkards, hypocrites and atheists. Not only that but you are mocking them and their lack of "divine" knowledge. From what I've read you havn't said anything on anyone being saved and walking with the lord, or telling someone that you love them even in the state that they are currentley in. Rand, please take a step back and realizing what kind of message you are sending by saying these things to people. Not only are you not aiding them in any way... you are turning them off of any interest they had in Jesus to begin with. Please Rand, show love