Friday Night Notes

work... work... work...

Did these signs ever have a bad night! (more on that later...)


I worked a 10-hour day today, which means right after I finally got the Mass Spectrometers up and running (if you don't know what in the world a mass spectrometer is... just shrug and move on... it really isn't that important), it was time for me to head downtown for 3 hours of street preaching. I have to say that those 3 hours were pretty grueling. I don't want to whine... so I won't (LOL... I just decided just now that I wouldn't start typing any complaints). All I will mention is that I still covet the prayers of all my brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord; my health situation is still a problem.


Tonight was quite a difficult night of preaching. The weather didn't cooperate (it rained), and the hearts of the people around us was hard against the Gospel; more so than usual. Pastor Tim even observed near the end of our night of preaching: "Man, are people ever loony tonight!" He was right. Amongst the crazies that we dealt with was a drunkard walking around with a super-sized can of beer, declaring that God told him it was okay for him to drink. Moments later, pastor Tim had to deal with a man who was going around downtown in women's lingerie; he claimed that God would accept him "just the way he was". Oh dear.


Then there was the tough drunk guy. This man walked up to me as I was preaching and violently punched the Bible sign I was holding. Thankfully, he was satisfied with just hitting the sign and didn't feel the need to start hitting the preacher holding the sign. What happened next was actually pretty hilarious. The tough guy made his way toward pastor Tim who was also holding a Bible sign and went about punching his sign too. Thing is, pastor Tim had seen what had just happened with me and was ready for the poor fool. As he swung with all his might, pastor Tim withdrew the sign quickly, causing the poor drunkard to go flying forward into air. The man then lost his balance and went crashing to the ground. My first reaction was pure laughter, but then fear came upon me as I realized that the man, now humiliated, might just go for pastor Tim; but the Lord was gracious to us. The man got up and simply walked away. Praise God.


In the midst of the carnival of cursings, mockery and scorn toward us, we were approached two or three times by gentle souls who blessed us with kind words. On one occasion, a young man approached me and said: "The Lord will bless you for what you are doing here." I told him that the Lord had, and was blessing me.


One of the blessings from the Lord to me tonight came in the form of a thought. As I beheld the wickedness all around pastor Tim and I, and considered just how little effect we seemed to be having, I thought: "The prophet Micaiah glorified God just as much as Ezra did." Now I sure wish I could be used like Ezra and be the catalyst to a great spiritual awakening and revival, but in the end, if the Lord will use me as a preacher unto judgment as He used Micaiah against evil king Ahab... well... glory to God!


"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)


Finally, I want to thank the Lord for His protection on us tonight, and the favour He gave us in the eyes of earthly authorities. A police cruiser actually drove up to where I was preaching and I was afraid the police officer would give me a hard time over my preaching, but the officer had one look at my Bible sign and started driving away. As he drove away, I saw him punching a key on his touch-screen computer in his vehicle... which made me wonder: do the police have some category in their software called "crazy-street-preacher-alert". Heh heh.


With that, I close tonight's notes, dear readers. Have a good weekend and blessed Lord's Day.




Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism

The Most Wretched Work of the Year

wish I'd never seen half of what I saw today...

Today was first and foremost: the Lord's Day.

Sadly, in the realm of the wicked, today was the Sodomite parade (aka Pride parade), the day I dread every year. It was... well... it was just about as bad, base, degrading and depraved as you can well imagine... and then some.

As is our custom, pastor Tim and I went to the "Pride parade" with our Bible signs to protest the wicked event. We stood on each side of the street, holding up God's Word, trying hard not to focus on the ungodly spectacle taking place all around us, but at the same time, keeping an eye on our immediate surroundings, for we were definitely in hostile territory. When we first arrived, a group of young people started to threaten me, saying things like:

"We should beat you up!"

"Let's get a water gun and shoot Javex at him!"

After those brilliant remarks, they started throwing drinks at me and as I tried to get away from them, another sodomite violently pushed me. What happened then was interesting. You see, what was happening to me at that moment, was exactly what those young people wanted to see happen to me: getting a beating and being humiliated. Yet, what they wished for brought them no satisfaction. Quite on the contrary, their own evil started making them uncomfortable. One of the young ladies even came up beside me and said:

"I'm sorry for what my friend did..."

Praise God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this fallen world! Does not the Scriptures say that the Holy Ghost would deal with sin in the unbelieving world, as well as in the believing world:

"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." (John 16:8)

Thankfully, the young people left me alone after all this, no longer finding religious persecution amusing. I also praise God that that was the only violence I suffered today. We were mocked and scorned to no end, but that's where it ended.

It was difficult to watch the young children taking part in that wicked parade, and watching the abomination from the curb. A man who was just passing by, who was clearly disgusted with the parade, said to me:

"Look, they are teaching children to be immoral like them!"

There were also "churches" involved in the parade; a "United church" and an "Anglican church" (two denominations which are, spiritually, as dead as doornails). These were marching with "Bible signs" of their own, having cherry-picked a few verses from the Bible that made it seem like the Lord blessed immorality. Of all the wicked souls in that parade, I would venture a guess that these were the most evil of the bunch; for these weren't only immoral, they blasphemed the Holy Word of God.

That, in a nutshell, was how I spent my afternoon. As I said to pastor Tim as we walked back to his place: "Well, we survived another one." I could share a lot more, but I really don't want to, and in the end, you really don't think you want any more details.

I really don't know what to do with myself after that abominable parade. I mean... do I just go back home and have a nice nap? Do I have a good lunch and go about my normal day? I guess prayer is the answer... so I'll do that right now.

God bless you, dear readers, and please, remember me in your prayers, dear saints of the Living God.


Rand

Labels: Evangelism, Pure Evil

Friday Night Notes

the curse of apostasy...

So I was watching an online video broadcast today in which it was mentioned that Christians frown on astrology, new age religious practices (like yoga and transcendental meditation), as well as all forms of sexual promiscuity. On this point, a California bimbo on the program says: "But... like... you know... that's like everyone in California... their all doing that stuff!"

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

You see, what the bimbo was actually saying was this: "Well, Christians have to be wrong because everyone is doing it" (add a few "likes" and "you knows" somewhere in there). That is the attitude of the overwhelming majority of souls that I deal with on any given Friday night. Forget the fact that for well over 5000 years, it has been taught by God's people that occultism and immorality is evil. Forget that for over the same time period, occultism and immorality has destroyed individual men and women, as well as entire societies. Just look around and if everyone is doing it, then "it's okay." My mother would often ask me, when I was mindlessly following my peers: "if your friends all jump down a bridge, are you going to jump too?" I wouldn't ask that question to my fellow countrymen... the answer is all too evident.

That Internet broadcast along with the usual attitude of my audience during our evangelistic endeavour reminded me of poor old Hiel, the Bethelite. We read of Hiel in the Bible, and what a sad chap he was. There is just one verse about him:

"In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun." (1 Kings 16:34)

From this one verse, a believer clearly sees the absolute folly of a life void of the fear and knowledge of God. You see, Hiel lived in Israel in the days of king Ahab; the most wretched king the Jewish nation ever produced. Those days were filled with, you guessed it, idolatry, occultism and immorality. The Word of God had become a foreign philosophy to men like Hiel, and that is why he built Jericho; not knowing that there was a severe curse against any man/woman that would rebuild Jericho:

"And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." (Joshua 6:26)

Poor Hiel... I bet he wondered why he was losing all his children as he worked to rebuild a city. I'm sure he convinced himself that he was just "unlucky", or perhaps he blamed God for his perceived "misfortune". If only he had searched the Scriptures and obeyed, instead of going about his ungodly business.

If only the people of my city learned from Hiel the Bethelite.

Instead, as I walked around downtown with my Bible sign, I was met with sighs of exasperation, curses and mockery. One man even threatened to beat me up if I continued preaching the Gospel (I called his bluff, and was mighty glad to have won that bet!). Another went to great pains to explain to me that street preaching was only for the apostles of the Lord, and not for little old me. Oh! and I mustn't forget the man who got right in my face to warn me that he was the devil! Oh dear.

It's hard not to start feeling like an Elijah the Tishbite. I know I am doing right. I know that I am preaching the Word of the Lord. I know that God is glorified by my effort. Yet, what a vexation to continually be surrounded with Ahabs and Hiels.

That said, it was impossible for me tonight to fall into Elijah's error/sin of thinking he was the only prophet left in his land. There were many believers in the market tonight. One elderly woman walked by me and said: "I'm your sister." There were also a good number of men with the Open Air Campaigners, another street preaching group doing some work a few blocks away from where we preach.

Praise God that He continues to save sinners, and will continue to the very end of the Age.

I saw many souls that I know personally tonight. Some people that I work with, people that live in my neighbourhood, I even saw a family member. For the most part these ignored me (including my cousin), not wanting to be seen with the "Jesus-freak", and I was kind to them by not going out of my way to make contact. The Lord be merciful to them, and give them a eyes to see and ears to hear (Matthew 13:9).


That's the notes for tonight, dear readers. I need some serious rest. Remember me in your prayers, dear saints of God... especially for this Lord's Day... pastor Tim and I have our most unpleasant evangelistic effort to do this Sunday...

The cursed Pride Parade.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism

Friday Night Notes

sorry for the delay... it's been quite a 24 hours...

Boy! Oh boy! What a long night!

My original plan for last night got me home earlier from our night of evangelism; I had planned to start our usual evangelistic effort by myself around 5:30pm, have pastor Tim catch up with me around 8pm, and then take off for home around 9:30pm, leaving pastor Tim to do some solo work until 10:30-11pm. Well, around 5pm, I was quickly reminded of Proverbs 16:9...

"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps."

At 5pm, I went out to my bicycle (I started riding my bike to work... don't laugh... the bike is quite good on gas...) to make my way to pastor Tim's house and that's when rain started gently sprinkling. Seconds later, the sprinkle turned into an all out downpour, and a couple of seconds later, hail started coming down! I managed to get back into my workplace before getting completely soaked.

Back in my office I dropped down on my knees and prayed that the Lord would stop the rain to allow pastor Tim and I the opportunity to go out preaching. After 20 minutes of praying, the rain was subsiding. I thanked the Lord and started making my way downtown.

I remember someone complaining in my comment box a few months ago that it was mighty egotistical of me to think that the Lord would effect weather changes for my sakes. Well, if it was just for my sakes, I suppose it would be, but I don't believe it is too far fetched to believe that the Lord would change the weather around to allow two of his saints to go out preaching His Gospel. Quite simply, I believe one of the things God was most concerned with last night in my nation's capital was the work of two of His weak, yet faithful vessels: Tim and Rand.

It was just past 6pm when I make it downtown with a Bible sign, offering to all who passed by me a Bible tract. Just a few souls accepted my tracts but I assure you, EVERYONE read my Bible sign. The reactions toward the Scriptures were very indicative of just how evil Canada has become. For example, while I was speaking with a man who professed faith in Christ, a young woman came by, took one of my Bible tracts just to rip it in half and throw the pieces on the ground. The young man I was speaking with looked at the whole scene with disgust and summarized the event like this:

"That... That is of the devil!"

A short time later, pastor Tim joined me and we started our street preaching rotation, calling on all who heard us to repent and be converted unto God by faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. We had a number of one-on-one conversations where we were able to answer some questions and speak more precisely about the salvation of the Lord. One elderly woman I spoke to said that all the "gods" were one and the same... she changed her mind after I simply asked her which "god" was more gracious and kind: Jesus or Allah? Another man told me he wished he could come to church, but it was just too difficult for him to wake up on Sunday morning because he's out playing music in bars from Saturday night 'till the early hours of Sunday morning... to this I asked:

"When you'll be on your death bed, what do you think you are most likely to say: 'Lord, I wish I had spent more time blowing on my saxophone', or 'Lord, I wish I had spent more time with You?'"

The man paused for awhile and then said that "I had him there!" Here's hoping that being "had" by a street preacher will bring godly change in his life.

After three solid hours of evangelism, I made my way home, looking forward to some well deserved rest. It was 10:30pm when I sat down at the kitchen table of my house, to enjoy a very late dinner; and that's when the phone rang. You have to understand, my phone never rings past 10pm, so I knew that if it was ringing, something nasty was happening. It was my sister and she was grievously sick. She needed to go to the ER and not having a vehicle, she needed her big brother to take care of her. So at 11pm, after 7 hours at my work, and 4 hours doing God's work, I was making my way to the General Hospital Emergency Room to help out my sister.

It was 4am by the time she was re-hydrated and strong enough to walk out of the ER. It was 5am by the time I had driven her and myself home. Now you know why these Friday Night Notes are late!

Here's hoping to have a quieter, more restful night tonight, in preparation for the Lord's Day tomorrow.

God bless you all, dear faithful readers,


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism

Revival Conference 2008 - Audio Sermons

some good stuff to listen to...

For a number of years now, our home church organized "Revival Meetings" in the hopes that the Lord would revive His work in the midst of the years (Habakkuk 3:2). Basically, these meetings were an attempt to get our church membership to walk closer with the Lord through prayer, fasting, praise and worship as well as Bible preaching on revivals in the Bible.

Don't misunderstand... this wasn't a "charismatic-style" Christian party, or the seeking of some sort of "second blessing" from the Lord. I define "revival" as simply "a return to what saved saints of God should be". For example, if one looks at the revival is the days of Ezra (see Ezra 9 and Ezra 10), you won't read of a big band playing "I Will Magnify" with a large crowd waving their hands in the air. You won't read of believers becoming "super-believers" either. What you will read about is how those who feared God gathered and sought God's favour through a re-dedication to a life of obedience.

That's what my local assembly was up to last week.

The result? Don't know yet. Time will tell how profitable these meetings were. No doubt there was a lot of praying going on. No doubt we heard some very profitable sermons. No doubt we gave God glory through hymn worship and simply speaking of His awesome Person. Revival however, isn't only doing these things for a week of special meetings. The obedience and godliness must be on-going. So we'll wait on the Lord; that is, we will serve Him and look unto Him for His favour and blessing, hoping to receive a time of refreshing from Him.

There was a lot of good stuff going on last week, and as it always is with us fallen sinners, there was some bad. The prayer time, the preaching and the singing of Scripture songs were all a real blessing to my weary soul. We had the president of Georgia Baptist College and Seminary and pastor of Peachtree Baptist Church, Dr. David Dickerson preaching all the evening sermons and his sermons were excellent; here they are, and watch out for the "Southern-style" of preaching (lol):

Wednesday Evening Sermon - 1King 17 (To survive in days of apostasy: God's means of Grace)
Thursday Evening Sermon - 1King 18 (Active against adultery and immorality)
Friday Evening Sermon - 1King 18 (Bloody sacrifice)
Saturday Evening Sermon - 1King 19; Eph.6; 2Cor.10.3-5 (Spiritual warfare)
Sunday Morning Sermon - 1King 19 (Fruit of revival)

We were also blessed by the preaching of our head pastor, Tom Newton, our Quebec city evangelist and church planter, Marcel Longchamps, and a brother pastoring a small church in Dolgeville, New York, Scott Yager. Here are their sermons:

Pastor Tom Newton - 2 Chr. 7.14 (Turn from wicked ways: self-life)
Brother Marcel Longchamps - 2 Chr. 7.14 (Turn from wicked ways: Practical view)
Pastor Scott Yager - 2 Chr. 7.14 (Turn from wicked ways: Terminology view)

If you are truly evangelistic fundamentalists, dear readers, I'm sure you will all be blessed by these sermons, as I have been.


God bless you all, dear readers, and stay tuned, more posts to come...


Rand

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? (Psalm 85:6)

Labels: Fundamentalism

Please Stand By...

so much to write... no time to write it...

Alas, dear readers, there will be no Friday Night Notes for a second week in a row. Last week was our Revival Conference, this week was our family vacation (we only just got back). I have a lot of cool stuff to post, but it's too late now... I really have to go to bed.

I'm hoping to be able to post some material tomorrow.

Stay tuned...


Rand

No Notes

don't worry... I'm A-OK!!!

Sorry for the lack of warning, dear readers, but I was away this week, that's why there were no Friday Night Notes yesterday. I was at our home church (roughly 1 hour away from our fellowship) for a series of sermons on the topic of REVIVAL.

It was most profitable. I'll post about it soon... so stay tuned.

God bless you,


Rand