Friday Night Notes

oh yeah... winter is here!!!


I may have said that the temperature was cold last week, but it was down right balmy compared to tonight. It dipped down to -16 Celsius (or 3 Fahrenheit, for my American readers), and there was no mistaking: winter has arrived in Canada! Pastor Tim jokingly said: "Well... just 4 months 'till Spring!"

The cold weather undoubtedly was to blame for the low traffic in the marketplace tonight. Christmas shopping and get-togethers usually draws many, many souls in the market, but not this time around. We preached the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to a few hundreds of people, but no more than that. All and all, it was a quiet night of evangelism.

A number of souls however heard something of our preaching, nearly everyone who walked by us read the Bible signs we were carrying, very few took a Bible tract. There were a few mockers, a couple of Christians had kind words for us, and we had a bit of fun with a city bylaw officer (no really... it was all fun and games). Nothing really bad to report... but then again, nothing really good to report either. Oh! that the Lord would cause a great spiritual awakening in my city/country! How I would joy in writing a post on how the Lord worked salvation and sanctification through the preaching of His Word on the streets of the capital!

The Lord's will be done.

There was a sweet moment in the middle of our three hours of preaching: a young lady who works in a restaurant near our preaching spot listened attentively to my preaching as she was outside having a cigarette. Once her smoking break was done, she made her away across the street toward me and said:

"It's pretty cold tonight... I work at the restaurant across the street... could I get you a cup of coffee?"

My heart melted (such kindnesses toward us are few and far between). I told her that I was alright, but thanked her repeatedly for her empathy and kindness toward me. She walked away without saying a word, I let a "Merry Christmas!" out before she went back into the restaurant. The Lord be merciful unto this young lady.

"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." (Matthew 5:7)

After that sweet moment, there was a ridiculously funny one. A man walked by Pastor Tim as he preached about sin nature and total depravity of all men. With a smug look on his face, the man turned to me and said:

"I don't sin, I'm human."

I laughed. He didn't stick around so I was unable to help the poor soul understand that he was indeed both human, and a professional sinner. Poor soul.

And on that note, I'll close this edition of the Friday Night Notes. Please note that for the next two weeks, there may not be any evangelism reports since my family and I will be visiting family on both Christmas day, and New Year's. If the Lord opens a door for me to do some evangelism over the next two weeks, I'll be sure to give you all word of it!

Dear readers, have a blessed Christmas Season, remember the Lord Jesus Christ and be safe in your travels.

God bless you all!


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism

Friday Night Notes

all pretty wretched...


Well... there was snow on the ground for our night of street preaching. Winter is definitely here, I'm afraid. It was cold tonight, but not terribly so. Pastor Tim and I were able to preach the Gospel for nearly three hours, and only called it quits because I needed to go back to my workplace to fix a misbehaving mass spectrometer.

The picture attached to this post was one of the few (the very few) blessings I received from people in the market tonight. A group of young people had lined up near one of our Gospel signs and sang beautiful Christmas hymns. I stood nearby, offering people Bible tracts and enjoyed the wonderful sound of praise to our God. I didn't get a chance to speak with any of these good souls... I get the feeling the cold wind got the best of them after a few minutes of singing. The Lord bless them for their sacrifice of praise to the Living God, and that, in the sight of all men.

The night, in general, was pretty wretched. There was even a great deal of sadness surrounding the small choir in the picture above. Most of the people who walked by them, ignored them. Some even mocked them. It was an awful sight... and what made it worse was the sight of another musical act just down the street, attracting some devoted fans: a guitar-playing drug addict singing old Beatles songs. He got nothing but praise. What a mess!

The "highlight" of my night came when I dealt with a drunk homosexual who came after me with the incredibly cerebral argument of "You're a sinner if you eat shrimp!" (a reference to the the dietary restrictions in the Mosaic covenant). After doing my best to keep my eyes from rolling back into my skull, I explained the Gospel to the scorner who showed his appreciation by telling me not to judge people (I had yet to point out any particular sin), and then the wretch grabbed me by the collar and gave me a fat smooch! Can you say... DISGUSTING???

Wretched absurdity.

A short time after that nonsense, I was forced to find another spot from which to preach from because a couple a men decided to use the parking garage behind me to smoke marijuana; I can't stand the smell of pot. As if the drugs weren't bad enough, one of the men kept spouting off anti-Semitic slurs that annoyed me so much, I thought it best for me to leave. I remember him saying:

"Jews are evil man! They control the world with credit. They're organized and evil."

To which I responded that drug users, in my book, were evil. They didn't say anything. So I took a parting shot before walking down the street to another preaching spot:

"You're in really bad shape my poor friend, all that hatred toward Jews... and it will be a Jew who will one day judge your soul."

Deafening silence was once again their response.

In closing, I must say that there were a couple of upsides in tonight's street preaching endeavour:

1- There were more people in the market tonight than last week, and that, despite the cold weather and snow.

2- Due to the larger crowds, we gave out a few more Bible tracts.

3- A woman did drive by us as we were making our way home with our Bible signs, and called out to us with a "Praise God! The Lord bless you men!"

The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit. May all glory, honour and praise be to the Living God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen, and amen.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism

Friday Night Notes

winter is a comin'...


The market was pretty quiet tonight. The summer crowds are gone and we are not likely to see them again until next spring. That said, there were still hundreds of lost souls walking through the streets of the marketplace, and most of them would have heard or read something of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord use the preaching of His Word as He sees fit.

I don't really have much to report, it really was a quiet night of preaching and I have to admit that I was too tired to closely observe the goings-on of the market. I do recall a number of souls yelling vile mockeries at us, and there were definitely a few dirty looks shot at us, but nothing grievous enough to phase me. We had a few conversations with souls who professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but our conversations with these were mostly superficial, so I really don't know if we actually spoke with any fellow brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord tonight.

Pastor Tim and I did have a conversation with an unbelieving, young couple. After that conversation, I can verify the following saying: "If you don't believe in God, you'll believe anything!" The nonsense these two lost souls believed! Pastor Tim and I both tried, mostly with pure logic, to show the folly of their views, but they refused to answer our questions, knowing that their own truthful answers would unravel their warped, sinful beliefs. The young woman carried most of the conversation, claiming that the Lord Jesus Christ was "an anarchist" (which she approved of). So much for "rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21). What folly!

About an hour after that conversation, I met a man named Brent who had several kind words for me. It was refreshing. It's not the first time I met Brent, he had had kind words for me in the past, and there's just something about the way he speaks, his gestures and facial expressions, he shows a great deal of warmth. When I first met him I thought perhaps he was a brother-in-the-Lord, but I found out tonight that the only church Brent attends is a "United Church", which is the most liberal, wicked, anything goes assemblies in Canada. I was pretty disappointed. That said, I appreciate Brent honesty and his high regard for the preaching of God's Word. The Lord make His face to shine upon him!

We were out preaching for about three hours in frigid weather tonight, and in that time span I often needed to pick our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Bible sign from off the ground. It's incredible the level of hatred sinners have for that Scripture today. They kick, pull and spit on that sign like no other. The power of Scripture to convict men of sin clearly displayed! The Lord be merciful!

And that's the notes for tonight... it's been a busy week and it's finally time to relax a bit for the weekend. Thanks for keeping up with Pastor Tim and I's escapades, dear readers.

God bless you, dear saints of God.


Rand


Ps: Just a few exchanges that occurred tonight:


Young lady: "But, I'm a nice person!"

Pastor Tim: "No... no, you're not."

-----

Young man: "What about abortion... if a young woman is raped, you telling me it's still not alright to get an abortion?"

Rand: "Sins of the father. Tell me, if your father commits murder a goes into hiding, would you approve the state taking you and throwing you in jail?"

Young man: "..."

Rand: "You don't answer because you know the logical end of my argument. Dealing with the awful sin of rape with the awful sin of murder isn't a remedy. It's an abomination.

Labels: Friday evangelism