No Notes

away... far away...

I'm currently away from home, visiting my wife's family, so no Friday night evangelism for me this week.

I had a great conversation with the director of Gospel Text Publishers today; that's the ministry that we publishes the Bible signs we use. I'll post a little something about that in the near future.

Later,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

let it snow...


Not as chilly as last week, but it did snow during our street preaching effort. Pastor Tim and I were both at our posts in the marketplace of our city, preaching the Gospel of Jesus, giving out Bible literature and holding up Bible signs. Like last week, the market wasn't terribly busy, but there was a rather steady flow of people walking the streets; enough to provide us with a constant audience. The Lord use our effort to both save and harden, as He sees fit.

I left work late tonight (high performance liquid chromatograph wouldn't behave... pardon the geek-speak). When I got to pastor Tim's house, he was already dressed up and on his way downtown. So I dropped off my work gear, grabbed a Bible sign and a stack of Bible tracts, and followed. We evangelized the market for a good three hours; we both handed out a fair number of tracts and had a few conversations with sinners.

I had a short conversation with Justin, a guitar-playing panhandler. He's a regular on Friday nights. When I got close to the area where he played the guitar (if you want to call it that... he's absolutely awful...), Justin begged me not to preach the Gospel near him, since he was trying to "earn some cash". I told him that I would show him more respect than he showed me a few weeks ago (he had set up right across the street from where I was preaching the Gospel, and started his awful hollering). He feigned ignorance, but I could see right through his act. I hope that this conversation will move Justin to be a tad more respectful toward us in the future.

A short time later, I walked by the doorman of one of the most wicked dance clubs in the market. The man read my Bible sign (John 3:16) and said he agreed with the statement. He also said he went to church every Sunday. Oh my...

"Fat good it's doing you!" I replied.

"What?" the man replied. "So what then... what am I suppose to do to be right then?"

"You have to practice and follow the Word of God, my friend," I said.

"So like, I have to follow the 10 commandments and stuff? I do that," the man said.

(I couldn't help but think of the rich young ruler at this point...)

"So, you're telling me you are following God's commandments but you are a doorman to a house of drunkenness and sin!" I replied.

The man protested, justifying his employment as a way to earn "a little extra cash". I told him there were plenty of other jobs he could be doing, and knowing full well that I was right, he quickly said: "Well, goodnight!" How accurate the Lord's statement: one cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

After a few rounds of open-air preaching, I made my way back home. On the bus, I left a Bible tract on the seat right behind me and was quite pleased to see a man pick it up. He studied it carefully and I think he stuck it in his pocket. Praise God!

That's all I got for tonight. It's real late now, and I need to get some rest... been quite a week.

God bless you all, dear readers.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism

Friday Night Notes

as bad as a Muslim terrorist...

Another cold night of street preaching in the books. Snow was all gone, but there is no doubt, winter is revving up. Despite the chilly temperature, the marketplace was busier tonight than its been for a number of weeks now. No doubt, Christmas get-togethers and parties will keep the market busy for the next few weeks.

Got my evangelism partner back tonight. Pastor Tim's work schedule finally eased up this week, so he was able to come out with me for three solid hours of street evangelism. After 3-4 weeks, the good preacher was clearly a bit rusty! He needed his little amplifier when he preached the Gospel... his voice was/is out of shape.

We didn't give out too many Bible tracts tonight; I didn't hand out anywhere near the number I gave out last week. I did have a few conversations with sinners, but none of them showed any promise. Here are a few examples:



1- A young man came by and told me that he knew there was a God, and that he should be serving him, but found himself always chasing after sin. I quoted James 1:8 to him and while he agreed with the statement, he quickly went back to his pity party. He did his best to show me how difficult it was for him to follow the Lord, to which I replied:

"Have you been spending any time in God's Word?"

"Well, just a bit," the man replied.

"God's not going to speak to you directly, my friend," I began. "If you want God to show you the good and right way, and be your "help and exceeding great reward", you'll have to read the Bible."

To that, the young man contradicted me, claiming that God had and would continue to reveal Himself to him supernaturally, minus Bible-study. He then began to explain to me how he's had visions of God, and special revelations. By this point, I had given up on the conversation. The man walked away annoyed that I didn't buy his folly.

2- Two men, obviously under the influence of alcohol, interrupted my preaching with a variety of questions. One of the men was quite aggressive and I was beginning to worry that things would get out of hand. Thankfully, his friend was far calmer and respected my efforts; he began to defend me and at numerous times he rebuked his buddy's aggressiveness. In the end the calmer one of the two took a Bible tract and thanked me for my work. The other just walked away bitterly.

3- Dealt with a disgruntled pseudo-Muslim. I say pseudo-Muslim because while he claimed to believe in Islam, he was distributing invitations to a hip-hop dance club. He first charged me with being a brainwashed, militant fundamentalist, no better than the men who were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When I asked him if he really, really believed that my offering Bible literature and preaching repentance and faith was on par with killing 3000 people in the name of Allah, he backed down somewhat.

He then changed tactics. He encouraged me to put away the Bible signs and literature and "go out and find a woman." I promptly told him that I had a wife, and four kids to boot! The man was floored, only being able to offer a "really?" I finally tried to reason with the man, telling him that instead of making wild assumptions about me or my motivations, perhaps it'd be best if he gave me and my message a fair hearing. Sadly, he wasn't interested, though he did shake my hand in the end, and walked away. The Lord have mercy.



It was a pretty rough night, all and all. Some of our Bible signs were kicked to the ground repeatedly, we were mocked, and there was plenty of backbiting going on. Can't say any of it really phased me tonight. I guess I'm toughening up some.

Regardless, the Lord be magnified and glorified by our work.

Have a blessed weekend, dear readers.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism