No Notes

too busy...

I have been asked to preach both Lord's Day sermons this weekend, so I needed the time tonight to prepare those messages.

Hope to be back at my post next week.

God bless you, dear readers,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

glass half-empty... for sure...

There are nights when it's pretty hard to not get weary and discouraged.  This is one of those nights.  The shear level of evil and folly that surrounded me on this particular night of open-air evangelism... well... it was all pretty astonishing.

For starters, our Bible signs took quite a bit of abuse tonight.  If we turned our backs for one second, someone was kicking one of our signs down, or spitting on them. On one occasion, I shamed a young man for kicking down one of our signs and pouring his soda on it.  I told him that the Lord would remember his disrespect for the Word of God; the young man was visibly shaken by my words, and could hardly hide the guilt from his face as he walked away.

Then there was a charismatic woman (a professing Christian) who spoke with Pastor Tim for several minutes.  The woman was clearly ignorant of even some of the most basic doctrines of the Word of God, but she spoke as if she had a firm grip on the Christian Faith.  She told Pastor Tim that all she knew was JD is pretty good, but JC is even better (JD is for Jack Daniel's, and JC is for Jesus Christ).  Now there's a great profession if I've ever heard one.  Oh dear...

A young lady spoke to me shortly after and affirmed that she knew more about God than I, and for that reason, she refused a Gospel tract.  She said this with a few f-bombs here and there, and she got even more vile when I refused to speak with her.  Too bad all that knowledge hasn't taught her a thing about being a decent human being.

About an hour and a half later, I was on a bus heading back home and was subjected to a pathetic sight.  A couple of young ladies got on the bus, no older than in their early twenties.  A man in his late 50s sat across from them and he decided he was going to strike up a conversation, doing his best to impress them, and doing a terrible job of it.  The women were quite embarrassed, doing their best to ignore the man by staring into their smart phones.  I felt like turning around and calling the man "an old fool", but figured I was in no state-of-mind to be rebuking anyone for anything.

And to top of my lovely evening, as I walked from the bus stop to my house, I turned a corner and right in the middle of the street stood a man, completely naked, urinating.  He had a couple of fully dressed "friends" with him, and one of them yelled: "Hey buddy! You have a light?"  I figured the men were all extraordinarily high on drugs so I just walked.  One of the men however was quite persistent and followed me, repeating his question:

"Hey! You got a light?"
"No," I muttered angrily.

"Yo, can we just talk a minute?" the man begged.

"No, I got nothing to say to you," I replied.

The young man then started to curse and swear at me, and at that point, I was preparing myself for a fight.  I was too annoyed to feel any kind of fear at all, and I think that's what intimidated the young man.  He probably figured that I could give him a run of his money in his drugged/drunk state, so he turned back and went back to his friends.  As I am writing this, I am realizing how close I was to a potentially, very dangerous situation.  There were three or four of them, and only one of me.

I really need to be more aware when I head home late at night.


Rand

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3)

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

Friday Night Notes

physically exhausted...

Going out street preaching tonight was, without a doubt, pushing it.  I worked a 12-hour workday yesterday, and another 10-hours in the lab today... and decided to go out street preaching 'till 11pm in the market.  I'm absolutely whipped.

My legs and feet were killing me out there tonight, but I managed to soldier on, handing out Gospel literature and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The market was much quieter than last week, but we still handed out a fair amount of literature, and both Pastor Tim and I had a few one-on-one conversations with people about the faith of Jesus Christ.

There was lots of drunkenness tonight.  I mean, there are always drunks walking around the market on Friday nights, but there seemed to be much more of them tonight.  Some were young, some old... all of them walking crooked, slurring their words, behaving foolishly; it was quite a sad sight.

Around 9pm, I spoke to three young ladies who came with questions concerning sexual immorality.  They were obviously looking to mock, but I gave them very little to mock.  I kept my answers short and biblical.  Seeing they couldn't easily make a fool of me, they took some Gospel tracts and walked away.  The Lord have mercy on them.

Around 10:30pm, I spoke to a young man named Josh, a drunkard; and that's not me saying it, he confessed he was a drunk and felt he needed help.  A gave him the Gospel and told him that the Lord saves sinners, even drunkards.  I invited him to church on the Lord's Day and he said he'd come... and I think he was sincere.  He asked for prayer and said he felt the only thing that could help him right now is the Lord.  I hope and pray that this is the beginning of the work of salvation in Josh's life.

Just before leaving the market, both Pastor Tim and I had a conversation with a man who desperately tried to justify himself in his sins.  Poor fellow, he kept trying to get us to agree with his self-justifications and we kept saying "no" and a brief explanation from the Bible as to why we were saying "no".  Like the rich young ruler in Scripture, the man left grieved and sorrowful.  I pray that this sorrow will one day be unto salvation.

That'll be the notes for tonight, I'm dead tired, and I'm falling asleep writing this post.  Have a safe and good weekend, dear readers.

Rand