Friday Night Notes

c-c-c-cold night...

It's been a couple of weeks since our last night of evangelism.  We had a few Fridays now where it was just to cold to be out evangelizing (under -20C, or -6F), and last week, my wife and I were suffering from a nasty cold virus that pretty much ruined our anniversary weekend.  We almost cancelled tonight's evangelistic effort due to the cold (it was -22C, or -8F with the wind chill), but Pastor Tim and I have some good old fashion Canadian pride in us; we would not be intimidated by the cold... we'd tough it out.

And we did.  Though I have to admit that after two hours in that frigid weather, I was dreaming of warm soup and a warm bed!

The cold, I imagine, kept a lot of people home because the market was pretty quiet tonight.  My city is in the midst of our winter festival called Winterlude (hence the snow sculpture) which typically attracts people downtown, but -22C temperatures was likely a little too cold for the people of my city.  Still, we handed out a decent number of tracts and had a few short conversations with souls who wanted to know something of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I was a bit surprised at how well Pastor Tim and I did tonight, considering the low turnout.

I spoke to a man who professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but seemed bothered that I held a John 3:36 Bible sign.  He looked favourably at our John 3:16 sign, but didn't much like John 3:36.  So I asked him:

"Are you a Christian?"

"Absolutely," the man replied.

"Jesus saved you?" I inquired further.

"Oh yes," the man quickly answered.

"Can anyone else save sinners?" I continued.

"Uh... no," the man replied.

"So you agree with John 3:36 then?"

The man paused, replayed the exchange in his head and finally said:

"Yeah, I suppose I do."

"So I suppose that if we both agree that  Jesus is the only One who saves, it would be important for us to make that fact plain in clear to lost sinners, don't you think?"

At this point, the man was undone, and agreed with me.  I know what his problem was.  It wasn't that he didn't agree with John 3:36, it's that he thought it was too harsh or too opposed to popular philosophies to be putting such a verse before the lost.  I hope I have taught the man a lesson in being true with God's Word... to be like the apostle Paul who didn't shun to declare the whole counsel of God.

Shortly after this exchange, two men approached me calling after me by name.  It was Sebastian and Emmanuel, two men I went to high school with, many, many moons ago.  Sebastian never ceases to surprise me.  The first time he saw me street preaching (over 10 years ago), he publicly mocked me; but every subsequent meeting, he's been friendlier and friendlier.  Tonight, neither men seemed at all bothered or ashamed of being seen talking to a "Jesus freak" on a street corner.  Considering that I have had family members walk away from me, pretending not to have seen me, when I've been out evangelizing, I have to give Seb and Emmanuel lots of credit.  I hope the Lord will use my good conversation to effect change in these old friends.

With that, I'll close the notes, and head to bed.  Remember us in your prayers, dear saints.  Only six weeks into the new year, and so many things have happened, and we need God's wisdom in the days and weeks ahead.

God bless you, dear readers.


Rand