Friday Night Notes

some welcome reinforcements...

It was a pretty chilly night, with a frigid wind blowing through town.  Nowhere near as bad as some of the freezing weather we got over the winter, but still pretty cold for spring time.  Good thing I packed an extra sweater before leaving home this morning!

A nice surprise awaited me when I got to Pastor Tim's house tonight: Dale Parkes, an American brother-in-the-Lord who I got to know through this blog years ago, was in town on a work assignment.  He wanted to join Pastor Tim and I on our street preaching endeavor before having to head out to Philadelphia the very next morning.  It was nice to have another worker with us tonight, sharing in preaching duties.  I did however feel a little sorry for Dale... I'm not sure if he was quite prepared for the spiritual reality of Canada: mostly dead.

Despite the cold weather, a good number of souls were out in the market.  Between us three preachers, we ministered the Gospel to thousands of souls.  Not many tracts were handed out, and I didn't have much of anything by way of one-on-one conversations.  Pastor Tim and Dale did a bit better than me tonight: both men had profitable conversations with sinners, and I think they had more success in tract distribution.

Funny moment of the night: a police cruiser drove by and stopped in front of the spot where Pastor Tim was preaching.  The officer lowered his window and said: "Hey! Put it down a little.  You're so loud I can hear you a block away!"  To which Pastor Tim replied, with a big smirk on his face: "Well, that's really good that people can hear the Gospel a block away!"  Amused, the police officer laughed and drove off.

Not much else to report.  There was a lot of mockery tonight, lots of sin.  Our Bible signs were knocked down a number of times, and all three of us were scorned by a number of sinners.  Still, the Lord was glorified, and that's all that matters.

Have a blessed weekend, dear saints... especially the Lord's Day!

Rand

Friday Night Notes

Good Friday...

A whole three hours of street preaching and not one of our Bible signs were knocked down by those who hate the Gospel.  That's a first in a long time.  It probably helped that the number of souls in the market tonight was rather low; but hey, I'll take it!

It just dawned on me, just now as I wrote the above paragraph, that it's a truly sad state of affairs when "good news" of our evangelism is that "no one trampled the Word under foot".  It really shows the demise of faith, genuine and otherwise, and the rise of religious intolerance.  The fact that our preaching was done on "Good Friday" didn't even register with most of the people we ministered to; the "Christian" holiday has become just another cultural/historical day-off-work that no one really cares to know anything about.  From the perspective of a Christian fundamentalist like myself, there something really disappointing about that, but I think even on a purely cultural and historical context, there's something sad about this new reality.

Despite the low numbers of people in the market, Pastor Tim and I handed out a fair number of Gospel tracts, and had a few conversations with the lost.  I'm not sure how well Pastor Tim's one-on-one conversation went with a young man, but it looked profitable.  I on the other hand had one of those silly conversations with a young Muslim man.  If I had a dime for every instance where a Muslim has tried to convince me that his/her faith was superior because...

1- The Qu'ran is pure, never changed, and isn't messed up by translations.
2- Muslims believe in Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.
3- Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.

The first two statements are ludicrous, and any careful study of Islam proves their idiocy.  The Qu'ran is a wretched book, with a number of sections that are unintelligible.  The Moses and Jesus described in the Qu'ran, the Moses and Jesus Muslims believe in are nothing like the Moses and Jesus described in the Bible.  They are entirely different people.  As far as the third statement is concerned, I'm way passed the age where I feel the need to believe in something, just because a large portion of the population think it's a great thing.

Still, the young man tried his pitch, and I shot him down every step of the way.  No doubt the young man was a devout Muslim, but it was clear that he was an ignorant one, since he couldn't answer simple questions on the teachings of the Qu'ran.  Either that, or he wouldn't answer my questions, fearing they would make my arguments for me.  I ended the conversation and the young man wasn't too pleased with that, giving me warnings of hellfire if I rejected "the-prophet-mohammed-glory-and-honour-to-his-name".  "Consider me warned... and I'll take my chances..." I said, unable to keep from smiling.

Not much more to report I'm afraid.  Like I said, it was a quiet night.  It was good to finally be able to make it out after being prevented of three weeks.  I trust the Lord was glorified.

Have a blessed weekend, dear saints.

Rand

No Notes

technical difficulties...

I had the absolute worse day at work today.  I was in the lab 'till 10:30pm, trying to get an HPLC to behave.

I know Pastor Tim went out to preach the Gospel.  I hope things went well for him.

Rand

No Notes

rained out again...

Pastor Tim and I didn't go out street preaching last night due to rain.  Silver lining: April showers bring May flowers.

Rand