Friday Night Notes

still chilly... but definitely busier...

It actually felt like Spring... until the sun went down that is.  No doubt it was a chilly night of street preaching, but Spring is in the air, and people are once again coming in the downtown marketplace in high numbers.

With larger numbers of souls in the market, both Pastor Tim and I handed out a good number of Bible tracts; far more than what we've been giving out over the winter months.  Hundreds, if not thousands of souls heard something of the Gospel of Christ and/or read one of our Bible signs.  The Lord use these seeds as He sees fit!

A number of things came as a surprise tonight.  First and foremost was the fact that we ministered the Gospel for three hours and no one knocked down any of our Bible signs.  We had five signs out tonight and not one hit the ground.  Second was that despite the higher numbers of sinners, the mockery and opposition wasn't grievous at all.  I really expected more trouble than we actually faced.  Third was another chance meeting with Sebastien, an old high school buddy of mine.  The first time he saw me preaching the Gospel downtown, over a decade ago, he mocked me publicly, but the last two or three meetings, he's made it a point to come see me, just to say "hello".  Time really does have a beneficial effect on some souls.

I dealt with a few drunks tonight... all of them professing to have "Jesus-in-their-hearts".  Most of these souls have heard the Gospel a hundred times, and I'm sure that on a certain level, they really want to have "Jesus-in-their-hearts"; problem is, they want Him to share the real estate with the bottle.  It's a truly pathetic and sad sight.

Pastor Tim spoke to an old acquaintance who, at one time, professed faith in Christ, but has since wandered back into the world.  He dealt with her and her boyfriend and things seem to have gone well.  They said they would make it out for church service on the Lord's Day; we both hope they do just that, but we've heard such promises before.

On two different occasions, I had kind women come by to offer me words of encouragement with a "God bless you".  Those are always so refreshing when preaching the Gospel in the midst of "vanity fair".

There's more, but I'm too tired to keep typing.  I must be getting old, when it gets passed midnight, I start shutting down...

God bless you, dear readers.  Have a safe and good weekend, and a glorious Lord's Day.

Rand

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (2 Timothy 4:1-2)

No Notes

wild Canadian weather...

Last week, we didn't go out for our usual night of street preaching due to a blizzard, this week it's a warm rain.

Crazy country.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

the cold just won't quit...

It was freezing cold tonight.  Pastor Tim and I keep saying things like: "This is surely the last Friday night in which we're going to need our winter gear...".  Alas, it's still below freezing!

Along with the cold weather, are cold hearts toward the Gospel.  Lots of young people in the market tonight, and nearly all of them scorned the Gospel in favour of alcohol and drugs.  There was a fair bit of mockery and blasphemy, but they were pretty easy to tune out.

Twice tonight, kind women came by and blessed us with kind words of encouragement (undoubtedly Christians), but that was all the positive we got.  We had a Muslim man try to convert us to "the truth of the Qu'ran"; I'm always disturbed at how stupid Muslims are in their "outreach".  On a number of occasions now, I've been told by Muslims that I should definitely convert because many Romanists in Europe are converting to Islam.  That's the argument.  Seriously.  No better than "everybody else is doing it!"

I watched in great dismay a number of young men tonight destroying themselves with substance abuse.  Serious abuse.  Most of them were in their prime... and instead of making use of the strength of their youth for good, I watched them down hard liquor and smoke marijuana.  What a waste.

I also saw a neighbour of mine in the marketplace tonight.  He's a young man, still living with his mother and two sisters.  One of his sisters occasionally comes to church with us.  Unfortunately, this young man was in the market tonight with an older man; likely a homosexual partner.  A different one than the one I saw him with a few months ago.  He didn't seem to impressed with our evangelism, which isn't at all surprising.  Nevertheless, I hope the Lord will open a door for us with this young man, like He has with his younger sister.

It's been a pretty evil week, all in all.  We had a death in the family, a dear brother-in-the-Lord was involved in a terrible tragedy, and tonight's evangelism was a near total write-off.

I will be praying for better days ahead...

Rand