Tom and I met Dan out at the usual place, and then Linda brought a new group from a class they had that day. We talked for a bit and handed out some tracts, before we gathered together for prayer. Another guy joined in at the end that Dan had been talking to earlier. He was out there doing something for missing children awareness with a small group of his own.
Afterwards as we were talking with him, another guy walked up and the first guy said that God was going to use him in a powerful way, but the guy disagreed. With all the new people out there, everyone thought that he had come with someone else, but he was just a random guy that wondered over from the street. He claimed to be a Christian, but seemed a little confrontational. Tom talked with him for a while, and I moved away to hand out some tracts.
I came back over later when this guy was standing by himself to see what his thoughts were. He seemed to have a problem with what Tom was saying, so I explained that we give the law first to show the need for a Savior. He said that made sense, but he still felt that "loving" people and building them up was better, rather than "tearing them down." I don't know what could be more loving than explaining the truth to someone so that they might have eternal life.
I explained again that people had to know how they’d stand before God and that God's anger abides upon the wicked. We've all broken God's law and actually deserve punishment in hell for it. If there is any other way to get into heaven than through repentance and faith in Christ alone, then Jesus died in vain.
He seemed to contemplate that and said it made sense, but he still didn’t like it. He started talking about being careful of false teachers, and I agreed with him. I said there are a lot of those in churches, just telling people what they want to hear, rather than explaining God’s law and their need.
He said he was going to explain to me how we should be doing this, and I asked him if he shared his faith. He said, “No, I don’t have to” but he maintained that he was a Christian. I asked how He could give advice on something that he doesn’t do, and he repeated that he was going to tell me how to do it. I asked how I would know that he wasn’t one of these false teachers that he’d mentioned earlier and he didn’t like that so much.
He thought I should leave, but I said no, I was fine where I was at. He said I shouldn’t talk to him anymore then, and that he wasn’t going to listen to me. So, I set up the speaker and stool and started preaching.
He didn’t talk to me the rest of the night, but he hung around and talked to others. I never was able to determine what exactly he believed, I think he made it up as he went along.
Later, there was another guy who stopped by to ask if I had any spare change. I told him to hang around because we were going to be doing some trivia for money. He got two of the three questions right and decided to take the Good Person test, even though he didn’t consider himself a good person by God’s standards. It seemed that he had heard it before, but we went through it all for anyone else who may have been listening.
Dan gave him a Bible, and I gave him a “Why Christianity” tract and we talked for a while about different questions that he had, like why God allows bad things to happen to people. We explained that we are living in a fallen world, cursed by sin. If God were to remove every evil from the world tonight, none of us would be here in the morning. So, we left him with some eternal matters to consider, and hopefully cleared up at least some of his questions.
We handed out more tracts and Linda did some open air, then we packed up and went to get something to eat. One of the new people met us there there, and we talked to her for a while about some of the experiences on Mill Ave.
The people from the class that day were all from the same church and seemed really excited about going out and witnessing to others. It sounds like they are going to organize it as a church event and come out to Mill once a month.
On my way home, I saw a small pick up with it’s hazard lights on, and someone pushing it up the off ramp. I circled back around to see if I could help. It’s not always a good idea to stop for a broken down car at 1:00 in the morning, but I figured no one else would do it. There were two young women who had run out of gas. They had a cell phone and were calling roadside assistance, but that can take a while, so I pushed them about a mile to a nearby gas station with my car. They were very appreciative, and the one said, “big hug”, so I gave her a hug and left them with a couple of tracts. I don't know how receptive they might be to the Christian Gospel, as they had a "=" sign on their back window. If you're unfamiliar with that, check out this website.
http://www.hrc.org/
Please pray for them both, that God would convict them and draw them to Himself for their salvation, to His glory alone!
And pray for more workers in the harvest field.
Luke 10:2 ><((('>
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