Saturday 04-24-10

Saturday was an awesome day of sharing the Gospel!

We had a WOTM Crash Course on Saturday before heading out to distribute tracts and witnesses to the lost, in obedience to the Great Commission. We prayed after the class, and headed out seperately, as some had to stop off for different reasons before meeting at Mill.

I stopped off at Burger King to use the restroom and get some change for trivia questions. You have to buy something to use the restroom, and I needed some ones to give away for trivia in order to gather a crowd, so I bought a double burger for a dollar and brought it with me.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but as I arrived at 5th St, there was a homeless woman with a baby hanging around there, so I gave her the burger and a tract to read through.

Leigh was already out there passing out tracts. Alan came a little later, and then Tom & Catherine with Jean and Doug from the class.

I gave an IQ Test tract to a woman who had just gotten off the bus and was able to talk to her a bit. I took her through the Good Person test, but she would only admit to lying. She said she had never stolen or used the Lord's name in vain. When pressed a little futher, she did admit to lusting as well, which is adultery in the heart and violates the 7th Commandment (Matt 5:28). She still felt she was a "good" Catholic (Prov 20:6), but I explained that Scripture tells us that there are none found good, and that she had already admitted to breaking God's law.

When asked if they would be found innocent or guilty on Judgment Day, so many people will say that they would be "innocent because of Jesus," even though they just admitted to breaking God's law. And they don't seem to understand that Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for sinners (Luke 5:32). If they refuse to admit their guilt, Jesus has nothing for them (Gal 5:4-5), so the correct answer would be "guilty, but forgiven due to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ."

I left her with a couple of tracts and some stuff to think about on eternal matters and her current religion.

Tom and I were playing with an optical illusion which looks like you are throwing a light back and forth between each other. A small group stopped to take pictures of this, and Tom was able to start a conversation with a girl named Emily and her mother, who listened as he took her through a few of the commandments and explained our need for a Savior. It was a pretty long discussion, but we left them with a "Save Yourself Some Pain" tract and an "Are You Good Enough to Get into Heaven" tract, which takes you through all ten of the commandments. I'm not sure how receptive they were, but they were willing to look into it a bit further - seeds planted.

Then Tom did some open air trivia, and talked with a woman named Roxanne and her friend. Both women seemed very much into the grace and love, warm fuzzy message of the modern Gospel and didn't like talking about the other side of it - God's wrath against sin and rebellion, punishment in hell and how we all deserve that for breaking His law. But they did listen to the whole thing, and we left them with some good tracts to read through later as well.

A young lady approached us saying that she needed $1.75 because they had missed their bus and couldn't get to a friend's house where they were staying. Earlier, I had found "A Gift For You" tract that I'd forgotten that I had put a five dollar bill in. This is an envelope with a good Gospel message printed on it, and little tabs to secure money inside. So I gave her that and told her to make sure that she read it, and went back to organize some stuff in my backpack.
I turned around and there she was, and grabbed me in a big bear hug and thanked me.

After that, Jean got on the soapbox to do her first open air. She did very well and didn't seem nervous at all. We only knew that she was because we can remember the first time we stepped up there to do it. She did an awesome job, going through the Ten Commandments. God's Word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11), and it went out on Saturday night on Mill Ave.

Later on, I got up to do some open air trivia, and a woman named Marcella agreed to take the Good Person Test. She found that she wasn't a good person at all by God's standard, and I explained the Gospel and what we need to do in order for Christ's sacrifice to apply to us - repent and trust in Him alone. She thanked us and we gave her a couple extra tracts to take with her as she left with her family.

Marcus and Phil were preaching at the corner, and there was a drunk who was a bit upset at the message as well as the video camera. I helped herd him away a couple of times before he finally left.
Apparently, wherever he went, someone sprayed him with pepper spray, and he came back to blame the street preachers.

Doug stayed with me as others headed out for the night, and we passed out more tracts before heading home ourselves around 12:30 or so.

It was a great night, people were very receptive to tracts and we distributed a lot of them, finding only a few of them tossed on the ground. We had many good discussions with people and God's Word was proclaimed.

Here's a video sample. You can find more at Tom's blog - tillthenetsrful.



Soli Deo Gloria.