Saturday 06-18-11

Another Saturday night on Mill Ave.  I spoke with Tamara, a woman who had stopped by in the crowd to listen to Brandt doing some Open Air Preaching. She seemed receptive to the message, so I gave her a couple of tracts and showed her the website on the back that she could check out later.

Brandt sent a man named Santi (short for Santiago), over to talk with me while he was doing Open Air. Santi had been drinking a bit, but did seem open to hearing the Gospel. I took him through The Good Person Test  and he understood his need for a Savior. I gave him an "Are You Good Enough to Get into Heaven?" tract and then he went back to listen to Brandt for a while.

A man named Matt had come over to stand next to our cross. He had a crown of thorns on his hat, and claimed that he was Jesus Christ. He also said that we're all gods. He seemed to have a warped mixture of humanism, pantheism and a little bit of watered down Christianity as his smorgasbord religion. Before he left, he claimed that he spoke some truth to me, and I told him that I'd spoken some truth to him as well. We didn't agree, but shook hands as he headed down the street. Please pray that the Lord would work in him, showing him the error of attempting to mix Christianity with any other belief system.

We were speaking to a couple of young women that had stopped to read the giant sign that Marcus has. An obnoxious man interupted Brandt, claiming that Mormonism is the same as Christianity. He later admitted that he wasn't even Mormon, but Muslim and he claimed that his religion taught to leave other religions alone to believe what they want. He was drunk, smoking and cursing, so he wasn't even following his own professed beliefs.

Here is another crazy guy that decided to hang out for a while, making these "Satanic" signs with his hands and speaking some occasional gibberish and other times speaking English, yet still making no sense. He was only attempting to be a distraction.

Melissa Tribel, who gave me the URL's previously, was back so I gave her a copy of the response which I had printed from my post here. She took it and came back to argue with me for a while. She gets all excited and paces back and forth, jumps and yells while trying to make her point. After a while of this fruitless activity, Joe came over and she started talking to him so I took the opportunity to go back to passing out tracts. Later on Alan came over to speak with her and then Joe managed to escape.

Sometimes you can tell when you're wasting your time on rabbit trails, keeping you from witnessing to people who would be more open and receptive to the Gospel. Still, seeds planted, it was a good night of carrying out the Great Commission in obedience to our Lord and Savior.

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 06-11-11

Saturday night started out kind of slow. We prayed and began handing out some tracts. 

Brandt showed up with his sign, and people were already coming and asking about it before we had it completely set up. The sign asks, "Who's Right?" and lists some differnt religions in order to start a discussion.

It works quite well, sometimes people are angry, even though the sign does not imply any religion over another, it just asks the question.

Joe saw a couple of people that he knew, Jose and Jeanine, so he introduced them to Tom, who took them through the Good Person Test. They claimed to be Christians, but were angry at hearing the Law before Grace, claiming their own self-righteousness (see Prov 20:6). Then they asked if Tom had ever heard of the WOTM with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, claiming that their church had gone through some of their teachings. They had no idea that Tom has been offering these free seminars every month for years, equipping people to be able to share their faith. It seemed to be their pride that got in the way.

They left, not liking what they heard, even though Tom took them straight through it just like Ray and Kirk do. I’m not sure what they saw in the teaching from their church, because they didn't comprehend the very basic teaching of the WOTM, that none of us are good on our own when held to God's moral standard.

I like the way that I heard John MacArthur once answered the question of whether or not he considered himself to be a good person. He stated that he had an alien righteousness. I like that answer, it sums it up nicely.

I did see the two of them hanging around in the background while Brandt was preaching later, but didn't get a chance to talk to them, so I have no idea what they thought of that.

Brandt did some Open Air Trivia, and drew a crowd pretty quickly. One guy was irritated with the conversation and kicked the stool that Brandt was standing on as he left. We would end up seeing that guy again later.

I spoke with a man named Jess, who was pretty drunk. He was standing near the back of the crowd as Brandt was speaking, and he seemed like he wanted to talk. He asked me what I would say to someone like him, someone who wasn’t sure, but was no longer denying God, either. He said that a few years ago, he would be mocking us like a couple of atheists were, but now that he was older (25), he was reconsidering things. Even in his drunkeness, the Lord was working in this guy.

I explained the difference between Christianity and every religion in the world, that they all teach that you have to do something, while Christianity says there’s nothing you can do, no possible way to earn your way into God's good graces. I told him how it’s already been done for us, that God has actually paid the fine for us, and that the good works which follow are solely out of gratitude, not attempting to earn our way. All that's left for us to do is repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. I gave him a “Why Christianity?” tract, which briefly explains this difference. He said he had a Bible, but I gave him a book of John anyway, since it’s small and easy to carry. I also gave him an “Are You Good Enough to Get into Heaven?” tract.

He wanted to know more, so I took him through The Good Person Test. He admitted his guilt and could understand his need for a Savior. He shook my hand and gave me a hug, saying that he was glad that I had taken the time to explain it to him. I told him that I’d keep him in prayer, and would ask everyone reading this to do the same.

As Brandt was talking with a crowd of people that had stopped, a man jumped out of the passenger side of a car on the street, ran up and threw his drink on him, splashing many in the crowd as well. Brandt was pretty quick with a response, as he said, “Thank you, sir, but I ordered a diet drink!” Kat said it was the same guy from earlier that had kicked the stool. She got the license number on the car, but we dried off the mic and speaker and let it go.

Later, the same guy came walking up from a different direction and threw a cup of water on Brandt. Marcus and I grabbed the guy and took him down to hold him until the police could get there. Brandt was calling for the policy over the loudspeaker, and Kat called them from her cell phone. The guy was trying to get away, but two other big guys came up. It turns out that Kat had asked them for help, and they had seen the previous encounter with this guy. One of them held his legs, while the other put his leg across the guys shoulder and stretched his arm out in an arm bar, rendering him immobile until the police arrived and arrested him for assault. Brandt is still hoping to get a tract into his hands when they go to court.

A couple of other saw Tom's sign and stopped to ask us about the Good Person Test. I took them through it, and when we got to the part about hell, they said they'd be concerned if they believed in it. I told them that their lack of belief does not make something untrue. If they stood out in the middle of the street in complete disbelief of cars, it wouldn't prevent them from being hit by one. We all put our faith into something, some put it into God, others put theirs into man. They were pretty knowledgeable about the Bible, but didn't believe it. I gave them answers to some of their objections, such as the "two different creation accounts" which is pretty common. It's actually a single account: the "first" one is a general overview and then it goes back and gives a more detailed account of the same thing for what people call the "second"one.

I couldn't answer all of their questions and objections, but we had a pretty good discussion. Then one of them got a phone call on his cell and they had to go. I pray that they would consider the subject more, and find some better sources for their information. They stated that they didn't believe that there was any proof that Jesus existed at all, which most unbelievers who have studied will concede is untrue. There is simply too much evidence to say that He never existed, yet many still refuse to believe that He is God. Unless the Lord converts them, they will never believe on their own. Pray for their salvation to God's glory alone.

We packed up and went to Subway around 1:00 in the morning for some fellowship before heading out in our different directions to go home.

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 06-04-11

It was kind of slow on Mill Ave this weekend, as it starts to get hotter, school is out, so there are not as many people around. We had a lot of Christians out to share the Gospel though, and it was a good night.

Shawn and Kayleigh (our atheists from the Skeptic Tank) came out, we haven't seen them in a while. Joe went over and prayed near her, which makes her extremely angry. She set off her siren on the bullhorn and told him to get away from her, yet she was walking towards him as she said this.
They hung around for a little while, but Kayleigh said that the Christian music that I was playing was making her nautious, so they left. I told them to come back later, and she said, "No!" and left us with a profanity. I really don't think it was our music that bothered her so much as the prayers of Joe, rebuking the demonic influence.

Tom talked to a woman who was a Christian and took her through the Good Person Test for a couple of glow sticks.
I gave her a "Save Yourself Some Pain" booklet by Ray Comfort, and she said she liked Ray's stuff.

Tom talked with another guy who came by and went through the Good Person Test.  He claimed that he was God, and that God was in everything in the universe - some sort of pantheist view, I guess.  Tom gave him the glowstick and he went on his way, refusing any tracts or other information from us.

Brandt did some Open Air Trivia and took a few people through the Good Person Test. He can always gather a pretty good crowd.

A woman stopped by to tell him (as well as the rest of us) that God is all loving and that we need to forgive ourselves instead of projecting our guilt on to others.  Brandt explained the Gospel to her, but she just wasn't getting it.  Kat talked with her as well, but this woman was unwilling to let go of her view and look at what the Bible actually said. She was an average false convert that we find so many of in America today, due to a watered down Gospel message. I didn't get her name, but God knows who she is, please pray that He will reveal Himself to her that she might realize her only hope and only need is forgiveness by the one true God of the Bible whom she's offended through transgressing His moral Law.

We packed up a little early since it was slow and went to Taco Bell for some food and fellowhip before heading home.

Soli Deo Gloria

First Friday 06-03-11

We took our 8 year old daughter out with us to First Friday. She loves going, but we don't make it out there very often. She took advantage of the time and handed out tons of tracts. She also got on the box a couple of times to recite the Ten Commandments.

A young kid and his girlfriend stopped by to ask me for proof of God's existence, I gave him the analogy that a building is proof that there is a builder and a painting itself is the proof that there was a painter, so creation is obvious proof that there was a Creator, but he didn't want to accept any "lame analagies." Basically, he had no answer to this simple way of proving God's existence, so he simply rejects it. But he's left without excuse (Rom 1:20). May the Lord work in his heart and bring him to salvation.

A woman named Teresa went through the Good Person Test, after a couple of trivia questions. She was a believer, but explaining the Law and the need for a Savior seemed to make more sense to her.

A couple of our atheists came out and set up a video camera in front of us. They said they were trying out a new camera and hung around for a while before moving on to another location. Interesting that they decided to film us, I'm thinking they want to get their own critique ready for further opposition to the street preaching.
We were only out there for a couple of hours, but it was very busy. We distributed a lot of tracts and talked with a lot of people.

Soli Deo Gloria