Saturday 09/29/12

It seemed that things were going to be kind of slow on Mill Ave this past Saturday night. But it definitely livened up a bit after a while.

We had a group of "flying spaghetti monster" followers (Wiki), as well as a Native American who was arguing with Tom and a group of Muslims who talked with him for a few hours.

A couple named Natalie and Chris stopped to look over the Illusion board and I took them through the 4 "genius" questions at the top, then went into the Good Person Test (GPT). They are Christians from TX, but Natalie would not admit that she would end up in hell if held to the standard of the Ten Commandments, always referring to God's grace. But I explained to them more fully the reason that we need a Savior is because we cannot be saved without Him. I explained the Gospel and the way that we do it, and gave them each a tract to look over later. They understood and seemed to agree with our Gospel proclamation as they headed out.

Next I spoke with a guy named Raul, who said that he was not a good person, but we went through the test anyway He said he'd been to church and he did have some knowledge. I explained it to him that there are none found good in God's eyes, we do not deserve to go to heaven and there is nothing we can do to earn our way. Salvation is a gift of God, and we simply must repent of our sins and trust in Him alone. I gave him a prize of a glow stick, even though he didn't earn it and didn't deserve it, as a demonstration of God's grace. In the same way, we don't deserve to be let into heaven and we cannot earn our way there.
Later, Dan took a few of Raul's friends through the GPT as well.

A man named Bill was looking at our board, so we talked with him and took him through the GPT. He stated that he was a Christian as well, and trying to raise is son right. I gave him the curved illusion tract to show his son (kids like the illusions) and a tract to read through for himself later on. He was agreeable and said that the way we explained it made sense to him.

Later, a taxi stopped behind our board and 5 or 6 people got out. Two of them came around to the front of our illusion board to see what it was. I took them through the first questions, but the guy would not even answer the one about how many of each animal was on the ark, claiming, "It's all fictional anyway." But the girl answered and we went through all four. They had been drinking and looked like they were going to head out, so I gave them each a Smart Card tract to take with them. Then the entire group, having gone nowhere since exiting the last cab, all got into a different cab and went somewhere else.

It was a pretty productive night, proclaiming the Gospel to the lost on the dark streets of Mill Ave in downtown Tempe, AZ.

Soli Deo Gloria