We left off Part One after street preaching for the first. I will next try to cover the period of time from late August until, well, now.
September thru November could probably best be described by these verses:
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
I write these posts praying that someone will read them and God would give them a spirit of power, love, and sound mind. Pray to God to be made more like Jesus. You will not be perfect. There will be trials. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Be wise where you spend your time. I spent a few weeks in September blogging with staunch Catholics (a fragment of which you can see in the “Sola Scriptura” post) and, as you can imagine, there was not much movement on either side of the authority of the Word of God discussion. Not having the extensive knowledge Church History that they did, plus not seeing the Holy Spirit apply the true, saving gospel to their hard hearts, I ended my participation. It was not easy, because I want to contend for the faith (Jude 3), however around this time I felt the pull of street ministry and began to read articles about public evangelism and watch other (good) street preachers.
Handing out tracts for the first time was a bit strange. Yes, the gospel is on the tract. Yes, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. Yet it was out of my comfort zone. Thank God for the encouragement of Bobby, Alex, Peter, Mike, and Scott who helped me to see that a man is just that – a man, and that I should not fear him. Since preaching that first night, I’ve been out a few times. I feel at home on the street corner. Yes, people shout mean things at me. Yes, many walk by without responding. No worries. Most of the time that I’ve gone out has been after Georgia football games.
Isaiah 55:10-11, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Without these verses, I don’t think I could preach in public. These verses, along with Isaiah 58:1, Luke 14:23, and Romans 1:16-17 are the catalysts for what I hope is a permanent calling of God to this wonderful ministry. And not just public preaching, but also one-on-ones with family and friends.
A quick story – after the Georgia/Auburn game on Nov 14th, I read Romans 3 downtown. My voice was strained from yelling at the game and an earlier mini-sermon, but I preached nonetheless. Someone was standing in front of me for most of the reading. When I was done, it turned out this guy was one of my residents when I was an RA in the summer of 2003. I was in my heyday drinking down iniquity like water (it’s in the Bible, see Job 15:15-16) and it surely blew this man’s mind to see his partying RA reading the word of God on a street corner. Bless God that he saw me! His life may be changed forever.
Here I must note that I do not believe the Bible only allows for street evangelism only. I have been taught that the Great Commission is an “as you are going” commission and it would unwise, I think, to only make the gospel known once a week when there is the internet, phones, etc. There is definitely a place for relational evangelism. A word of caution is that relational evangelism without the gospel is not evangelism. Befriending lost people, hanging out with them, while not introducing them to Christ is not evangelism. I have a friend who is not a believer who I see twice a year (he lives five hours away). I have to take advantages of those times to preach Christ to him. If we just hang out and he doesn’t hear that God is angry with him, he is dead in his sins and cannot save himself, yet Christ died accursed of God and become sin though he did not sin in order to set free cursed sinners like him…then what have I done with that time spent with my lost friend who I have known for over six years?
The point – keep the gospel in the middle of relationships that God is forming with unbelievers. And by the gospel, I mean contrasting the holiness of God with the utter depravity and wickedness of man, using the law to convict of sin and the gospel of peace to shed light into darkness. They may reject the gospel and therefore reject you. Many of them will profess to be Christians. Don’t worry. You are just obeying your Master. The evangelist don’t save souls, God does. It will be a constant battle between your flesh and the Spirit dwelling within you to not take credit for any soul that may be awakened or any sermon that is powerful. Pray. Read Scripture. Flee from the distractions of the world.
Please know I’m not perfect at evangelism. Obey the Holy Spirit. It is not possible to stop and talk to everyone you see in the course of a day about the true gospel. Pray. Take tracts with you wherever you go. God has only been my Father and counted me righteous through Christ for a little over two years. I’m still reckless and unrefined in a lot of ways. I’m still spontaneous and make somewhat odd decisions. Please pray that God would be gracious with me and keep killing my flesh.
Other good news: God has sent me people to have great one-on-one conversations with. Many of them are close friends and many back and forth facebook conversations, phone calls, and face-to-face visits have taken place. Surely there will be more to come to the future. Please pray for inroads with my family and co-workers, as well as God-worked repentance and true faith in Christ in my adopted hometown of Athens, GA.