Read Ephesians Thirteen Four
Ministry Update July 19, 2020
A passenger in a car pulling out of the parking lot across from us yelled at Conner “Read Ephesians 13:4, Read Ephesians 13:4.” Conner looked over at him and replied, “There is no such verse. There are only six chapters in the book of Ephesians.” We don’t really know if the young man was just trying to see if Conner would try to look up something that wasn’t in the Bible or if the young man was confused and really meant Exodus 3:14.
People have yelled for us to read the great I Am passage in Exodus, but we don’t know if this is what he meant or not. There were other mockers too. One guy drove by and mockingly said “Praise God”. Sadly, he’s done this many times in the past, but you can tell by the smirk on his face that he’s mocking God. There was also a homeless guy that mocked Conner and I both as we brought messages. A young man on a scooter gave a thumbs up while riding by as Conner was preaching.
Praise God Mocker
Guy Looking At The Tract He Had Just Received
City-Wide Mask Ordinance
Friday night was the first night witnessing after the city-wide mask mandate went into effect. The ordinance allows for you to not wear a mask outside as long as you can social distance. Since the place where we stand to open-air preach is more than six feet from the side walk, we felt pretty secure in open-air preaching without the masks. Technically we can also be about six feet away if we stretch our arms out as far as we can and the person receiving a tract does the same thing. So I just played it by ear, if people approaching me had masks on, I put on the mask. I didn’t want someone refusing a Gospel tract because they felt unsafe in taking one from someone not wearing a mask. Likewise, if people walked by us without masks, I just handed them a tract and kept the mask off.
Handling it this way reminded me of what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22: And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I especially like the last line – by all means save some. The Lord does the saving, we just do the planting. I did wear a mask while walking around downtown and handing out tracts. There weren’t as many people out as usual, but several people did take tracts.
(These updates are given to encourage Christians to share the Gospel with others)