From Mockers To Hot Chocolate
Ministry Update April 22, 2018
It was great having Kelly and his son Steven join me witnessing downtown Friday night. We basically went from having mockers to someone stopping to give us hot chocolate. I got downtown first, so I handed out tracts until Kelly and Steven got there. Since I had some miscellaneous tracts, I just handed them out. I mostly had the 101 World’s Funniest One Liners and most people took them when I told them I had some jokes for them.
When Kelly and Steven got there, we sang a couple of hymns. Then Steven quoted Proverbs 3:3. After that Kelly preached on being holy because God is Holy. Right away a woman mocked him. I couldn’t hear what she said, but Kelly said God bless you to her as she walked away. The strangest mocker of the night came next. The group of four walked past me first and only one of them took a tract. The tallest guy walked up to Kelly and interrupted his preaching. He wanted to know about penguins walking from Antarctica to Egypt. Kelly basically said he didn’t know what the guy was talking about. The man mouthed off something and the group walked on. Then a passenger in a car made strange, loud noises as the car drove by.
I Love Jesus
I brought a message after Kelly about the wrath of God against disobedient people. I had a couple of mockers including a different passenger making noises as the vehicle drove by. But in addition to the mockers, one guy slowed down in front of me and he was happy to hear Jesus being lifted up in the open-air. After my message, we sang a couple of more hymns to end the night.
Right when we finished up, a woman with her little daughter in the back of the vehicle pulled up right in front of us. The woman said her daughter said something about us probably being cold out there, so the woman bought us some hot chocolate and gave it to us. I was talking to the woman while Kelly handed her daughter a Gospel tract. I told her that she looked familiar and she about that time she recognized me.
Turns out that we worked together at the same bank at our previous jobs. Meanwhile Kelly was telling her daughter the Gospel tract was about Jesus. The sweet little girl then exclaims, “I love Jesus.’ At the same time, Kelly and I both replied, “We love Jesus too.” And we do, that’s why we share the Gospel downtown. It was a sweet way to end the night. May Jesus Christ our Lord be glorified above all.
Brainwashed
Wednesday at MSU, I brought a message about Jesus is Lord. Quinn the atheist who missed last week when I challenged his worldview, showed up this day. He told me he over slept the week before. (It must be tough when you can’t even wake up before noon). Anyway, Quinn started off reading Green Eggs and Ham to mock the preaching. Of course several students laughed as they walked by, including Emily. She seems to get a charge out of Quinn mocking me. It’s a shame, because I really like both of them and I sincerely pray for their salvations. But they are both so hard hearted toward God.
Surprisingly, Quinn mixed it up a little bit. He asked me questions as I brought a message. I answered some and ignored some. He really isn’t interested in the truth and he’s not searching for truth. He just wants to mock God. So if the question seems pertinent and I feel like talking to the other students about it, I answer him. If not, I ignore him and keep going with the message. I did challenge him to read the blog from last week. He whined that it was too long. It’s too bad that a college student doesn’t have a long enough attention span to read about eternal life.
Note Passed To Me
During all of this, a student walked up and dropped her water bottle in front of me. So I picked it up and handed it to her. She thanked me and handed me a note. She is a professing Christian that accuses me of doing more harm than good. it’s all about loving God and loving others. I’m causing her and others like her harm in witnessing to people. Well, based on the content of her letter and the fact that she had no mention of repentance and faith in Jesus, my guess is I need to do harm to her method of evangelism.
If she’s just trying to woo people to Jesus for a better life, then they are more than likely going to miss salvation. Sadly, this young woman may be a false convert herself. She ended the letter telling me that college students are not inherently evil. Well, the Bible says that there is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10) and also that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). My hope and prayer is that this young lady will examine herself to see if she’s in the faith instead of continuing to think she’s ok and telling others they are alright and Jesus loves them. May God open blind eyes, open deaf ears and unharden hard hearts.
Repeating The Same Thing
Right after this, Quinn accused me of repeating the same thing. I told him if he’d ever listen (ears to hear as Jesus said) then I could go on and say other things. But they reject the basics of salvation. He said some pretty crude things this week that I won’t repeat. As he walked off, I told him it really was too bad that he missed last week when I pointed out that his worldview is illogical, inconsistent, and makes him a liar and a thief.
He didn’t like one or more of those comments, so he spun around and came back. I was finishing up and I had to get back to work for a 1 pm appointment. So he walked beside me as I started back toward my car. He did tell me that he quit believing in God after he read the Bible. Quinn called it B.S., and said it’s all a fairy tale and a myth. He was getting louder and upset as he was saying this. So I said why do you get so mad if it’s just a myth.
About that time his skateboard stuck on something and he lurched forward. After he composed himself he told me that he’s not getting mad. But I think he even realized that he was mad. As we parted I told him that it’s illogical to think that the universe created itself out of nothing. He then accused me of being brainwashed. Actually, he’s the one swallowing evolution and everything his professors tell him. So who is really the one being brainwashed?
