Great Peace

We had an interesting night downtown Saturday; Tony put on his sandwich board and we stood near Torero's and the Irish Pub. There were several guys in one of the housing units above Torero's. They noticed the "foolish preacher" outside of their window and decided to mock and laugh at it. They opened their window and the one guy read the sign out loud "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom". Tony turned the sign around, and the guy read out loud "You must turn from your sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone". They kept their window open for about a minute and Tony preached a short message of repentance and faith in Christ. They eventually closed their blinds as well.

There was also an older gentleman by the name of Wayne that was standing in front of the Irish Pub. He was staring at the sign and Tony asked him what he thought about it. He said something along the lines of "Well, it's pretty foolish to stand in front of two bars and condemn people for getting drunk". It's so neat to watch God work!! We had said nothing at all about alcohol... the only "preaching" this guy saw was those two phrases written on the sandwich board and his conscience bore witness with that. He condemned himself. Tony was super nice to Wayne and we just had some small chit chat. Wayne politely voiced his opinion about us "shoving religion down peoples throats" and how everyone can believe what they want to believe. Tony was bringing out the point how humans want justice served to rapists and murderers. Wayne agreed. "...we don't like it when someone lies to us..." Wayne was real quick to say "Oh, I don't tell lies". His conscience condemned him once again. We didn't "preach" to him... just had a super nice conversation. We think Wayne walked away very shocked, to say the least. He was expecting the guy behind the sign to try and "shove Jesus down his throat". But that was not the case at all. We go out and preach the gospel not to see souls saved... that is not why we evangelize. We proclaim the gospel because it is a command of God to all Christians and our sole purpose for being out there is to bring glory to our Father by being a faithful messenger! We can't save anybody... God is in control of that! It reminded us of something Paul Washer said "When I sat down on a plane, I shared the gospel with the person beside if they wanted to hear it or not. But now, I talk with the person - carry on a real conversation with them. If God happens to open a door during the conversation, then I will share the gospel with them. But if a door doesn't seem to open, I may say Sir, I am a Christian, and if you don't mind I'd like to talk about the faith with you. If the person is open to the idea, I will continue. If not, then I don't say anything else about it and we just continue on with our "everyday" talk.

Our final encounter was actually with a demon possesed man by the name of Kool-aid. Tony and Josh talked with him often when they used to ride their bikes downtown. There was also another time that Kool-aid approached Tony & I and wanted money for food. We offered to buy him a meal at Hardee's, but he didn't want that. He just wanted the money because he was going to travel to MarMac and he would be hungry when he got there. We said we would be happy to purchase food for him at Hardee's, but we could not give him the money. He walked away angry. His mannerisms were no different this time. He staggered toward us, tilted his head sideways and read the sign. He said some things under his breath and walked the opposite direction to two guys that had been drinking in the pub. He asked them for a cigarette. Kool-aid began to say stuff about "Jesus" and insisted that those guys pray for him... right there on the spot. So they did, they gathered in a circle and prayed for him. It was all a mockery. Kool-aid walked away from them and staggered back toward us and kept saying "God is good. God is good." We could just sense the evil. He reached out with a cigarette in his hand and touched Tony's Bible. Tony brought his Bible behind the sandwichboard. The demon said "I'm sorry sir. I mean no offense". He cocked his head to the side and said to Tony... "will you pray for me?" "No sir, we can't do that." "You can't pray?" "No sir." Then he looked me in the eyes and stepped a little bit closer. "Will you pray for me?" "No sir, we can't do that." "You can't pray?... Well, I'll pray for you then." He acted as if he were about to kneel down before us. Tony said "Do not mock our God." "Oh, no sir. I don't mock my God." "Do not mock our God." He said something under his breath and walked away angry. God sent His angels to protect us!! Great peace have they which love thy law, nothing shall offend them.