First Amendment, Again

Some people just don't get it.

Some guy tried to show me up because I wasn't preaching while the guard was on the train this morning. I had two reasons:

1) The guard was checking passes and I never interfere with that.

2) No new people besides the guard had boarded at the last station, so everyone had heard the truth.

Anyway, while the guard was standing by me, the guy said, "Hey, why aren't you preaching now?"

Emboldened by his challenge, I said, "Hey, why not?" and started to preach. The guard interrupted me to say that I couldn't do that. I reminded him of the First Amendment. He said, "But what did I tell you last time. Just keep it down a bit so people are not disturbed. Isn't that okay?"

I said, "No. Because you are interfering with my First Amendment right. Look, I've talked to the people down at the Headquarters at Metro, and they told me that I have the right to preach." (Two employees have in fact told me so.)

He said, "All I'm saying is, when we start getting complaints, it becomes more than a First Amendment issue," and got off to check the tickets on the next car.

Whatever.

I still didn't preach until after the next stop. Because there wasn't enough time to get the whole sermon out, and the people there had already heard it. Then there were new people on board, so I did start preaching again. And the guy didn't get off until way the station before I did, so I was happy.

Tonight, I did not preach as loudly as I wanted to. I think I was intimidated by the security guard on the end and by a coworker (whom I have already given a tract). I don't know what was up, but I know it wasn't my voice level.

After I got off the train, I witnessed to several people 1-2-1 as I tried to find the store to repair my cell phone. Then when I got there, I was a bit unnerved by the "no soliciting" notice, but I got over that fear soon enough when I saw the back of some lady's shirt. She had a rugby tournament's final scores on the back of her T-shirt, so I asked her about it.

Then after a while I took her through the good person test. Then when I tried to give her the results, she knew that I was a Christian and said that she didn't want any part of it. Normally, I would have backed off and let her be, but I cared about her soul, so I asked her about her personal belief system. Then I asked her what was so wrong with loving your neighbor as you love yourself, which is the essense of Christian behavior (Romans 13:8-10). She said she had no problem with that, she had a problem with hypocrites.

At this point, I like to tell people about Matthew 7:21-23: Jesus explicitly states that there will be a LOT of church people in Hell. But then I found out that she doesn't like the idea of Hell. "So, sin doesn't get punished?"

"If you can't include everybody, I'm not with it." See, the thing is, God's plan of salvation is for everyone--some people just don't like it and refuse to take it. There being no other option for these rebels, God sends them to Hell. She tried to say that God sends people to Hell because they reject Jesus, saying that even an otherwise good person would be unjustly cast into Hell simply because he rejected Jesus. That is not true.

The fact is, there is no one who is good except God. I could quote Romans 3:23 right here, but I think this is better illustrated by asking one very simple question: "Have you ever told a lie?" Right away, most people try to hide amongst the crowd: "Everybody has told a lie at some point in their life time!" proving that there is no such thing as a good person: "...and al liars shall have their part in the Lake of Fire."

People are sent to Hell because they die in their sins. If they were to be cleansed from their sins, they would not go to Hell. Jesus is the only One who can cleanse anyone from their sins. He is the only Man who has defeated death: He rose from the grave the third day, and is alive forevermore. No one else can make that claim. So trusting anyone else to save your soul is just plain foolish. People may not see it that way, but it is the truth.

And ya'll have a good night, I need to go to bed.