Mixed Reviews

I had asked my church for prayer for the preaching I was to do on Thursday. I tried to catch both the early and the late Cardinals' crowd, but I just found out that I am beginning work on Friday morning, so I couldn't stay up that late. So I tried to make the most of what I had.

And the Lord blessed. Over 600 people heard the Gospel loud and clear that day. Some were happy, some were upset, some were annoyed, some were grateful. One car applauded me, the best ovation I have received since doing this.

That was right before the car where the guy mocked those who believe the Bible, and I made the HUGE mistake of telling him about a book that upheld the Bible instead of sticking to Scripture. Then some dude (same train) mentioned something about the Da Vinci Code. I laughed, and called that a big joke, to which he responded that it was not. Needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled with that one, but I had forgotten something very important:

People who make excuses not to believe the Bible are not going to believe whatever apologetics we might have. The guy who was mocking Bible-believers was way too old for me to suggest a book to him. And, anyway, he needs to read the Bible first. I could only, in good conscience, recommend that book to a Bible-believing Christian who wanted to have some background on the archaeological research findings regarding the Bible. (The book is called Is the Bible True, and was written by Jeffrey Sheler. I found it while browsing through the local library. I don't know if it is still in print.)

What I should have said to him is, "I don't believe the Bible because it says that it is true, but because life proves that it is true!" Which is why I came to trust the Word of God in the first place: I was reading through the Book of Proverbs at a young age, and, very quickly, I could tell that God knew the hearts of men through and through. The analysis throughout the Book of Proverbs of men's hearts and minds (and women's, too) just rang true to the heart and experience of that little boy reading it. My parents were not good examples of the Christian walk (the insults they hurled at each other were about as worldly as one could get), but I knew that, inspite of them, I could trust the Bible.

That is something that no one can argue with. But I gave in to the pride of my new found knowledge and tried to beat the devil at his own game. That is not my job. My job is to preach. And I will lose if I fight the devil, anyway, because it is God's job to rebuke him (see Jude v9).

But, all in all, it was a very good evening. Dara said that she would definitely think about the Gospel because I was so serious (we were talking on my way home). Another young lady was thankful that I had shared it with her. Five more young ladies who were going to have some fun at a local mall wanted to know how long they could put off salvation, but I told them not to. Please pray for them, and the young man who wanted to argue about the nature of Hell (I did not take the bait this time).