I had a wonderful time in outreach with Elaine and Heidi. The policemen and officials in customer service at LIRR and MTA all seemed to appreciate us being there. One guy paused and simply said, "God bless you" as he passed.
One man said he had been hurt by TV preachers wanting money. He took the book by Jackie Alnor, The Fleecing of Christianity, of documentation about the Word Faith movement. Her book explains that God does not exist to do our will; we exist to do His! The man promised to read the book on the train.
We were very busy with a great place to set up the table, making Bibles and materials about Jesus for free to anyone passing. We gave out many tracts, booklets, articles and Bibles to people from all walks of life.
Elaine prayed with some women going through a hard time. The women really appreciated it. They both took materials to read about what it means to be saved, including a transcript of a sermon from 1810.
Elaine and Heidi got to share with many people who stopped by more about why we believe in Jesus. One person took 'Where is God When Things Go Wrong?' We gave out all of our booklets by Mark Cahill about why all religions are not one. Many tracts were taken for Catholics. The "Atheists Tests" always make the atheists smile, so many of the little tracts by Ray Comfort were taken.
Heidi and Elaine spoke with a woman who was a student of science, and she did not believe in evolution. She took everything we had on the table on the subject, including a CD of an interview with professor Jobe Martin, as Jan Markell interviewed him about how he came to see evolution as only a theory and how much it costs professors politically to take an honest look at the evidence. She took the booklets and DVDs we offer from Eternal Productions about how true science supports the Bible.
Perhaps our most surprising conversation was with a young Moslem man who seemed to sincerely want to know more about Jesus. He took our documentation on the true teachings of Islam, proving that the "Jesus" of Islam is not at all the historical Jesus of Nazareth. I explained that in Surah, chapter 4, Islam teaches that Jesus never died. I explained why His death had historical significance and how that spiritually His crucifixion paid for our sins; there is no Savior for mankind if Jesus did not die on the cross! I was even bold enough to tell the young guy that such a lie was from Satan. I explained how the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus died; historians like Josephus, who were not believers, report that Jesus died, and the earth even shook when He died on the cross. Roman soldiers guarded His tomb, yet His body left the tomb, and He appeared to over 500 witnesses after His resurrection.
I explained to him, as well as one other guy, that if Jesus was not the Savior, Jesus was crazy. He let Himself die in vain and must have been deluded. I love to point that out to people, because they want to believe He was simply a "good man" and not God. Yet, looking closer at the evidence, He was either God in the flesh--Emmanuel, "God with us"--as a loving God who cared enough to actually lay down His life so we can live, or He was simply crazy. We can't have it both ways. That usually jars people a little in their autonomous comfort zone, because they have no answer to such humbling evidence for any sinner to ponder.
One woman approached and left explaining that she was "tolerant of all religions." Heidi suggested, "Would you have been tolerant of Hitler?"
I was privileged to work with these Christian women in missions today after church, and we left our outreach time looking forward to the next time we get to work together at the Long Island Railroad. The people seemed so receptive, wanting materials to read about the Gospel of Jesus on the train. It was an answer to prayer to get to set up in such a nice, clean and warm place in winter months.
We were as loving as we could have possibly been to everyone, even the drunk man who came up as we were folding up the table at the end of our time together. Yet, apart from God's grace and mercy, the precious words of Jesus offend: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6
We were as loving as we could have possibly been to everyone, even the drunk man who came up as we were folding up the table at the end of our time together. Yet, apart from God's grace and mercy, the precious words of Jesus offend: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6
