My Experiences Witnessing

Twice in the last few weeks, I've gone out street preaching in dowtown Palo Alto, just a few blocks from my apartment. I really didn't know what exactly to do at first; I was nervous. I just knew that God was calling me to do something to step out of the comfort zone and be obedient, and He had placed a burning desire to see His power move and capture the hearts of the people for Himself.

I wrote up a 'tract' and made copies of it to hand out. It was really more of an essay entitled "What is Christianity?" because it was over 5 pages long, single-spaced. I'll probably post it here soon. I first walked up University Ave., where I intended to witness and then wandered back off that street to a less crowded area, because I was still pretty nervous and wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do this. So, I prayed and thought for a little while, and the Lord gave me courage to go talk to people. I don't know if my approach was the best, but I tried to get the passerby's attention and then ask them what they thought of Jesus. If they expressed some sort of interest, I usually asked them if they wanted one of my tracts. I convinced a bunch of these people to take one to read later because I had written it myself and it wasn't literature from a big organization.

I had some decent conversations with a few people who were already religious but thought they would get to heaven by being good people. The most likely people to stop and actually talk to me were the old and the young. The vast majority of people who passed by either said "no" without stopping or ignored me altogether. Some people laughed with contempt and only a couple got angry. I could tell by the looks on a lot of the faces that they really looked down on me for asking such an ignorant question.

When I was with my friend the other time, we had a long conversation with a guy who was really off the deep end with all sorts religious/political conspiracy theories that looked to Eastern religions for the answers. The one thing that struck me toward the end of our lengthy conversation was how impervious he was to any sort of logic. Logic is generally my style. I usually think I can convince people of the truth. But it wasn't happening. On our way home, we got to buy some homeless guys some sandwhiches and talk with them a little.

It was after this experience and talking to my sister on the phone that I studied the passages in Matthew about the kingdom of God and the power of Satan. there's no hokey-pokey magic incantaitons here. Just realizing what the Bible said we ought to be mindful of: we have an adversary who is seeking to destroy us. The unsaved aren't just floating out in non-committal without Jesus; they are under Satan's thumb, serving him and being actively deceived by him. What does this tell me? My attempts at logically convincing somebody to follow Jesus are futile by themselves. The power of God must do the work. The person's heart must be broken over their sin and the arrogance of living apart from God's commandments in order for them to realize the truth of Jesus' claims.