Alive @ five......again

This is the Alive at 5 street party getting set up.

Jeremy S. and I went to the streets again to share the gospel. What an immense privilege to be able to take the greatest news ever told to a dying people. I thank God for the privilege to go and for the fact that He has ordained to save His people through the means of preaching His Word by us lowly men.

There was, again, a good crowd of people out for the party. We first talked with a group of kids who were all Atheists except one proclaimed he was a Christian but after about 15 seconds we found out he wasn't. They liked the card trick I did and Jeremy's T-shirt and thought we were pretty cool, that is until I brought up the name of Christ and then their attitude changed. I took them through the Law and Gospel, they argued a little, said they could care less if they went to Hell, questioned our motivations and the authority of the Bible, and threw out a few lame objections that an eight year old boy could throw down. Seeds planted.

Next, I started a great conversation with a man from Costa Rica but right when I was about to get into the gospel his kid came up to him and they had to go.

Same situation happened again. I met a kid that lived in Belize, Central America for a while. We had a good talk about it and I asked his religion and he said some kind of Indian religion and they his friends came and he left.

We moved down town and found a man smoking outside a bar so I did a trick and asked a few questions. He said he was an atheist and would never change. His friend came out of the bar so I gave them both tracts and I gave the atheist the "atheist test" tract and they went back inside.

The next conversation was typical of half the kids in Helena except this guy I was talking to was in his 20's. After the small talk I was taking him through the commandments and he gladly admitted to lusting and said that is why he came to Alive at 5 and plans to continue it. I asked if he ever used the Lord's name in vain and then he proceeded to use the name Jesus as a cuss word in conjunction with every other cuss word. He wove a line of blasphemy that would blush a sailor. I can only image the angles of God looking at this man and they looking a God, just waiting for the permission to slaughter this man where he stood in the blink of an eye. How merciful and patient is God. His buddies drove up and he jumped in with them and they mocked us from the car saying, "hail Jesus".

We talked to a girl that was trying to get people to sign a petition to get better bus service in Helena. I didn't want to talk with her but it turned out it was the best conversation of the night. She was convicted and searching and Jeremy and I talked with her for a while about the gospel. She had some questions which I answered and it seemed like she was genuinely interested and said she would look into the things we said.

We talked to a few more people and were heading out when we ran into the Messianic Jew, at least that was his claim. We talked for a long time with this guy and the more we talked the more we were confused. He had some crazy beliefs and couldn't explain the gospel or what it takes to be made right with God. Some of the weird things this guy said were:
1. we shouldn't focus on the gospel
2. Syria was going to be hit with a nuke from Israel on September 20th, 2010
3. Aliens are real and he worked on one of their space ships.

It was a good night for the gospel. We faced some of the standard mocking from people that were too dumb to actually argue with logic but we are used to this and expect it because Jesus said:

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
(John 15:18-21)