Witnessing to Elvis

Jason's Report:

Four of us last night, Mark, Luke, Anne, and I. We were all kind of tired and none of us felt like going. Feelings however, can be quite misleading, as every single time I have gone down dragging my feet, I always come back with something to click my heels about. Tonight was no exception, although it was frustrating at the same time.

Anne and I joined ranks, and Luke and Mark set off together. Many more people on the streets tonight than there were the last couple of weeks. After passing out quite a few tracts, we struck up a conversation with Jacob and Sonny, two guys hanging out in front of one of the tattoo parlours. Jacob didn't seem too keen on the tract that we had given him, but I pressed on and took him through the good person test. He still didn't seem to be all that enthusiastic about the conversation, but a little ways into the conversation he did claim that he was a Christian and that he was born again. Keeping in mind that it's extremely easy to call oneself a Christian in our country, and being convinced from experience that many people that profess Christianity don't actually know God, or they have an idolatrous concept of God, I went on to talk about the essence of what it means to break the second commandment.(Idolatry) The teaching of scripture would be that it's humanity's nature to commit idolatry by shaping a god in our minds (the place of imagery) that we feel comfortable with, a god that has our moral standards, a god in our image, but a god that is not the God of Truth. (Romans 1:18-25). If our concept is in conflict with the God's character and nature, which he has revealed through his Creation, through his word, and through our consciences ( the word conscience means "with knowledge") then there are only two options: We are wrong about what God is like, or the Bible is wrong. The God revealed in the Bible is a God of Justice (Due 32:4), Righteousness (Psalm 111:3), Holiness (1 Samuel 2:2) and Truth (Psalm 119:160) (I didn't have these verses at the time, looked up the scriptures while writing this) How in the world could God change simply because you or I conceive him to be a certain way? Idolatry is just a way to be comfortable with your sin. A golden calf has no moral dictates so when that's your idea of God, you can do what you want. Tragically, it's the oldest sin in the book, and the bible warns that Idolatorers won't inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 5:5) I think that was laying it on pretty heavy, because he responded with a slight amount of contempt by saying " Do you have any idea what you're talking about?. I cheerfully told him I did (if only because it agrees with the bible) .

Sigh.Sometimes conversations with people who profess to be Christians are the most difficult since it's often where we experience the most opposition when trying to share the biblical gospel. You would think that a Christian would rejoice that the Gospel is being preached, but many whom we talk to that profess to be Christians often have nothing but scathing criticism about the method or the spirit in which it's being done, which runs contrary to what Paul said in Philipians 1:15-18

Phi 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.
Phi 1:16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
Phi 1:17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
Phi 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Even if we were preaching Christ for the wrong motive, according to Paul, just the fact that Christ is preached is occasion to rejoice, yet so many in deep ellum who profess to be Christians don't see it that way. That's where saturating our points with scripture can be so effective, especially with someone who is making the claim that the're a Christian. I often see two reactions to this. Either the person becomes really agitated or critical of what you're saying (convicted perhaps?) , or the word of God begins to really command their respect. I believe the latter was the case with Jacob at the end of the conversation. Please pray for him, since it was really hard to discern what the sate of his heart really was. "For out of the mouth speaks the abundance of the heart." (Matt 12:34)

We also talked to people with the following names. Elvis (hence the title of this post), Rene, Will, Fred, Derrick.