Street Preaching

With the temperature in the twenties, three of us went out this week on the streets of Hartford. The change in weather was quite dramatic, since the last time we went the temperature was in the fifties or sixties. In any case, the elements did seem to drive more people indoors, so there were not as many people on the streets.

We were able to talk to one girl who was mixed up in Pentecostal doctrine. She was adamant about baptism and speaking in "toungues" being necessary for salvation. I showed her in the Bible several instances of where the "requirements" for salvation were simply "calling on the name of the Lord," and that it was by "grace through faith, and ...not of yourselves." Unfortunately she kept saying that she knew that speaking in toungues and baptism were "in the Bible somewhere" (as being necessary for salvation) because her grandmother told her so. You can see how blinded and confused she was by the fact that when I told her that salvation is a free gift, she responded, "yes, it's the gift of toungues." Even when shown Romans 6:23 where it clearly states that the gift of God is "ETERNAL LIFE" she still refused to accept it.
And so it goes with most people. They refuse to accept the authority of the Bible as the foundation for their belief, and rely instead upon fallible man's opinion. It always comes down to that issue when we deal with people on the street:

Salvation is by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), and "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever." I Peter 1:23

We covet your prayers for our hearts to be tender towards the people on the street, to have God's power in proclaiming the gospel to a lost and dying world, and that these people would have their blinded eyes opened by the "light of the glorious gospel of Christ."