Today the police were called as we were preaching. The same man from the railway station who took issue with us last time stepped it up a notch today to try to get rid of us.

(I think perhaps my chalking the whole of John 3:16 on the footpath in huge letters didn’t help the situation.)

The police came and spoke to us. They were very polite and almost apologetic. I could tell they didn’t want to be there but had to look as if they were doing something as the railway man was watching on from a distance.

After they left and I began preaching again railway man was heard to proclaim in consternation:

“She’s at it again!”

Well what am I to do? As polite and respectful as I must be to these people, I have been sent there by a higher authority and I “…ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

Another person who took exception to our presence was a young man who became more and more agitated as I preached. He was pacing back and forth in front of me. When I finished I went over to speak to him.

“You are going about it the wrong way! You can’t get up there and say that Jesus is the only way to God. Everybody has their own experiences. You are pushing your doctrines on everyone else.”

But Jesus is the only way to the Father, He says so.

“No He’s not. God isn’t a somebody anyway. He is quantum vibrations. We are all part of these vibrations and we are meant to co-create with him.”

(Does this sound wacky to you? This is classic New Age-ism. What if I told you that this thinking is actually gaining ground in the Christian church?

There’s a book called “The Physics of Heaven” that talks about the same “quantum vibrations” of which we are all part etc. Bill Johnson of Bethel Church contributed to this book, his wife wrote a chapter and his personal assistant co-authored it. [1])

The young man became more and more agitated as I shared more of the basic gospel with him. He told me that it is all about self, that self has to evolve to a higher level. I told him Jesus said we are to deny self, take up our cross and follow Him, that it is no longer I that lives but Christ who lives in me.

He literally pulled on his own hair with his two hands in exasperation:

“Well no wonder then!” he shrieked. He took off then, looking back at me over his shoulder still shrieking at me.

I tell you it’s never boring!

Feeling dead? Bit lifeless in a pew? Come to the streets!! Ha ha

Towards the end of our time there on Friday a young man came up to us.

“What church do you go to?” he asked.

I explained that we are from three different churches and come together to share the gospel.

He said, “Why don’t most churches do this? Why is it so hard to find anyone who does this, when the Bible is so clear about it?”

Good question mate.

 

“Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”

William Booth

 

[1] The New Age Propensities of Bethel Church’s Bill Johnson, Lighthouse Trails booklet