On Monday, it was Labor Day. Duane, Debbie and I made plans to meet at Daley Plaza in Dallas to open air preach and share the Law and Gospel. Our plan was to show up and open air. Having never done open air at this location, we just picked a spot on the south west corner of Houston and Elm. We prayed. Then I got up on the box first. I started with some dollar trivia asking questions about JFK and other things to try to draw a crowd. I got a few people to answer some questions. But they did not stick around. Finally one of the vendors came over for a five dollar good person test. It was quickly evident that he was a believer in Jesus and was preaching right along with me. I walked through the Law and the Gospel with him anyway so that everyone around would hear the message. Then I gave him the five dollars as a demonstration of God’s grace.
Duane got up on the box and read Psalm 119 because we had read it together with my family over breakfast at a restaurant. Then Debbie participated in her first Project Ezra reading Matthew 12.
Duane engaged some people in one on one conversations. Debbie was handing out tracts and video taping as I began preaching the Law and the Gospel using her reading of Matthew 12 and the sign of Jonah as a springboard. Please watch the following two part video of the presentation.
As you watch part 2 below, pay special attention at the 3 minute and 10 second mark. You will see a man walk into the frame. He begins to talk to Duane. Just then, as I am preaching, I point to Duane and a man next to him saying these people have all violated God’s law too.
The amazing thing when watching the video is that the man that Duane was talking too had just walked up and asked him a question about two or three seconds before I pointed to them. Then they walked back to wall behind me and talked. Any sooner and the man would not have been there yet. Any later and they would have already been engaged in a conversation. The man is important in God’s planning for the rest of our afternoon in Dallas where all we had to do is “Just Show Up”!
God’s plan
After I finished preaching, Duane called me over to join their conversation. I went through the law and Gospel and repentance with the man again. I learned that his name was Mr. Green. It turned out that Mr. Green was trying to get a bus ticket to visit his kin folk in another city in Texas. I told Duane that what I normally do is give a few dollars, but that I was always leary about how that money might be used. Instead, my preference is to buy the food item (for example) that they are asking for. I told Duane that if he felt lead to buy Mr Green a bus ticket then we should go to the bus station and do that. A few minutes later, Duane came and told me he wanted to go to the bus station to by Mr Green a bus ticket. So we packed up our stuff and headed to the bus station.
When we got to the bus station, there was a long line, so it was going to be a long wait. I turned to the woman in front of Duane and said, “did you know there is a Hell, Texas? Are you going there?” She said, “no I am going to Houston”. I continued asking various questions to lead to the Gospel. Speaking a little loud, everyone in the line could hear. They got a good laugh about the fact that Hell (Texas) had frozen over (an ice storm had hit there earlier in the year). This woman was a believer. She was preaching in the open air in the bus station with me. Around this time Mr Green wondered off to use the rest room. Then the bus station opened another line for credit card only. We could have gone and bought the ticket and been on our way, but since Mr Green was now gone we could not. So we waited in line for him to return. The woman was saying she would like a deeper relationship with Jesus. I asked her if she liked to read. She said yes. So I gave her a copy of Mark Cahill’s book “One thing you can’t do in heaven”. At that time the guy behind me in line asked if I had another copy. I said, no, but that I had a Bible if he would like that. He said yes. As I closed up the box, a guy that had been listening from a chair came over and said, can I have a Bible too? I got our of line and spent time talking to him. He had recently repented and trusted Christ.
After I spoke with him the guy next to him on the bench also asked for a Bible. He was not saved, but listened intently to the Law and the gospel. I asked him if he had repented and he said not yet. We bought these two young men dinner so they would not be hungry on the bus. Duane and Debbie had witnessed to the other young man that I gave a Bible too in line and he wept over his sin!
We went home praising God. Out moto – to serve God – just show up. Be ready to see what he does and then follow him. We never had any intention to go to the bus station. Yet, God showed us some amazing things there!
