Last week I was in New York City on business for my company. I worked long hours for the company even including some business dinners into the evening. Since my hotel was a block off of Broadway and Times Square, I was able to spend time each evening doing some witnessing.
I brought a selection of various gospel tracts with me. All of the tracts were well received. The “10 Beers” tract was probably one of the favorites. Even a group of teenaged girls were able to name 10 beers – and half of the Ten Commandments. The “Why?” tract, Good Person Comic and Chicken and Egg tracts were also well received.
Sunday’s sermon was on the parable of the sower:
“A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:3-9
As I walked around Times Square, it is evident that all of these types of soil are right there. Some people would not even receive a tract. Others would take it but not really have much interest beyond that. Others would take the tract and begin to read. Finally, I was really encouraged to throw seed on some “good soil.” On several occasions, after giving someone a tract, they asked what it was and I told them “a Gospel tract”, they said, “are you going to tell me about it?” Each of these occasions lead to very good witnessing conversations with the people that had asked the question.
This reminded me of Acts 8:30-31:
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
The first time this occurred was on Monday night. I had arrived in NY and gotten settled into my hotel room. The next morning I was going to take the subway to one of my companies offices. So I decided to go find the subway station and make sure I knew the logistics of riding the subway. I grabbed a stack of Gospel tracts and headed out onto the streets. At first I was just walking, looking at all the lights and stuff. Then I stepped into the ESPN Zone where Monday night football was on about 50 screens! I headed over to the subway station and started handing out a few tracts on my way. After getting my bearings at the subway station, I was back out to Times Square to walk around. I handed out a few more tracts. Finally, there were two young men standing on the sidewalk talking. So I went up to them and handed them “Why?” tracts. They immediately started reading them. As I was about to walk away, one of them said, “aren’t you going to tell us about this?” So, I stopped and we had a good long conversation about the Law and the gospel. They both had some religious background, but neither really understood the gospel. They thanked me for my time and I encouraged them to repent and believe while they still had time.
I made it back to Times Square and looked down the street and saw the “Church of Scientology” building. Now, a little background. When I was in NY in August, I talked to a scientologist in Times Square who was handing out cards inviting people to their movie “dianetics”. However at that time, I did not know precisely where their “church’ was located. When I saw the building I prayed and decided to head that way. In front of the building were two men, one on each side. I assume they were security of some type. One of them had huge ear phones on and just ignored me as I walked by. The other was smoking a cigarette and just hanging out. So I walked up to him, handed him a tract and struck up a conversation with him. He claimed to be a trillion years old, had been reincarnated many times, lived on earth for 1500 years and on Venus before that. I pressed on through the Ten Commandments to show him he had sinned against our Holy God. I probably talked to him for 10-15 minutes. While I was talking with him, people were coming out of the church building. As they walked past, I was handing them Gospel tracts too! I pray those seeds all take root.
On another night I handed a ten beers tract to two young men. They named the ten beers. So I asked them if they could name the 10 Commandments. They named about half of them. We had a good conversation. They were receptive to the Word, but seemed like they were not ready to repent and trust Christ. I pray that they will.
As I continued back towards my hotel, I came by a theater that was just letting out from showing West Side Story. I stood on the sidewalk and handed tracts to everyone as they flowed by. One group was trying to take a picture of themselves outside of the theater. So I offered to take the picture. They were appreciative. They all got tracts after the picture and I shared the Gospel with them. They were from Israel.
Finally, I’d like to share one last story from New York. About a block from the theater I met a young man named Mike. Mike apparently was friends with the two men I had given the 10 beers tract too a few minutes earlier as one of them came up and started to help him answer the questions. Mike was receptive to hearing the Law and desired to hear the Gospel. I used a courtroom example to show him that time would not forgive his sin. Then I explained how he could go free from a theoretical courtroom if someone paid his fine. He agreed. Then I asked him how he would feel if someone had done that. “Grateful”, he said. So I said, “that is what Jesus has done for you on the cross. He paid a fine he didn’t owe, so that you don’t have to pay the fine you do owe.” He thanked me for taking the time to talk with him. I asked him to really consider what we have talked about and he said he would.
There were many more one on ones that I had with people. I’m not going to mention them all here. I go back to NY again October 19-23. So God willing, I’ll have more opportunities to sow seed on the streets of NY. Please pray that some lands on “good soil”!
