Following on from the previous three visits to the Capital I decided to go once again to that hotbed of liberality and preach the gospel of life to a dead world. On the way out of the house I grabbed 3 Spanish tracts and put them in my bag. Later sitting on the train opposite a couple who were quietly talking in a foreign language I was convinced they were Spanish, though I could not make out what they were saying. I wrestled with irrational fear about just asking them and in the end I rebuked that fear as not being from the Lord and just excused myself and asked them where they were from. Their answer – Spain. They thanked me for the tracts and we had a short chat before the train got to Dublin.
Arriving late morning I noticed that the open selling and taking of drugs & drink had returned to the streets now that the theatre festival was over. Straight opposite Tara Street train station in broad daylight, a sizeable crowd gathered and did their business as if there were no laws against it – a telling situation of the state of darkness in this nation.
I spent the first part of my time walking and praying in the area I was to preach. I was burdened by the sight of all those multitudes of people walking past me, buying, selling, taking in marriage yet wilfully ignorant of their eternal destiny and the suddenness of that transition from life to death.
I passed out a few tracts and had some profitable conversations. After a while Ciara showed up, followed by the 3 Spanish missionaries and then Desmond with Aoife. We prayed together in the street and then Desmond started preaching and I continued to pray, hand out tracts and witness just down the road from him. The Lord used this awesomely; one woman was walking past and angrily shook her head at Desmond’s preaching and loudly said “For Jesus’ Sake!” just as she got beside me. I looked her in the eye and said “Yes, it is for Jesus’ sake that man is standing there preaching the good news of eternal life.” She stopped in her tracks and was visibly shocked, the Lord gave me boldness to push on and speak with her. We had a good chat and it turned out she had been angry with God because of family deaths. I thank the Lord that He arranged that meeting, the enemy had twisted that woman’s view of God, yet when asked a few simple questions about it and forced to think about her position she was surprised to find that she could have even thought about God in that way! She knew in her heart and head that He is good and she believed her relatives had gone on to heaven, yet she had been angry about it. The Lord gave me liberty to minister to her and after about 25 minutes she went away thanking me, changed in her opinion of the preaching and resolved to renew her relationship with God.
The Lord also gave me a great opportunity when I took my turn at preaching, I had been praying for a good heckler and He provided one in the shape of “Mick”, an Irish soldier based in Germany.
Mick had a lot of questions which gathered a crowd, he had obviously been reading his Bible but without real understanding. The Lord used him to direct the preaching to deal with many heretical teachings and to keep bringing it back to how we need a perfect Saviour, through grace in order that we may be born-again.
In the end I handed the preaching back to Desmond and spoke directly with Mick. He gave me his phone number and email address and asked me for some follow up information. Please pray for Mick and the many who heard the true gospel.
Next report will be back in Wexford with one weekend in Waterford so I’m looking forward to what the Lord will do there also.
Leigh, this stirs me deeply. Praise God!