We went to the mall again last night and the fishing was great. A great thing about the mall is that IT IS WARM in there!  Witnessing in the outdoors when it is cold is no fun when you get old like me :).    A couple of guys we talked to were soon going to be deployed to Iraq and they were very interested in the gospel.  During our discussion with these guys,however, mall security was hanging around watching us.  Now, they have always been around but never stopped us from witnessing.  They were a little more aggressive tonight, and they were pretty confrontational.  The security officer we talked to said we could not “solicit”, which we agreed to and told them we were not doing.  He also said that if someone did not like us there, that we would be “asked to leave”.  We thanked him for what he did and continued to talk to a group of people about the gospel.  Although we know that we have the freedom to talk to whoever we want, mall security is becoming more difficult to deal with.  If security continues to hinder us, then we will have to talk to mall management.

 A recent podcast from the Ambassador Alliance Radio addressed this issue.  From our experience, the law in California is certainly different from those here in Colorado.  But there was some good points.
 

1. Security at the mall is concerned with those who are engaged in “expressive activity”. 
2. Do not purposely upset mall security.
3. Handing out gospel tracts is NOT solicitation.  But security uses this to stop distribution of tracts.  So if security orders you to stop, then ask to see the mall rules concerning this.  Most of the time, this will stop them from persuing this.
4. They cannot stop us from talking to people. 
5. The difference between a police officer and a security officer.  No one can be arrested for handing out tracts.  Security officers enforce company policy, not civil law.  Security officers do not arrest anyone.  They can ask you to leave, but cannot arrest you.  If asked to leave by mall security, then leave, but follow up with the mall to find out what you can and cannot do.

We went door to door around our church on Saturday.  Most of the folks around there are Christians, which was nice, but we never got to share the gospel.  We will go out again soon to see if there are some pagan households around ;).  It was different when we were living in Illinois.  We did some door to door evangelism and most everyone did not go to church or did not even claim to be a Christian.  We will see.

I have been participating in a thread of discussion online about the subject of law and grace.  It was nice to revisit the subject and write about it.  The body of the post is as follows..

God opposes the proud, but give grace to the humble(James 4:6). 

 When the rich young ruler (Matt 19)asked what is required to obtain eternal life, Jesus gave him the commandments.  When the rich young ruler was not humbled under them, Jesus did not give him grace, and he went away sad. 

When the woman at the well(John 4) admitted she had many husbands and was living with the present one, Jesus gave her grace.  The law was presented in the fact of her committing adultery, and she did not deny it. 

A lawyer stood up(Luke 10:24) and asked Jesus what was necessary to obtain eternal life.  Jesus said, “what is written in the law”?  Jesus did not give grace because the law did not humble him. In fact, he tried to justify himself in saying; “who is my neighbor”?

As Johnny Mac preached about 4 things the law does…….  first 2 go like this…..    http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/90-304

 Number one, the Law reveals sin   ..  So, for effective evangelism, preaching, teaching, personal witnessing, to be effective you must bring people under the tyranny of the Law. What leads to true salvation is an understanding of the absolute righteousness of God, the utter holiness of God, the Law of God expresses His perfect righteousness and His holiness and puts a demand on every soul that if you break this Law in one place, you’re damned. Where’s that message today? What leads to true salvation is an overpowering, frightening sense of the implications of breaking the Law. Truth about righteousness and holiness and sin and judgment is what awakens the slumbering sinner. You can’t just go to people sitting out there thinking they’re pretty good and say, “By the way, Jesus would like to come into your life and make you happy.” That’s an absurd approach. Long before you talk about what Jesus is prepared to do for the sinner, you’ve got to talk about the sinners situation

George Whitfield called preachers to wound deeply before they heal. He even said, “Lord, pardon me for giving comfort too soon.” Spurgeon wrote, “Sometimes we are inclined to think that a great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing.” Spurgeon. “Because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery, restoring the prodigal to the father’s love and never making him say, ‘Father, I have sinned.’ Unhumbled, they came into the church, unhumbled they remain in it, and unhumbled they go from it.” Gospel without Law produces faith without repentance. Where Christianity is nominal, the Law must be preached. Nothing is more important in this contemporary culture than quote/unquote evangelicalism, whatever in the world that means. Nothing is more important than to preach the Law.

Secondly, the Law aggravates sin.

Nothing wrong with the Law. The Law reveals what sinners we really are. The Law actually agitates, activates, exacerbates, aggravates sin everywhere. This is a good work because this is what drives us to salvation and the pursuit of sanctification

Law to the proud and grace to the humble.