When a good friend and I would get together when we were in our child rearing years we would talk and talk, comparing parenting strategies, work news, and family or home issues. As we were talking one day my husband looked at us and asked (with a smile), “When you two talk, who listens?”

We laughed as we were both keeping up with the conversation, no problem. (This may be one of those differences in how God made men and women.)

The question came to mind as I watching some short reels of Christian street preachers out proclaiming the Word of God. The reels varied from abolitionists at abortion mills to college campuses and one man on the boardwalk at a beach. They all had to talk over some sort of opposing noise.

The opposition often appeared to be demonic, evil on some level. Often the opposition just tries to drown the Christian out with loud noise. Some of it is full of profanities or just heavy metal that sounds evil to my ears. I cannot imagine what a woman is thinking when she pulls up to kill her baby and hears that noise and still consents to let them escort her into the building.

Interesting, but also disturbing, are the Charlie Kirk type visits Christians are making to college campuses. One thing that stands out clearly is that there is a generation of students who have a greater faith in a socialist government than they do in the Lord God Almighty. These students would have the state confiscate every gun in the U.S., have the primary responsibility to feed the hungry, and pay for everyone’s higher education. There seems to be little acknowledgment that the Church should have a role or that their own taxes would be exorbitant.

In these situations that question, “When you two talk, who listens?” seems to apply. There are a lot of words that come out the mouths of the Christians and their oppressors but there rarely seems to be any headway of changing anyone’s view. Of course, the Lord can use these words to inform or convict a person in teh crowd and the preacher may not see the fruit of his labor on earth.

Street preachers, it seems, are part of the missionary force sent to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen  (Matthew 28:19-20).

Yet, it seems that they get almost as much backlash from Christians as they do from the unbelievers. Some Christian critics think that it is harsh to go and tell people that they are sinning against God when they fail to keep His law. They don’t like the direct approach of teaching the horror of the murder of children in the womb through graphic pictures of aborted babies. They think they are too loud at the gay pride event or the boardwalk at the beach, suggesting that a person’s leisure time is not the right time to present the truth to them.

Personally, I love a good one to one sit-down with a cup of coffee and my Bible to have a theological discussion with someone, especially one who doesn’t know her Bible. But, if we are afraid or embarrassed to go out and tell others the Truth of what Christ has done for them, to take the penalty for their sin, should we not at least be grateful and encourage those who have this bold courage to go on the street and speak the truth in love? And, please understand, it is love to make someone aware of his need for Christ’s sacrifice because of his/her own sinful nature.

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:13-14)