Project Ezra

I participated in Project Ezra for the first time this weekend. The project was started by Tony Miano, and is dedicated to the public reading of scripture, (out loud, of course). I took Tony's suggestion and read John 3 at Lakefair, and used it as a springboard to a presentation of the gospel. It is such a beautiful passage of scripture for transitioning into the gospel!

It's interesting to note the different dynamic of reading scripture open air, and preaching the gospel open air. First of all, I noticed that I have a tendency to be quieter when I read, and had to force myself to speak up. Second, I noticed that people seemed more apt to stand and listen for a minute or two. This bothered me a little bit, because they wouldn't listen to the gospel, which is what they needed to hear. It hit me that those who stopped were probably professing Christians, who have a very different concept of what that Chapter means than I do. Hopefully some of them stuck around to hear the gospel as well.

The way I did it this time was to read all the way through the chapter, and then present the gospel at the end. I think next time I might try reading, and then taking a moment to exposit what was said in the last couple verses before moving on. This should give ample opportunity to keep the gospel prominent the whole way through. We'll see how it goes.

Next week is a chapter from the Pentateuch. The natural inclination is to head for Exodus, and the ten commandments. I'm going to read all five books this week and decide from there.