You know, there are instances where they don't even five you the opportunity to speak. Once they notice you are carrying a bible they attack immediately
Absolutely right. So don't carry a Bible. Memorize scripture or failing that (yeah, I know how hard it would be to memorize that much scripture, but some people have a talent for it), just carry a small pocket Bible in your pocket where they don't see it until you need it and it doesn't put them on the defensive before you even get a chance to speak.
Really, I don't blame those who are defensive when someone walks up to them carrying a Bible or in some other way telegraphing to them that they are about to be "witnessed" to. At least here in America as well as in other countries I have been in most people have been conditioned to run or hide by the tactics of people like Mormons and JWs pestering them all the time. Even mainstream Christians can be guilty of this. If a person isn't a Christian (and even many who are) their first response when seeing someone walking up to them with a Bible is to become immediately defensive.
It's not all the fault of JWs and Mormons either. Some of us mainstream Christians are at fault too. When people see, for example, some guy standing on top of a box waving a Bible and screaming at the top of his lungs even though he is so close to everyone that they all want to plug their ears... Well, that doesn't leave a very good impression. I saw a video not long ago of a guy doing that in an enclosed shopping mall with a big portable PA system which, judging from the level of distortion in the sound, must have been cranked up to full volume. Everyone was squeezed up against the far wall trying to get past him as far away from the noise as possible. I know two of these self proclaimed "street preachers" who have flat out told me that the louder they can scream, the more they are preaching the way God wants them to preach. The message or it's appropriateness for whatever the situation at hand wasn't nearly as important, only that it was screamed as loudly as possible. They even did vocal exercises so that they could learn to scream for a longer time without loosing their voices! I used to go to church with these guys and one of them was allowed to preach sermons once in a while. He wouldn't even use a microphone and I would still sit in the very back row and feel the need to cover my ears he was so loud. You could look around the church and see everyone cringing as he yelled. No one got anything positive out of it that I know of and after that whenever I would find out ahead of time that he was preaching again I just stayed home.
Anyway, I'm not saying that if someone shuts you off before you can even get started it's because you are doing what they guys I'm talking about do. That's just an example of some of the things people in the general public think about when they think about Christians who try to "witness" to strangers, and it's an example of some of the reasons they will shut us off in their hearts before we can even say a word. I think anything we can do to minimize the negative perceptions right in the beginning helps our testimony. If that means hiding your Bible in some way when you approach people, fine. Hiding the physical book is not the same as hiding the words that are in it. If it means dressing like a street gangster to get the trust of street gangsters you're trying to witness to, fine. If it means wearing a fancy suit and driving a fancy car to win the hearts of rich people who dress up and drive fancy cars because that's the area God has lead me to, that's fine too. This is Biblical.
"For though I be free from all
men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all
men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with
you." (Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23)
