Battle Log
Page 12
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Saturday, 17 April, 2010
I arrived at the usual meeting spot at Surfers Paradise just a a few minutes late, and Dan Carkeet was already there. After a short time in prayer, we started handing out tracts.
One of the first people I chatted to was a young Jewish man. When I asked him the question whether he thought he was going to go to Heaven, he said,"Do murderers go to Heaven?" I responded by saying that they can if they repent and trust in Jesus. He then went on to explain that he was an Israeli who had been in the army for 3 years. He said that he didn't believe in Heaven and Hell, instead he mentioned that he believed in karma - if you do good, you will receive good in this life. And if you do bad, you'll receive bad in this life. When I asked him why he believed that, he said he thought it was just a good principle.
So I responded by saying, "But it seems karma does not really happen in the real world. For there are many people who do horrible atrocities and yet they don't get caught and they don't seem to receive bad things." He acknowledged this point and so I asked, "Do you believe God is good?" He responded in the affirmative. "Therefore, God must punish those people who do wrong. This doesn't seem to happen in this life for everyone. And so this punishment must happen after we die. This place is what we call Hell. But there also must be a place of no punishment, where God rewards the faithful. This is what we call Heaven." He agreed, and so I asked him whether he had done any bad, and pointed him to the commandments. He recognised his guilt and his deserving of punishment.
I then asked this Jewish man what Yom Kippur was all about. He said that they celebrate on that day. I asked him what were the origins of it. He explained, "It was the day of atonement, when a lamb was sacrificed for the sins of the nation for that year. The lamb had to be without blemish. We don't sacrifice a lamb anymore though." When I asked him how then his sins can be taken care of, he said that he had no idea. So then I talked about Jesus, that He was the lamb of God who died to take away the sins of His people. Jesus was sinless; no fault could be found in Him. He died, but then conquered death by rising from the dead. I then explained to this man that he must repent and trust only in Christ's death for His forgiveness. He had never heard of why Christians follow Jesus, and he said he now finally understood. He said he would think about it and at some stage get around to reading the New Testament.
Soon after this, I sat down next to a middle aged man holding a surf board, enjoying the midday sun. His name was Jason. I had chatted to him last week about the gospel (not the Jason I mentioned in last week's report). It was good to see him and I was glad I had the opportunity to witness to him again. He wasn't worried about the Day of Judgement coming, because even though he recognised he had done wrong, he thought God would understand that he had learnt from his mistakes. He was saying that that is the way people learn. I tried reasoning with him, saying, "It is obviously better to know the right thing to do in the first place without making those mistakes. So it leaves us without excuse on Judgement Day. A murderer wouldn't be let free if he tried arguing to a judge that he has learnt not to murder now since he murdered that last guy." I then went on to explaining the cross and repentance and faith. After this I asked the man whether he had read much of the Bible before. He hadn't. So I challenged him to read it, and he understood that it is foolish to reject Jesus without first understanding what he said and did.
Snowy also joined us a little bit later on. Lots of tracts were handed out and many conversations had. Dan commented that he was excited that in the conversations he had with people today, he thought he was really making progress. The people were open to hearing about the cross of Christ and really thinking about eternal things. Praise God for the encouragements He gives us at times.
To God be the glory!
Saturday, 10 April, 2010
As I was driving down to the coast, it was overcast and it looked like it might rain. But as I arrived, it had become a perfect day without a cloud in sight. I was excited to be out on the streets again this week (after having a break for Easter) and I knew the team would be of a decent size again today. Rick, Glenda, and about 6 people from Christian Witness Ministries Fellowship joined us again this week. I thank God for raising up more labourers who are keen to proclaim the gospel at the Gold Coast.
There was a guy named Jason in his early twenties who walked by and Rick tried offering him a tract. He rejected it, saying that he was closed to anything to do with Christianity. Later on, I offered him a tract (not knowing Rick had already tried to). He briefly looked at it, asking what it was and then gave it back, saying he wasn’t interested. So I asked him whether he thought he would go to Heaven. He said, “We cannot know where we will end up.” He then expressed his doubts about what is really true regarding religion and eternity, and asked why he should believe what Jesus said. So I explained that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is an absolute verification of His claims, and then gave some reasons why we can trust the gospel accounts when it records his resurrection. Such as, embarrassing facts, the origin of the disciples’ belief in the resurrection, multiple attestations - all providing evidence to think that the historical documents written by the gospel authors were actually accurate (see this post on the Apologetics Blog for more information). They seemed to make sense in his mind.
After talking to him for about half an hour, I challenged him to read the Bible. As he had never really read much of it. So I challenged him to read it first before dismissing it. He agreed to this, and then was willing to take a tract and read it. So I thanked him and he started to walk off. But this guy saw Rick, and Rick was in another conversation at the time. But he said, “Sorry to interrupt you, but I have got to say I’ve changed my mind. I am now open to this stuff; I will now read my Bible. This is truly from my heart.” Praise God that he can change even the most hard-hearted person and make him to be open to the gospel.
After having a bit to eat, we returned to our usual spot and I got up to preach. I started by reading the parable of the rich man who built bigger barns to store all his crops, and used it to show that so many people in society just live their life striving to achieve a certain status in society, or to own a certain amount of cars or houses, or to acquire a certain amount of university degrees. But what use is all that at death? I then went onto explain that there is a day of judgement coming where how we have lived will be seen and judged by God, and since we’ve all fallen short of His standard, we need forgiveness. And that forgiveness is only through the death of Jesus.
A bunch of Middle Easterns had been listening for a little bit and then one of them decided to ask a question, “If faith saves, why not simply go living in sin?” So I explained repentance, the natural thing that will follow the genuine faith that a person has in Jesus. She then asked, “If praying and other good things do not get a person to Heaven, why do them?” I talked about how the gratitude we have for Jesus for what Jesus has done for us and the love we now have for him will make us want to do good things. But it’s not like those good things will save us at all.
Another guy piped up asking, “How many Bibles do you have?” This seems to be a usual Muslim argument, but one simply based on ignorance. So I asked him, “Do you read Greek or Hebrew?” He said, “No”. I continued, “Well they were the languages that the Bible was written in, and since most people no longer know those languages, there has to be translation committees who translate the text from the original languages to the languages of today. Since there is not always a word that is exactly equivalent in our languages to the original languages, decisions need to made how they will translate it. People have differing opinions about this and that is why there are quite a lot of different English Bibles. No English Bible is actually inspired of God, only the original manuscripts were, but if you examine the English Bibles you can see that they all agree with each other pretty much everywhere in the meaning of the text.”
The Muslim fellow recognised he was way out of his depth, and so he asked another question, “Name one of the author’s of the Bible” So I answered, “The Apostle Paul”. He then asked, “What was Paul’s last name?” By this question he thought he had found the absolute shut down argument against Christianity, and he began celebrating. So I responded, “Last names did not come about till around the middle ages.” The crowd was utterly confused at this Muslim man, for they had no idea how that argument at all was any good at refuting Christianity. The man soon after walked off.
A bunch of young ladies came in right in front of me and after a while, one of them gave a thumbs up to me. So I asked her, “Are you a Christian?” She said, “No.” So I then went through with the ladies the good person test, seeing if they have lived up to God’s standards. Like the rest of humanity, they hadn’t. So I then warned them that their sins make them deserve eternal Hell, but there is a Saviour Jesus Christ. A number of them seemed very convicted by what they heard, please pray that God will draw them to Himself.
I praise God for the faithfulness of the rest of the team, who spread many seeds of the gospel today, in both tracts and speech. Please pray that God will give those seeds growth.
To God be the glory!
Saturday, 3 April, 2010
Easter weekend
Good Friday
On Good Friday, I went to Truro in Cornwall with Shirley and her daughter, and Shirley had brought a wooden cross about 4ft tall that her husband had made with different sins written on them in black which looked very effective and gave something for people to look at and think upon.
We started one to one witnessing and giving out tracts, and then Shirley preached outside the Cathedral, and I preached in the highstreet. Truro again is another small city/ town where many are apathetic and walk past without any concern, and so having a couple of older teenagers stop and listen was encouraging.
Afterwards I managed to chat with 4 of them and asked what they thought good Friday was about, what they think happens to someone after they died, and if they would be good enough to go to Heaven/ who should deserve to go to Hell.
They were very open which weas encouraging, and we spoke for about 15 minutes on the subjects, andthey each took a 'why the cross' pamphlet and other tracts, one even took a gospel of John which was great.
On the way back from Truro on the train, a lady sat next to me for most of the journey, and we started a conversation, and after she had looked at the book I was reading, said she was a Catholic. We had an interesting discussion about what the Bible says about how someone gets to heaven. After asking her why she thinks that God should let her into heaven, she said that she felt she had done some good things and that God would see this, and as Father God loved her she would enter heaven.
This then led onto going through the 10 commandments to show that no one is good enough to get to heaven themselves, and any good we think we have done thats deserving of salvation, to God is as filthy rags. We then talked about the difference between justification and sanctification, and the doctrine of faith and works, andthe order they come in salvation. We left on a good note though, and she said she would read the why the cross leaflet on her next train which was great.
Walking home from the train station, I met a lady called Kath who had listened to us preaching in town over a year ago, and had said that she wanted to get right with God. She is still attending a Church in Redruth which is great and seemed full of JOy, despite problems with her knees resulting in her having big operations on the way. This was a great encouragement that although most of the time we never see the fruit of the gospel tracts we give out and conversations, salvation is always from the Lord, and so was great she was now a Christian.
Saturday
On saturday we had about 7 of us in Plymouth city centre, and on first looking at the pouring rain, it looked like it would be a dismal day. However, lots of us prayed, and 15 minutes after meeting, the rain cleared allowing us to speak. Another gentleman from Bristol was out handing out Christian leaflets with his wife and speaking to people, and so while he was up the top of town, we went nearer the centre, where Shirley preached, we gave out tracts, then Wayne and I managed to preach right outside the shopping mall which had great amplification as people were coming in and out, and with no hastle from PCSO's or security guards, was a great day, with loads of tracts going out, good conversations with a Pagan, a friendly agnostic and some teenagers was encouraging.
Wayne preaching
Matt preaching
Saturday, 27 March, 2010
As I arrived to our usual witnessing area in Surfers Paradise, Rick and Glenda were already there busily handing out tracts. They had arrived about an hour early, as they had to leave the outreach earlier than usual. It is really great to see them both so keen for witnessing that they do it even before the rest of the team arrives.
Today was a unique day, as just recently a local Church had finished their evangelism training programme, and so they wanted to all hit the streets together and put what they had learnt into practice. So there were about fourteen of them, making today's team definitely larger than usual.
Before those guys arrived, Rick and Glenda had gotten into a conversation with two Mormon ladies from New Zealand. Rick called me over after a number of minutes asking if it says anywhere in the Bible that we were all pre-existing, as this Mormon lady was claiming the Bible did say it. I told her that in the beginning was just God, and He made everything (Gen. 1:1).
I then tried directing the conversation to talking about salvation, and how she thinks a person is saved. She said that if a person doesn't get all their sins worked off in this life by doing good, they can be worked off after they die. I was happy to hear a Mormon actually admit that their doctrine of salvation is actually work-righteousness, for so often they like to claim it's all by grace, yet in actuality they believe in salvation by works.
So I pointed Scriptures to her, such as Ephesians 2:8-9 and Galatians 2:16 which both talk about salvation not being by our works. Instead of addressing those Scriptures, she diverted the conversation by asking, "What is the work of God?" I then said, "Jesus Himself was asked that very question, and so let's take a look at what He said." I then turned to John 6:28-29 - 'Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”'
She, first of all, had a problem with the Bible we were using, because it was a New King James at the time, and not the King James. So I said, "Here, I have the King James Version right here on my phone." I then read it out to her. She followed along and said, "No keep reading" So I did.
"So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”"
At that, she exclaimed, "See! It mentioned 'work' three times in that passage. We are saved by our works!" She was fully serious, and so it was hard to hold back the laughter. I tried explaining to her that even though it says 'work' in that passage, it doesn't talk at all about working for our salvation. In fact, it pretty clearly states the opposite, Jesus was exhorting them to 'believe in him whom he has sent.' Faith not works.
I challenged her whether she could really know that she was going to go to Heaven and whether she believed in and followed the real Jesus. She then stated, "Of course I do, the Church that I go to is called, 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints'! So I definitely follow Jesus." I had to be to the point with her, and so I said, "Look, by what you've been saying, believing you are saved by your works and so on, shows that you aren't actually a Christian. And the reason I am telling you this is because I don't want you to get the surprise of your life when on Judgement Day God would have to say to you 'Depart from me I knew you.'" I then turned to the passage in Matthew 7 where Jesus said this and read it out to her. I explained that the people Jesus would reject are those who proclaim to have done many good works, but those works did not save them. But she rebutted, "This can't be the Bible, for there are no summaries at the start of the chapter telling us what the chapter means!"
She continued, "Both Revelation and Matthew so clearly teach salvation by works." We asked where abouts exactly, but she couldn't point to any verses. So we explained the real way a person is saved to her, not by their works, but by grace through faith alone, because of Christ's death alone. She wasn't very open and had taken offence that we would even think that she was not a Christian. She kept stating that she was born a Christian because her parents are. Rick responded, "If I was born in MacDonald's, it wouldn't make me a hamburger." After a bit further discussion, she said that she didn't want to talk about it anymore, and so we thanked her for her time and said goodbye.
By this time, the Church group had since arrived and were already handing out tracts. They all seemed very keen, which was awesome to see! They were all anxiously waiting to see someone preach in the open air, as most of them had seen Ray Comfort do it on DVDs, but they wanted to see it done in real life. So after not too long, I got up on the council provided preaching block and told a true story about a man who drove the wrong way up the freeway in Sydney for 50km without realising it. I used that story to show that even though many people think they're heading in the right direction, heading for Heaven, it could be that they are mistaken. They don't realise they're heading in the wrong direction. This story is an interesting one, and so it attracted a crowd, but I didn't do any call outs to try and get hecklers because I didn't know who was part of the Church group and who wasn't. So I preached the awesome news of the gospel, calling everyone who was listening to repent and believe.
I then noticed one particular fellow who was listening intently, so I called out to him, asking, "Do you think you'll go to Heaven?" He thought so because he was stand-up bloke. So I went through the commandments, showing him that in fact we are all sinners deserving of God's judgement forever. This seemed to concern him, so I told him that there is a Saviour, Jesus Christ, and that His death can atone for all of this fellow's sins. When I share the gospel with a person, I always try and see if they actually understand what the gospel is at the end of it. So I commonly ask, "If God was to ask you the question, 'Why should I let you into Heaven?' What would you now say?" This guy didn't get it at first, so I explained the gospel again to him and it seemed to click.
However at this point, a very loud women started to heckle. She started complaining about how bad the Church is, that all Christians are bad people and God doesn't care about the world. She explained that she had tried going to some Church's for help, but they didn't help her. She asked why God would let her be in an abusive relationship and not do something about it. So I responded by saying, "God will definitely make sure all the injustices that people commit in the world will be dealt with one day. And God has given us governments to maintain justice in society in the meantime. Governments are instituted by God and we are to obey them." At this point, a regular heckler piped up talking about how rubbish governments are. Not to let the discussion go off the topic at hand, I told the regular heckler to wait his turn. I then addressed the lady again, explaining that not everyone who says they are a Christian is actually one. And even though a person might have bad experiences with Christians, that is not a rational reason to dismiss Jesus. She explained that she had been living on the streets for a number of weeks due to her abusive husband. At this point, a person part of the group from the Church went up to her and gave her $40. She was ecstatic and very appreciative of the generous gesture.
Since the lady had been very loud and vocal, it had caused a sizeable crowd to gather. So I made sure to preach the gospel to everyone listening, as the lady didn't seem interested in talking any further at this point.
After preaching for about 45 minutes, I stepped down and had a conversation with a person who had been listening near my feet. I asked him what he believed. He explained that he knew every religion was wrong, especially Christianity. He claimed this because he said Christianity had been copied from other belief systems. So I asked him, "Even if that was so, does that prove that the beliefs of Christianity are wrong?" His face changed, and he seemed to realise the flaw of his thinking. I continued, "Furthermore, similarities between two books does not necessitate copying. Moreover, in actuality there aren't really many similarities at all!" He resorted to saying, "Well I still do kinda believe in God" I was able to briefly share the gospel with him, but he wasn't very open.
At this point, we all had lunch as a team. The team did an excellent job today, handing out lots of tracts and many conversations were had too. There were so many of us, that we had to split up and go to different locations. That's a great problem to have!
To God be the glory!
Saturday, 3 April, 2010
It is a strange and hard thing to pick up the pen (so to speak) and start writing again. In the months since my last report I have found myself being overrun with work. For those that don’t know, I have been appointed as a pastor at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and that has consumed much of my time. But, each week I have been going out as usual and witnessing, the only difference is I haven’t had much time to sit down and write a report. God willing this will change and once again we will be able to bring you a weekly update.
The Easter weekend was a busy one, by the time Saturday night had rolled around, I had already preached 3 pulpit sermons and had 2 more to go. Since I was away preaching at a conference on “Preaching the Gospel in a Post-Christian Era” I found myself arriving late to Brisbane. I was very thankful to have David Gee cover for me and my lateness.
The city seemed to be rather busy when I arrived, this was to be expected since after all it was the long weekend for Easter. When I arrived the team was just handing out tracts and talking to people, but that soon changed. The box went down and up jumped Alex to preach the Gospel for the first time this night.
As Alex was preaching some really drunk hecklers, who lacked much intelligence began to hurl abuse. One of them used the fact that Alex wore glasses as a proof that God didn’t exist. Their arguments were so far beyond ignorant that much of what they said didn’t need a reply. After Alex dealt with them for about 30 minutes he tagged me in. Now I had the joy of dealing with these hecklers, with a voice that had been strained already.
For the next thirty minutes I dealt with their arguments and eventually a good size crowd gathered. I began to bounce of their heckles and use their views to show why the Gospel of Christ was true. Some more hecklers arrived on the scene who were nothing short of foul, but nevertheless we pushed on.
At the end of thirty minutes my voice was sore, so I tagged Dave in who then proceeded to engage the crowd with the Good news concerning Jesus Christ.
It was then that an interesting thing happened, we had a young atheist who was in the crowd actually start defending us. He began to make arguments that disproved his own world view. This interjection came as a shock to us and also to the hecklers.
While he was doing this, one not very lady like female began to grab Bibles and throw them in the bin. When I approached her and asked her not to do it, she in defiance threw more in there. I informed her that if she continued I would be forced to contact the police. She was rather brazen and said she didn’t care. What she didn’t realize was at that moment two plain clothes officers were walking up behind her. The police pulled her aside and told her to leave the mall, she wasn’t so tough now.
I spent the rest of the night talking to people and handing out tracts. Our friendly atheist was still defending us and hanging around. So a few of us got to talk to him about the Gospel.
As the night came to an end we had one atheist heckler who was going after Dave. His arguments were basic and we were able to answer him. After Dave stood down, the atheist continued to heckle, so I stepped in and showed that from his own arguments he was wrong. The man didn’t like that too much, so he changed tact. But his arguments kept destroying his own position. It was at that moment the fight erupted. It wasn’t a fight between him and us, but it was between him and a homosexual man. This man stopped and walked up to the atheist grabbed in a hug and then kissed him. The atheist responded in self defence and head-butted the guy. We quickly jumped in the middle and split up the warring groups. The police eventually arrived and the homosexual group legged it.
What a way to spend Easter Saturday, who knows what next week has in store.
Friday, 12 March, 2010
Last Friday another evangelist came out with me on the Friday evening to Plymouth University for an hour which was a great encouragement (there is now 3 in our team on a regular basis, including me!) and he is really interested in learning more of the WOTM principles which is great.
He had a great conversation with a Muslim student who again brought up issues about the Koran saying Jesus didnt die on a cross etc, and hopes to meet him again to chat further. That evening I came across 17 year old lads who were cousins walking through Plymouth University that evening. They were extremly open and friendly, which is not what I first expected, and they appeared to be concerned about the state of their soul before God and so enthusiasticly took tracts and a gospel of John to read, which was greatly encouraging. It made me realise again that God is no respector of persons, were all the same in his sight in that respect, and so just if we dont think someone will want to hear the gospel because of the way they look/ dress, God often has other ideas.
I also had a very interesting conversation with a guy called Rob, who was gay. I discovered this after he said he had never lusted after a woman, but this issue was not the sticking point at all, as it so often can be. Again he was very pleasant and was not convinced about evolution anhd was intregued about creationism and what the Bibles views on the origin of life were, and again he gladly took some tracts and information to read and think about.
On the train back from Glastonbury on Tuesday, I offered a tract to a man with his headphones on, and again at first I thought he would be disinterested, but again I was very wrong! It was a real refrershing conversation with the 24yr old guy called Mike, and as he had been brought up in a Catholic school as a child, he already had some views on God and heaven/ hell. He really understood the gospel message, its amazing grace but also stark warningsa of refusing to repent and trust Christ alone for his salvation, and therefore acknowledged the implications this may have on his girlfriend about to pick him up from the station and his parents etc. He too took a gospel of John and a 'Why Christianity' tract.
On Wednesday 17th March I had the day off work, and so had arranged to meet some American students on an evangelism outreach fgrom Iowa to Plymouth, as a friend had seen them doing open air preaching in PLymouth city centre and took their contact details, and so I spent a couple of hours with them.
This included managing to speak to some x-pupils from the local secondary school I work alongside as a youth worker, and being able to start conversations with 3 lads whom I know from there, which I would not normally have been able to do in work time, which was great. They took tracts and seemed wide eyed afterwards when they understood what the gospel and Easter was all about, and after knowing about my accident I had when I was their age at 16, how short this life is incomparison to the next.
I met the guy whose email I had contacted, and it turned out there was about 12 students alltogether with this mission trip, and others from their Church in Iowa had also gone to Wales and Barcelona doing the same sort of thing. They were using WOTM tracts and 6 day creation v evolution tracts which were really good. One of the older guys started doing some open air preaching at the sundial right in the middle of the city centre, and quite a few people stopped to listen to the american accent and what was being said, including a couple of angry hecklers and a couple of policemen pacing up and down in the background. Lots of tracts were given out to people when he had finished speaking.
I was then encouraged by him and so preached as well, and the same 2 hecklers came back, one man shouting adomantly that 'God hateed religious people', and another girl who wanted a shouting contest with me saying that because she didnt believe in God it didnt apply to her. I then tried to reason with he that if I believed the sun was sguare and blue, my belief system didnt matter, but the truth is the thing that matters. I tried to reason that either space or God must be the infinite causer of all life, and that as the Universe has a beginning, God was infinite and is self existent and so then went on challenging peoples beliefs about how someone gets to heaven.
I was encouraged afterwards by a couple of Christians I knew from Plymouth walking past who stopped to listen, and also an elderly gentleman the Kyle the american was speaking with. It seemed like he had heard some of what was being said by the other preacher and myself, and he said he used to believe in God/ go to Church, but wanted to think about things again, so praying he was convicted somehow!
Was a great afternoon and a real encouragement, and hope to meet them again on Friday before they fly home on Saturday.
Saturday, 27 February, 2010
On Friday the 26th February again my friend Phil and I went out to the Plymouth University campus at 9pm to try and catch students walking between the student Union and bars on the campus and down in the town. We hoped at this time we may be able to catch a few more that hadnt already been drinking, or who were at least ameniable to stop and talk.
I went across the road while Phil tried handing out some tracts, and I tried offering a million pound note to a group of guys to see if they would be willing to chat. However I didnt really take much notice of the bottles of beer in their pockets, and after going through 3 of the good person test questions, one of them asked if this was a religious thing, and thats when they started to get very irate. One guy had claimed that there absolutely was no God, and so I tried to reason with them about someone having to have absolute knowledge of the whole Universe for that to be true, and of course as thats not possible, left him with the thought that maybe in all of the vastness of time and space and knowledge that he didnt know, perhaps there was ample evidence for God to exist.
They didnt like this, and as there was about 6 of them, it became increasingly more evident they were not open to a reasonable discussion, they just hurled abuse at my belief in the Bible, that the world was created in 6 literal 24hr days and about 6000 years old, Noahs flood, Jonah and the whale etc.
They had no proof whatsoever for evolution, and one guy was just silent when questioned about evidence of just one transitional fossil or why 2 kinds of animals dont breed or have developed over a long period of time.
I was getting quite frustrated and so tried getting out of the situation quite hastily as one 'biologist' kept putting his hands on me when speaking. They didnt like the fact that I wanted to go, but later on when the group had dispersed to just 2, the guy was more open to talking with Phil and me. He said that he didnt believe in evolution, as in a faith, but that he acknowledged it as fact! Although he still couldnt justify his answers, we tried leaving him with an evolution tract to put in his pocket to read the next morning.
A Plymouth University security guard had also started to look across the road to see what the comotion was about, but thankfully they left quietly.
Later on that evening after a few more good conversations, we managed to speak to 2 students, one turning out to be a Muslim. After acknowledging they had broken the 10 commandments, the Muslim guy knew he was only basing his hope on heaven on the grounds of Allah being merciful to him by weighing up his good and bad deeds on judgment day.
Once explaining that God was a just judge and therefore couldnt pass over our sinning, just like a good human judge if we robbed a bank, and reasoning that our sins were that serious against God and worthy of eternity in hell because they were against God himself, he seemed to appreciate the good news of the cross and that all his past, present ands future sins could be paid for through Jesus death on the cross, without any works or striving to get to heaven himself, but through repenting of their sins and putting their trust in Jesus. He didnt try and reason anything about the Koran or Mohammed at all, even when we mentioned that Jesus was God. They were both pretty wide eyed and gladly took the tracts, and were encouraged to read the gospel of John. Phil and I were very encouraged and prayed they would get in with the C/U at the University, but like most of the conversations, we didnt know where this would lead, but left their salvation in Gods hands
The next day on Saturdays evangelism outreach in Plymouth city centre, I met up with another Church who go out monthly into the city centre.
I had the opportunity to stand and preach, and God drew in a few passers by, older people, some students and teenagers. A Lady in her early 20's stopped to listen, and I could see that she was taking in what was being said which was great. Unfortunatly the day before, an elderly lady had been hit by a lorry and died instantly, which was big news in Plymouth, and so gave me an ideal springboard to preach about, right into the crowd of those entering/ leaving the shopping mall, which was great amplification as well.
2 students asked some questions about where is God and the Virgin birth for some reason, but after preaching for about 10 minutes, saw others from the Church speaking with the lady who had been listening and giving her some information which was great.
Afterwards I had an amazing chat with 2 lads that said they would get right with God as soon as they had finished eating their burger! They were 18 and 20, and listened intently after being concerned that if they were to die that day they would be hell bound. But again, they truly appreciated the good news then even more, and again were wide eyed. I was almost going to see if they wanted to pray there and then, but they seemed earnest enough and said they would get right with God after finsihing off their lunch, so again pray that God worked in their lives and they might turn to him in humility.
God blessed us with a lovely sunny day and lots of people out shopping enjoying the weather, so was a great day, and was thankful God used us in our weakness and small number to speak the truth in love to people about eternity.
Saturday, 20 February, 2010
Last weekend again I went to Plymouth university by myself to witness to the many students heading out to the bars, to try and catch them before they had too muc to drink. God answered prayers again by enabling me to have at least 5 good solid conversations with people, including 2 lads who had already drunk a bit but took some gospel tracts home. Although knowledge of Christian apologetics, proofs for a young earth and refuting evolution are handy to give a reason for the hope that lies within, I have found using the law to speak to peoples conscience and making hell reasonable has often not needed me to justify the Bibles position, as Romans 2 states people already have a knowledge of God, but supressing the truth in unrighteousness. God has also allowed my testimony of just being a church goer to now being born again, and the scars from my near fatal accident to show people how short life is and how God can save a wretch like me! The university c/u also runs a free "tea and toast" outreach from 10-4am so people can be directed there for more Information And a bible. On the Saturday Shirley and me did an outreach In Exeter again, preaching taking a group of young people through the good person test, and helping 2 of them in the group who attended church why God should let someone into heaven, and how We can receive Gods forgiveness for our sins. Again the million pound note gospel tracts are easy to give away and start a conversation with, Even other people walking past and nearby ask what they are and ask for them while witnessing to others, and about 10 thorough gospel presentations were made with teenagers and adults that day and on the train home. On the Sunday I started a conversation with 2 guys who turned out to be sailors in the navy, both 18yrs old, and was great to see how God had drawn them to me, as they had already been Thinking about God and spiritual things, both had a Bible and asked lots of questions that I was able to Discuss with them. One was a catholic and so was able to explain why works can't save us and some wrong doctrinal teachings in the roman catholic church, pointing to Jesus finished work on the cross, and how this salvation was a free gift that couldn't be worked for. They both had "deer in headlights" syndrome when it clicked that if they were to die that day, they understood they would deserve hell, but appreciated the good news of salvation and eternal life, both giving firm handshakes and sincere smiles, that brought more joy to me than anything this world could offer, making sense of Charles Spurgeons book "The soul winner" and how we can have no greater joy than to help lead Sinner to our fathers house. This week Friday 19th February, Andy mackintosh, a professor in thermodynamics at Leeds university and evangelist was speaking in liskeard, Cornwall about creation, fossils, dinosaurs and the bible which I took 3 friends too, and we all enjoyed the talk, questions and discussions after, and meeting with other bible believing christians who don't believe in a old earth and evolution! On the Saturday (20th February) I did a short outreach in Plymouth city centre with Wayne Arthur and a few others, where we were both able to preach with loads of teenagers who were goths/emo's dressed I black and facepaint listening. 3 great conversations were also had with groups of teenagers aged 14-18, and again no questions were asked about the knowledge of Gods existence as they all had Gods law written on their hearts, but saw their need to repent and trust the saviour while they still had the chance. God has blessed me with lots of conversations to people that are open to the gospel and lack a reason to live and exist, but hopefully now They will see we are here to glorify God and enjoy him forever! Next weekend I will be teaming up with a new group of bible believing Christians from another church who need another street preacher in Plymouth while they give out tracts, and have been asked to preach at their church on Easter sunday evening which is a great blessing and answer to prayer! Thank you God for using a sinner to be a vessel for your work!
Saturday, 16 January, 2010
Thursday, 31st December 2009
“I’m a Doctor in Physics and a Satanist! I hate your God, He isn’t real! Christianity is false!” These were but a few of the heckles that were thrown at me as I preached in King George Square. It is New Years Eve, so we decided to have a special outreach and to commence the night by preaching in the new square. I started off by using an amplifier, which aided my voice greatly, as it covered the whole square and many people were able to hear. The only thing was that this increased preaching volume also drew in people who wanted to destroy the source of this new found volume.
The one heckler who claimed to be a scientist initially tried to break the cord that connected the microphone to the amp. But that failed, so he tried to argue science with me. It soon became very clear that he had no idea what he was on about. When he was challenged in this area he quickly hid behind his Satanist card. When I began to quote the Satanic Bible and address the errors in it, he decided he had enough and legged it across the street.
By now I was preaching without an amplifier, this wasn’t too good since I strained my voice by switching between the two modes of delivery. After I finished preaching, I had a break as I could feel my voice beginning to hurt. During this time Ryan and David went about handing out tracts to the many hundreds of people in the Square for some ball.
As the night progressed we went about our regular preaching routine. We had a few open air preachers up through out the night, and as we evangelised we had the honour of handing out thousands of tracts to the people of Brisbane city. Also, during this time we found it possible to have many great conversations, as people were interested in talking about many issues. This we have found to be the trend over the past few years. Every new years eve seems to provide a time for people to reflect and talk about things done and their plan for the future.
As the new year was coming in people began to celebrate. Then about 30 minutes after midnight the crowds began to leave. So we formed a preaching line and began to share the gospel to the thousands of people in the mall. The basis of a preaching line is this, in a fast moving crowd, you may only have 30 seconds to a minute to preach, so we line up about 8 different preachers and each preacher does a one minute gospel. Then the next preacher takes over. This line just keep going around and around until everyone is exhausted. Which in our case proved to be about 1:30am.
Overall it was a great night and we had an awesome time proclaiming Christ as one year ended and a new one begins.
Saturday, 2nd January 2010
My voice was still hurting from the other night and I was still physically exhausted from the really late night of Thursday, but once again we headed into the Queen Street Mall to proclaim the gospel.
It came as no surprise to us, when we saw that the city was nearly empty. People had spent all their money and were partied out after the New Year celebration. There were however, a few people in the city, so we continued our ministry of tracts, one to one and open air preaching.
The crowds were very minimal during the preaching and not many tracts were able to go out. But those who heard the gospel were worth it. At around 11pm we stopped the preaching and just focused on handing out tracts and one to one for the rest of the evening. In this time we did get to have some great conversations.
To God be the Glory!
Saturday, 9th January 2010
The city was a little bit more busy tonight. It seemed that the Christmas / New Years slump was over and people had gotten back into their weekly parties and drunkenness.
The first preacher up for the night was a new guy to the Brisbane team. For the past few weeks he had been ministering with our Gold Coast ministry, but had never been into Brisbane. He had stated that he wanted to preach, so we decided to let him go first, since it was the safest time of the night for a new preacher.
John preached for about 20 minutes and did an alright job. He presented Christ and explained to anyone who would give him an ear about how salvation is found in Jesus alone.
After John finished preaching, I stood up and preached on Jesus having the power to lay down His life and to pick it up again. And, I explored the concept of resurrection in today’s society. It didn’t take long before I had one heckler who claimed to know it all. This young boy of about 16 decided to stop and heckle, his arguments bordered on the absurd and it showed that he had never really given thought to why he was an atheist.
I engaged with Jay the atheist until Erin the friendly heckler came along. Erin was a polite young lady who raised her hand to ask me a question. She had given thought to her objections and I must confess I really did enjoy engaging with her. It is rare that we encounter a sceptic who can reason and debate without crossing the line into personal attacks. The crowd grew as we discussed Christianity in the open air. This crowd in turn drew in more people to listen and to heckle. Eventually we ended up on the topic of homosexuality. And it was at this point an aboriginal transvestite began to heckle me. He (although dressed as a she) started to talk about how he was abused as a child and how that action made him gay. This is one of the hardest things to deal with in the open air, an abused child. I assured him that he had not committed any sin when he was abused, and that God was going to judge the abuser. But, I also had to explain that sin is a choice and his homosexuality was a choice that he had made.
Well, the idea that he had chosen to be gay set him off, he began to scream abuse at me and say that God would never judge him for being gay. I opened the Scriptures in reply and showed him what God’s word said. For about an hour and a half we went back and forth on sin and the gospel. Most people were polite, although the aboriginal man was getting rather emotional.
At the end of the open air, I spoke to the aboriginal man (named Kelly, but later revealed his male name is James). We were able to sit down and talk about different issues. It was then that I asked him straight, “Be honest with me, do you like being gay?” His head dropped and he said, “No, I hate it! I want to one day get married and have children.” Rodney and I spent a further 30 minutes with James talking, then he said these words, “You guys are speaking the truth, I want to know Christ. I need to turn from this lifestyle!” With that we all got on our knees in the Queen Street Mall, then James called upon God for mercy.
That was an awesome way to finish the night. Please keep James in prayer, pray that God would save him and that God would be glorified in his life.
Saturday, 16th January 2010
Blake stood up to preach, the first time since he had returned from being overseas on mission trip. It was good to have him back on the box proclaiming the gospel to all who would listen. While Blake was preaching a young drunk professing Pentecostal named Josh came up to us to talk. I have spoken to him many times before and spent hours with him sharing the Scriptures to him. He was claiming to be a Christian, but at the same time he was swearing, drinking, cursing and his own words, committed rape and armed robbery. But, he was convinced he was saved. This stemmed from the faulty theology that said that one only has to say a quick prayer and you are saved.
Some of the guys dealt with him for awhile and then after Blake finished preaching, Ryan began to preach. Things got interesting around this time. I was talking to a young lady, who was from the USA. She had a Southern Baptist background but was now an atheist. Her main argument against God was the existence of hell and how he treats homosexuals. While, I was talking to her a fight erupted behind me, as I turned all I saw was this one young British man being thrown onto the Bible table. I quickly jumped in the way of the big fella who wanted to smack his head in and Kyosti got the British guy out of there.
Both of the fighters hung around heckling for a while, but Ryan was quick to answer their objections. I went back to witnessing to the American girl.
For two hours Ryan preached and taught the Scripture, many people stopped to listen and many took tracts. It was a good night, but at the same time it was hard. Please pray for all those who heard the gospel. That God may save them!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Saturday, 16 January, 2010
On Saturday 16th January, a few of us met up to give out some tracts and do some preaching in Plymouth city cenhtre. Weather was good and were about 6 of us handing out tracts to passers by. We noticed a large crowd of young people dressed in goth/ emo wear- black clothes, facepaint and lots of hair gel etc by the sundial, so thought it a prime opportunity.
Wayne started witnessing to one lad, and was there over all for about 3/4 of an hour, as he didnt believe in evolution and knew it was flawed, and so Wayne was able to reason with him about God and how he has revealed himself to us through Jesus and the Bible.
I had a few good conversations with young people in 2 groups, mainly them saying they didnt believe in God, or if there was a God, why do bad thiongs like poverty and natural disasters happen to good people? I triend to reason that everyone knows there is a God- Romans 1 v 18 etc, but that because people enjoy their sin and being the god of their own lives, they supress the truth and try and logic thoughts of the true God out of their lives. The lad surprisingly acknowledged this to be true.
I then spoke with them about no one in the world being a 'good person', and that God was sovereign and in control of things that went on in the world, such as the earthquake in Haiti, but that there were differing reasons for things happening.
Lots of million pound notes and good person comic tracts were handed out, with the young people keen to read them. Quite a few of the young people who dress up the way they do have at different tikmes explained they had some religious background and upbringing, and for differing reasosn have chose not to follow it anymore such as family circumstances/ abuse/ tragedy in the family/ school life, and so its good they already have some basis to talk about things.
In the end I did some open air preaching looking at 1 John 2 v 15, and was in front of the young people, and we had a local busker who stood next to Wayne to listen who came in a few times saying that Jesus was not God and was just a man (which you can hear on the video), and we later found out he had some Jewish background. The video is on my youtube/ facebook account.
Am meeting Rob and Andrew Noble in Exeter tomorrow- 23/01 to meet to plan another evangelism outreach like that in London last year and also hopefully to do some evangelism together if weather permits.
Praying for more labourers to come out Friday nights to the University again now the weather starts to get better as has been pretty wet, and also planning more saturday outreaches with Wayne and Shirley.
Although we may not see much fruit from the conversations we have with people sometimes, we know God is the one that draws people to him, but is always good when we see someone clearly convicted of their sin and seeing their need of a saviour!
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