Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Brisbane (QLD) Team

Through the Christmas season, as well as the usual outreaches in the afternoons, there are also nightly outreaches (except Friday) in Brisbane city. You are invited to come along to hand out tracts and share the Gospel with the masses, blindly celebrating the "family time" that is Christmas, missing all together, the King that was born.

Over this weekend, Saturday was a quite busy night despite the rain, meaning thousands of tracts were handed out. On the other hand Sunday due to the rain was almost dead but God, in His usual providence bought around just enough people to keep the five team members in conversations continuously throughout three and a half hours.

Two quick conversations on Saturday were had with Ben a young Muslim and an older man who had created an idol.

Ben the young Muslim didn't know much of the teachings of Islam and knew basically nothing of the Bible.

He left after the conversation with a better understanding of his own religion and serious criticisms of it, explaining why only the Jesus of the Bible can bring any hope. He was left this Christmas to consider the serious question, "How can God remain, good, righteous and just and humanity be anything other than eternally damned?"

The older gentleman on the other hand declared that he did not need Jesus, he was a good guy and if he needed it on judgement day that his uncle in an Archbishop in London. It was quickly shared with him that on judgement day will be alone with nothing and no one to hide behind and this his only hope would be this baby, born in a manger, who came to save sinners.

On Sunday the conversations were far lengthier and there were many more. Three of note were with Joshua, Roman and Dan and Asia.

Firstly, the conversation with Joshua was interesting. He had many ideas and thoughts and was happy to engage. He is a German and so much of the conversation was spent using examples from German history and him being encouraged to read specific German Christians, most notably, Martin Luther. 

The main point of his argument was that naturally a human if their follow their heart will live a good life. This was clearly shown to be foolish and untrue and Joshua was left with a knowledge of sin, the serious penalty it deserves and was encouraged, as his name declares, to trust in God, who saves.

Roman, in a similar boat, thought that his goodness was his ticket into Heaven. When he saw, through God's perfect standard and law that this would be of no use Roman was then open to hearing who Jesus is and what it means that He has come to save sinners.

He came to understand the Gospel after a few different ways of it being explained and was seriously challenged to read the Gospel of John before Christmas and to trust in this humble God, who came to save proud sinners.

Lastly a surprising conversation was had with Daniel and Asia. It was surprising because it isn't often that you deal with people so self-absorbed that they can't even see it.

Daniel (a name that fittingly means, God is my judge) and Asia claimed to be skeptics BUT clearly showed they were nothing but willful rebels. They asked question after question after question and without letting a single answer finished being given they would raise another objection. 

What made this all the more baffling was that at the very beginning of the conversation and numerous times throughout it was clearly pointed out to them that the issue was not one of intellect but one of pride-fueled, sin-loving hatred of God. Before they even began asking questions they were told what topics they would raise to try and argue against Christianity. The reliability of the Bible, the prophecies it claims, the miracles it records, the Creation account, the goodness of God, the ability of Christ to save and a number of others. 

Sure enough, almost as if they "tried" to argue against these things, despite not really listening long enough to hear the entire list, they then proceeded to raise objections, as many as they could as quickly as they could.

Through the conversation this absolute commitment to rejection of God was pointed out. It was shared with them that this was obviously not an issue of intellect. They weren't rejecting God on the basis of anything they knew about this world or about God. Rather, it was clearly a wicked and sinful heart. 

Despite trying to claim that they were simply skeptics looking for answers, they would consistently cut off the answers. It was pointed out to them that they were the people described in 2 Timothy 3, "Always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth".

Daniel and Asia, were left with a very clear and strong warning about God's impending judgement and their need to turn from their foolishness to the Saviour of sinners. 

After the pair left, a while later Asia walked past again and was handed a Gospel of John and challenged to read it.

Please be praying for the many who had received tracts over these two nights as well as the many who heard the Gospel, were challenged by it to trust in this Christ and were left with the choice of Christ and life or themselves and Hell. 

View previous Brisbane (QLD) report (12 December 2018)

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Brisbane Team (Night) (QLD)

Meets Fridays (7-10pm) & Saturdays (6-9pm) & Sundays (7:30-9:30pm) in King George Square.

Contact Ryan Hemelaar for more information.

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