Battle Log

Tuesday 2 April 2019

Posted by Posted 4 April 2019, 10:16 PM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

On Tuesday afternoon at Woodridge, the afternoon was mostly under cloud cover, which kept the temperatures down and made for a good atmosphere. It also seemed though that there were fewer people around than usual but God still provided conversations for the seven team members that made it out.

There were a few conversations of note but a main one was a display of God's providence. As you may have read, last week during the outreach there was a major disruption to the outreach, around around 3pm a young man, on the run from the police climbed onto the roof the the train station and stopped all trains North and Southbound for two hours. The reason this was a problem for the team was that conversations were hard to have as every time something unfolded on the roof the crowds of people, waiting for their train and watching would make noises distracting from the conversation.

Worse yet, when he first climbed up there four team members were in conversations which were bought to a halt by the distraction. This is where the story attaches to this week. One team member was speaking to Zelena. But the conversation was looking to be a slow one, at first she wasn't that keen to talk and she had brought the conversation to point where it was going to be a long process to get to the Gospel. But God in His perfect timing knew what was best. He stopped the conversation before it really began and instead said, "wait".

This week around halfway through the outreach, this young lady was walking through with her boyfriend, Rifkey and saw the flip chart and his attention was drawn. Zelena wanted to head off but his interest kept her. Over the next fifteen minutes a simple and clear Gospel presentation was given. Zelena actually enabled the conversation to flow by understanding the pictures straight away. And that caused Rifkey to follow along. During this time two other guys came to listen. As the law was shown, the guilt was revealed and the penalty explained Zelena had to run off quickly. But Rifkey stayed.

In God's timing this was just what was required. Rifkey then heard the Gospel, what God has done to save sinners. But upon the first checking question he'd still misunderstood it. Then Zelena returned with another guy named Harry. Now there were five listening and for the group the Gospel was shown again. "The only way we can pay for our sin is to go to Hell. The only hope we have is if someone else takes the penalty we deserve, which is what Christ has done for those who believe in Him," it was explained.

The parachute example was given, to explain what it means to trust and believe and then the check question was asked, "If today you acknowledged that you're sinful, that you deserve Hell but trusted that Jesus paid for your sin but you sinned once more on your way home and then died a few minutes later, would God send you to Heaven or Hell?"

Zelena instantly said Hell but before giving the right answer Harry and Rifkey were asked and they both said Heaven. When asked to explain why they basically said in unison, "Because we weren't trusting in our goodness were had trusted in Jesus to pay for our sin". Praise God! It was a moment of rejoicing. Suddenly all three understood the Gospel.

This is where it took a direct turn, the question was posed, "So when will you trust in Jesus". They each gave different answers, which were challenged or encouraged and they were left with tracts and with the encouragement, "It would be wonderful to hear next time we see you that you have trusted in Jesus alone for your salvation!"

The whole scenario was a work of God's providence. The cutting off of the previous weeks conversation, so that the Gospel would be clear in a short and simple way. The desire from Rifkey to do the flip chart. The timing during this conversation enabling Rifkey to hear the Gospel twice so that he could understand it. That all three came to grasp the Gospel and understand how someone can be made right before God.

It was a conversation of rejoicing. Please be praying for these three that God would use this conversation to bring them into His Kingdom, that they would come to want more of Christ than anything else! Praise God for the working of His sovereign will!

View previous Woodridge (QLD) report (26 March 2019)


Woodridge

Woodridge Team (QLD)

Meets 2-5pm every Tuesday afternoon at the Woodridge train-bus interchange on Station Rd.

Contact Ryan Hemelaar for more information.