Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Gold Coast (QLD) Team

Date: 02.03.08 Sunday  
Time: 2:00-4:00PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team

Team Members:
Ryan Hemelaar (our cherished hardworking webmaster)
Nathan (our new friend and labourer in Christ)

Team Visiting Assistants:
Victor Barwick (long time friend)
Kyosti (hilarious friend!)

The REPORT:

Tears were falling..

Your preaching your heart out, but people aren't stopping. Then you notice to the side, a middle-aged women quietly wiping tears away from her eyes. Time stops. We often have no idea what it is God till we get to heaven and He shows us. Preach the word, be faithful.

Sin was calling its servants to obedience..

Two young teenage ladies held each other pationately, and embraced with thier lips.. an attempt to discourage the preachers from thier listeners and the message of Christ: Repent and Believe.

Tutankhamun made an appearance:

While Ryan preached a young man of 24 perhaps, argued that Tutankhamun had revealed truth to him, and attempted to explain some ridiculous and contradictory reason for why we were alive.. stranger things happen when you preach the gospel. This was probably an attempt to distract the preachers from preaching the truth, and get them into a useless discussion over an irrelavent peice of information with no eternal value.

Copies of the written word of God were requested..

Weekly copies of the scriptures are placed into the hands of those who are keen to read its words, and understand its message. This is a free service I offer at personal expense, and by the generous contributions of those who support my personal ministry. None of which I could do of course, without the Independant Baptist Press who subsidise, import and print the resources I use as an Indendant Baptist Missionary to Australia. All this is accomplished by the manifold and diverse grace of God. God's word is relavent today, and is still powerful, able to break the hard hearted rock in pieces.

Ash returns, but completely under the influence of alcohol..

Ash a common participant in dialogue with the Open Air preachers was back today. Sadly he was drunk. Nathan spent some valueable time labouring with him this week.. this is our job. Preaching the gospel in season and out of season... are you?

Man stands at traffic lights, talking to Victor Barwick, while the lights went green ten times..

Victor, or Snow as his friends affectionately call him, was handing out gospel tracts. Then a tattoed man came along, and was about to cross the road, when Snow offered him a gospel tract. A million dollar note.. the lights changed ten times, before the man crossed the road. He listened intently and asked question's as Snow presented the gospel of Christ to him. God only knows the end of this man, and we plead for his salvation.

Lesbians talk to Preacher:

They asked was homosexuality wrong. To which I posed them the question, how do we know what is wrong. They had no answer. I explained that all the in's and outs I could about the athiest's morality, and then showing it flawed with no basis for judgement. Then I moved to show that God was the definer of right and wrong. Then I showed them the scriptures regarding homosexuality. God has made his opinion clear in scripture. I urged them to repent towards God.

There is a theme here..

As I contemplated the lack of people who stayed to listen on Sunday, as opposed as to the large crowds we have seen of late, a thought began to enter my mind and then stayed there for a long time.

I could literally list off a long long record of events that occured on Sunday. In every single one of them, you would notice that Christ Jesus by His Spirit was labouring in the Gold Coast for the glory of God.

So often, we get caught up in the unbiblical trap of pragmatism. How strong are we, how many troops do we have, how many people are turning up in the crowds.. and we make the mistake of King David. We count ourselves, to see how strong God is. What fools we are.

God is stronger than all the strength you could percieve with your fleshly eye.. He is greater than ten thousand armies, boasting of millions of soldiers in each. He is more powerful than ten billion solar suns. He is more glorious than all the beauty of the Universe. He is the King who made all things, for the glory of Himself.

Further more, I considered that we could have three hundred men stand and hear us preach.. but I find its better to see one man repent.

For we find the scriptures record that all the angels in heaven rejoice when one repents.. and we find that all the christians rejoice when we get a big crowd. Did you notice something quite markedly different here?

We are rejoicing about the wrong thing.

How many of us get excited, buzzing to celebrate about one person who came to repentance? How wonderful is it to us? Of course we like to see it.. but don't most of us get really really excited about the wrong thing.

When large crowds stop to listen, it can easily be us, a thrill beyond words, and yet the Spirit of God, is grieved. Why? Because we have made the work about us, and not about Him.

The theme of Evangelism, is Christ. The theme of scripture is Christ. The theme of your life, must be Christ or it shall be lost from the sight of the saints, one day, into the fire of His eternal wrath at wickedness.

Jesus Christ is the one who was working today, and if he chose to use Josh Mitchell the worm, or any of the brethren in Christ on the Gold Coast.. he did so for His glory.. and we are grateful to be expended for His name.

Lord Jesus, the Gold Coast is yours, what shall you do with it? Turn our eyes upon thee, and help us to obey your all commandments.

Thank You List:

I want to express my heartfelt thankfulness to those who come out weekly to labour and be made fun of for Christ's sake. I am encouraged every week by the presence of those who faithfully take the word of God to the streets, for the glory of God. God bless you friends.

I also want to thank those who silently, and visibly support the ministry of myself and the Gold Coast Team. Also to those in leadership with me, and web team and so on who labour in the dark hours of the night to get the work done that is so needful. May God bless your sincere efforts for His glory, in the way that pleases Him most.

Also thankyou to the Police Officers who keep the Surfers Paradise region free from criminals, and keep citizens free to do what we enjoy most.. publicly enjoy the moral freedoms we have been given at the hand of God.

Also a thankyou to the cleaners of the Gold Coast. You guy are also an encouragement and an example to me. You do a difficult job, and often at the end of mean people's jokes. Thank you for your work, we appreciate the unsatisfying work you do in attempting to keep clean the Surfers Paradise area, despite the public leaving rubbish everywhere. Thankyou :)

An Invitation:

If you would like to take part in the work of evangelism on the Gold Coast, und er the authority of Josh Mitchell, then contact me when you are able. We are careful to make sure trained Christians come out with us, so that we may comfortably give account to the authorities and local churches, that the gospel preached and the attitude by which it is preached is good and godly. To do this, Josh likes to meet with people for coffee, and then suggest a training day, or listening audio's to bring you up to grade, so that you are a workman who needs not to be ashamed. Josh's mobile is 0412 759 536.

View previous Gold Coast (QLD) report (24 February 2008)

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Gold Coast Team (QLD)

Meets 7:15-10pm Friday nights at Surfers Paradise on Cavill Avenue.

Contact Ryan Hemelaar for more information.

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