Battle Log

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A day of handing out a few tracts and little interest in doing the "good person' test, and then Lee-Anne met Aria. Please pray for this Mormon lady. She was taken through the law and gospel. The chat also covered some ground in evidences for the Christian Scriptures vs. the paucity of 'backups' for the Book of Mormon. Aria said she would check this matter out. The matter of how revelation is given received was also brought to her notice including the 'angel of light' masquerade, cf. 2 Cor. 11:12-15. May the Lord lead her out of that cult into true saving faith in th real Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank God for the pleasure of serving Him this year & growing us. What we do we do for His exclusive glory. 

     Enjoy praising God and keep eager for our Lord's return - as promised by God who cannot lie; He is absolute truth and unchangeably so!

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What better way is there to orient your mind to rejoicing in Christ, the Saviour, this Christmas than to spend some time declaring to others who He is and what He has done to save sinners like us?

For this reason, you're invited to join us in Brisbane City tonight, at 6:30-9:30pm for the final Christmas outreach, and you're invited to join us on Boxing day from 1-5pm.

As the Christmas outreaches draw to a close it is exciting to see how many conversations the team has been able to have as well as the amount of tracts that have been handed out! Here are a few highlight conversations from the last few days.

One scary, yet exciting conversation was with a man named Abinar. He (and his wife) are from Brazil and have come to Australia for a while. They have grown up in a Church back where they came from but sadly had completely missed the Gospel. As the conversation began he was asked, "Will God let you into Heaven when you die?" Adinar responded, "Yes, because I have tried my best to be good".

He was then taken through the law, showing the desperate state he is in before God and was lead through the Gospel, that God's solution isn't for sinful people to try harder, rather for a Holy God to deal with sin, so that those who trust Him can be forgiven, on the basis of what God has done.

Abinar after hearing the Gospel said it made sense and said he would read Romans 3-5 with his wife and seek to understand what Paul is saying about how one is made right before God! Please be praying for this young couple, that God would have used this short conversation to bring them to a saving knowledge of the truth, for the first time in their lives!

Another encouraging conversation was with a young man named Luke. He had a SDA background and had left the church there are while back and had ended up in agnosticism, just living his way. The Gospel was prioritized with Luke, so that he could understand what God had done to save sinners and how they can be made right with Him.

This was followed by many of Luke's questions being answered. He came to understand God's judgement and Hell, the sinful state of a human heart, the miracles and prophecies and their role in the Bible, among other topics.

Please be praying that Luke comes to Christ, the Christ of the scriptures and that in doing so he may receive eternal life!

Lastly a conversation was had with Alice. She had a Catholic background and had rejected the Catholic church and was now just living the life of a pagan, doing everything she wanted or desired and living her way. Alice was challenged with the Gospel, left with a clear understanding of what she deserved and God's only solution and was left with the question, when would she give up her pride-fueled rebellion and come to trust in God's Saviour.

These three conversations are quite typical of the Australian streets, people who have some sort of religious background but little to know understanding of the Gospel. This is why is it so needed and such a privilege to be out on the streets, being able to explain to anyone God brings along, what God has done, said and promised.

Please keep the team in prayer over the next few outreaches and even consider joining us yourself on the public holidays!

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On Wednesday afternoon the team headed into the mall for another long but joyful day of ministry. Starting soon after lunch and finishing up after 9:30, around five thousands tracts were handed out and many conversations were had!

Some notable and encouraging conversations were had and here is a taste for you, that will hopefully encourage you this Christmas season, to take any opportunity and to even "create" some yourself by asking people the simple question, "What do you think Christmas is about?" followed by mentioning that the original Christmas was about Christ coming into this world and then asking, "Do you think God will let you into Heaven when you die?"

A conversation that followed that very simple progression was had with a young lady named Georgia who made some of the team dinner during the break between the outreaches. In less than five minutes Georgia came to understand what Christ was about, why it is such good news and why this year she should strongly consider what Jesus has to say, "Repent or perish".

Another interesting conversation was with James. He is a biologist and as expected, had combined his biology with his desire for their to be no accountability for his actions and had agreed with the common, yet foolish theory that it is normal and natural to assume that we live in a world with no Creator and therefore no right or wrong.

The first point of call with James, just as with any person is the Gospel. So that is what James got to hear, who God is, what God asked of us, how desperately we have failed to obey, in fact, willfully rebelled and the eternal consequences of these choices. James then got to hear what the kind and humble God has done to save rebel sinners, He came into His own creation to die the death we deserve, suffering the Hell punishment in our place that all those who place their trust in Him can be made right before God and be redeemed to the humanity they were designed to be.

James hadn't heard this before and was seriously challenged about it and not left with any wiggle room. As the conversation flowed though, it was time to begin to answer some of James' objections and all the while, pointing back to the Gospel as the questions were answered.

As the conversation drew to a close the final point that seemed to have James very stumped came off the back of the explanation given as to why humanity know what is good and yet desire to live selfishly and do evil. It was explained that other world religions try to explain why we know what is good and have some adherence to it but fail to explain why humanity is so sinful at the same time. On the other hand atheism has this idea of the "selfish gene" and tries to explain why humanity is inherently selfish and then attempts to paint it as positive.

The issue is, both have major flaws and do not accurately describe the world we live in, with people knowing what is right and sometimes even desiring moral actions whilst being inherently evil and selfish all the time.

What left James speechless is the incompatibility of selfishness with what atheism claims, that the purpose of humanity is to pro-create. His attempted intellectual argument found one massive flaw, that is not how atheists live.

Rather, we find that atheists don't have enough children to even have a sustainable world, the required rate per is 2.1 children per family (to keep the population growing). What we find is that atheists (in America from a 2015 survey) have around 1.6 children per family and agnostics are even lower at 1.3 per family. Why do the statistics not align with the supposed "belief system" that our sole purpose is to procreate. The reason is because this proclaimed "selfish gene", is not a gene at all, it is just a cover term for sin.

The belief system atheist's claim to have, is simply sinful selfishness disguised as intellectualism. Every person knows that children are trying to ones patience at the best of times. A selfish desire to "pass on ones DNA" is in no way powerful enough to overcome the interruption that children will have on ones own abilities to live however they want.

It was pointed out, with one final serious challenge to James, that His attempts to explain the world from an atheistic perspective will always fail and be inconsistent because it simply isn't true. It is just the latest attempt of proud humanity to convince themselves they are not guilty by attempting to explain away the God of this world.

At this James actually had no response, he was challenged with the truth of sin one final time and was pointed to the Gospel, that Jesus could save him from his rebellion, rejection of God and the consequences of it.

One final conversation on more sad note was with an older gentleman. He was asked where he would spend eternity and initially seemed quite pleasant. He said that he didn't think about Heaven and Hell much because he was just living his best life and said that would probably be enough.

When Jesus in Matthew 5:48 was quoted to him, "You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect". He responded by mentioning that no one is perfect then asked, "Are you perfect?"

To which the answer was given, "Not at all, but entry to Heaven is certain for those who have trusted in Jesus' perfection and sacrifice on the cross".

He repeated that he wasn't worried about the afterlife and this moment was taken to stress why that is a foolish position to take, "God has been clear that after death comes the judgement and as you currently stand, you will be found guilty of breaking God's law and you will be sent to Hell, your only hope is to come to this same Saviour who came into this world on the very first Christmas to die to save sinners".

It was at this moment he exploded, declaring that did not want any saviour and dropped a few profanities in his request for the team member to leave him, ironically "in peace".

Please be praying for those conversations had today, the tracts handed out and the opportunities God provided to speak with people. Please praise God that His Gospel went forth and that He will do exactly what He desires with it!

Please also be praying for Georgia, James and the older gentleman who wanted to trust in himself. Please pray that this seed falls on good soil and that it will grow and bear much fruit!

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Timaru (NZ) Team

Timaru - Christmas 

If it’s about numbers... hundreds, even thousands of tracts ... then it was not a success, at least humanly speaking. It was very quiet,  with no one out on the streets of Timaru at 09:00. I tried the day before, but the weather blew & rained all away. By 10:00 today, I tried again and by God’s grace was able to hand out about 20 tracts. One elderly gentleman actually turned back to ask for a tract! :)  The low level of foot traffic, which was very strange for this time of year, helped me focus on why I was there handing out tracts to the few people out and about... Jesus said to go out in the world and preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15). He didn’t say only go when you can preach/ witness to multitudes. Gospel seed was sown... God was glorified, may He use what was sown to gain a fruitful harvest. Please continue to pray for fellow Christians to come alongside to help. Even if the foot traffic remains low, we could have edifying fellowship as we engage in Evangelism. Thank you. Psalm 67!

 

 

 

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In November we were able to have some significant conversations with people in the Toowoomba CBD. The first of these conversations occurred between Merv and a group of teenagers. This group was eager to engage and spent a fair bit of time talking with Merv regarding spiritual things. During the course of the discussion, a number of them claimed that they didn’t believe in Christianity due to evolution.

 This is a very, very common objection with younger people and so Merv began to unpack some of the issues surrounding this important topic. As Merv was speaking his wife, Alisa, came over and also began to speak with the teens. One of the teens picked up that Alisa was agreeing with Merv and asked her “Are you with him?”,  a statement which delighted our faithful husband and wife team. The conversation eventually wound down and the teens took some tracts and were left with much to think about.

Another one of our team members, Sarah, had a much different conversation. She struck up a conversation with an older bloke who said he was once a Christian but had stopped following Christ. He also intriguingly believed that everyone will be in Heaven one day. It was a difficult dialogue and the bloke didn’t really want to talk. In moments like these, it’s best to respectfully leave the conversation to another day and so Sarah bid the man farewell and continued on.

In all honesty, speaking with people who describe themselves as “ex-Christian” is often the most painful part of following Christ, especially if they are your friends or family. Few experiences are more emotionally agonising, though it shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus predicted that many would follow Him yet eventually choose to turn away from Him. He even included this warning in a number of His parables, such as in the parable of different soils (Matt 13:18-23) and of wheat and weeds (Matt 13:24-30, 36-42).

Consider Judas, who saw spent three years living side by side with Jesus. Judas travelled with Jesus, healed people with Jesus, saw countless miracles by Jesus and shared numerous meals with Jesus. If Judas could turn away from Christ after following Him into full-time ministry, how much more should we be to prepared for the reality of apostasy* in our own midst? How much more do we be prepared to live together with and love those who have turned away from Christ?

It’s not over till it’s over...and thankfully God has brought many a Prodigal son (and daughter) back to Himself over the years. This is a hope that drives our ministry on the streets whenever we encounter ex-Christians. We have the beautiful hope of a powerful, patient Father whose children can take a million steps away from yet need to take only one step back.

All in all, it was a challenging outreach and we look forward in faith to see what God will do in the coming weeks and months in the lives of the people of Toowoomba.


*Some  helpful resources on the topic:

http://thecripplegate.com/the-tragedy-of-apostasy/

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/GTY119/when-believers-stop-believing-portrait-of-an-apostate

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/early-symptoms-spiritual-danger/

https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/313478-what-to-do-when-a-christian-doubts-lore-ferguson-wilbert.html

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/we-need-each-other/excerpts/without-good-friends-you-will-die



Christmas Lights Outreach

Each year our team has the privilege of handing out Gospel tracts at the Queen’s Park Christmas Lights festival. We met together at 6pm and after a time of prayer we split into pairs to cover the various footpaths around the event. As usual, it was extremely busy and almost everyone we encountered was  in a festive mood and were happy to take tracts. We were able to hand out a couple of hundred tracts in a very short period of time.

We had one memorable encounter with a volunteer from the event. She walked over to us and say quite pointedly “What are you fellows handing out?” I responded, “Gospel tracts ma’am”.

Suddenly her entire demeanor changed and with a big smile, she exclaimed “Great stuff! Praise the Lord!” and with a spring in her step, she returned back to her post. Talk about a change of attitude!

At the end of the night, we assembled together again and told stories of how our respective adventures went. God has blessed us with an incredible team and as we look to the future we’re excited to see everything our amazing and faithful God has in store for us in 2019.

 

 

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It was like a dream. Protestors marched in front of us. Two Jehovah’s Witnesses sat to our left. Two Mormon missionaries stood to our right. It was going to be an exciting morning in the Toowoomba CBD.  Our team split into pairs and headed out.

Adrian and I went over to talk to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. D and L were a pleasant, middle-aged couple who were happy to talk. In the course of our conversation I aimed to discuss two questions: “Who is God?” and “What is the Good News?” These two crucial questions divide Christianity from its cultic detractors and the answers lead us to either worship the true Christ or to worship a false Christ who cannot save.

On the question of “Who is God?” D and L denied the Bible’s teaching on the Trinity* and instead they insisted that God created Jesus as the archangel Michael. D also said that Jesus had no power over His own resurrection. I pointed out that in John 2:18-22 Jesus claims that He will raise Himself to life:

“So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body.


“D” countered by saying that in Acts 3:15 it says that God raised Jesus from the dead. I said “I agree with you entirely D...so was Jesus lying when He said He would raise Himself from the dead?” D was unsure of how to answer this question, so I encouraged to him to consider the idea that perhaps God was a Triune Being after all. He then listed a number of Scriptures that he thought disproved the idea of the Trinity, but in reality they only disproved the heresy of Modalism**.

Most JW’s in my experience tend to think Trinitarians are Modalists and when I ask if they actually understand what Christians mean by “God is Trinity” they tend to reply “I don’t know and I don’t care...it’s a false belief anyway”. D&L’s response to my request was no different and so I was stuck trying to explain how John 2:18-22 and indeed all the Scriptures they brought up makes sense in light of the Trinity....a light they expressly claimed to have no interest in learning about***.

It was at this stage I realised I needed to shift the conversation. We then moved onto the topic of “What is the Gospel?” Every JW I’ve met believe that a combination of Christ’s forgiveness and a person’s good deeds will earn them a deserved place in Paradise. D&L agreed with this idea and I endeavored to show them the Good News that because of Christ’s death in our place for our sin we can all be forgiven and are declared righteous completely independently of our good deeds.

Our good deeds are the fruit...not the root... of our salvation. The presence of good deeds in our lives demonstrate that we are saved...they do not contribute in any sense to our salvation from sin. Jesus has paid it all and that is what makes His favour towards people so undeserving as us so incredible.

D&L argued that good deeds do in some way help us to merit our salvation. I asked D to read out Romans 4:3-8 with its special focus on God counting righteousness apart from works:

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered,
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." 

I also asked him to look at Romans 3:28:

"For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law [e.g. obeying the 10 Commandments]."


Some people might think this means that good deeds are optional in the Christian life, so I made the point to D&L that good deeds are important and necessary and that they demonstrate that we are saved. But they do not help merit our salvation in any way.

D&L grasped this and said they would like to get back to me on this topic. When our time came to a close we thanked each other for the discussion. While we disagreed on critical issues I was immensely grateful for their candor and their respectful discussion.

Meanwhile, the other team members were having some good discussions as well. Johnno and his friends from Goondiwindi travelled up to Toowoomba for the outreach and both he and Callum found themselves speaking with the protestors we’d all seen earlier. It turned out that it wasn’t a protest after all, but rather a public march of solidarity and welcome for Toowoomba’s growing refugee population.

Johnno and Callum had a few conversations with some of the immigrants who attended the march but it was rather challenging with the language barrier between them. They were able to speak with others during the day as well, such as a man on a bike who was willing to talk and also an older woman. Overall it was a good day with a number of tracts handed out and a number of good discussions were had. Please pray for this ministry and keep us in your prayers as we seek to faithfully share the Good News of Jesus with our city.

*https://carm.org/dictionary-trinity

**https://carm.org/modalism

*** To explain the Trinity, I’m thinking of printing out the ever-helpful Athanasian Shield for outreach and for home use when the JW’s/Mormons come knocking... see
 

https://www.google.com/search?q=athanasian+shield&rlz=1C1AOHY_enAU708AU708&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYpPKX8LLfAhVGf30KHV6BBQcQ_AUIDigB&cshid=1545462439305000&biw=1920&bih=965

****Note: This is a report of  October Outreach. Reports from November and December will follow soon:

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Rain! This was going to be a test: can effective community outreach occur in constant rain (it didn't stop for the whole 4 hours I was out today)? And the answer is: yes!

I had to do some walking before finding my first good spot, and I had some fruitful conversations there, before I got asked to move on as I was technically on private property! Of course I complied with the request, and took the opportunity to introduce myself. They took tracts!

I found a new dry spot further down the mall, but sadly there wasn't much foot traffic. When my friend Jermaine, of The Salvation Army Sydenham, joined me for the last hour and a half (thanks brother!), we ended up trying some new spots (see pic of Jermaine sharing the gospel with his new flip chart) and we found a really productive spot outside the bus exchange.

Security wouldn't let us use the flip chart, but after introducing ourselves and politely asking for permission, we were allowed to hand out tracts and chat with people about the gospel.

I'm so encouraged that God allowed us to be effective, even in pouring rain. May those that heard the gospel today come to know the grace of Jesus!

Finally, a shout out to St. Paul's Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church for providing me with free city parking - what an incredible blessing, that I'm so thankful for! The parking site also has the white chairs that commemorate the lives lost in the earthquakes. There is urgency to get the gospel out to people - please continue to pray, and please, join me out there!

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Back to work today! 4 hours, all based in 1 spot (literally) on Cashel Mall, with pretty much constant gospel conversations for the first 3 hours (thank you Lord for the encouragement!).

At one point I even had a queue of people waiting to chat?! Lots of people out (and it's only a Tuesday), including many high school aged kids, due to the Christmas/summer holidays. Nice weather too. The harvest really feels ripe - if anyone has some free time to join me, now is a good time.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Wow, what an incredible afternoon out proclaiming the good news of Jesus in Cashel Mall and Cathedral Square! Many wonderful conversations occurred: some young men seemed deeply impacted, and agreed that today was the day of salvation and nothing was stopping them from repenting and trusting in Jesus. One of those young men, from the Belfast area, accepted contact details.

Yet there were others who didn't seem to like the message of Jesus.

We need to share with all - yet we need to do so with gentleness and respect -- we can't force our message on anyone.

This was highlighted today when multiple team members were approached by 2 brash young ladies who insisted that baptism and speaking in tongues were required for salvation (no; we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone, so none can boast, and God alone gets the glory). There was nothing gentle about their approach.

It was a wonderful reminder to the team about how not to do evangelism! With Gods help, may we continue to be good ambassadors for Him! Please pray that we will continue to be so. And please consider joining us! The Tell Me team would love to help you in taking your first steps.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I'm not under any illusions about how difficult adjusting to my new job will be. Yesterday was hard, I didn't want to get out of the car! But I did. And half way through I wanted to give up. But I didn't. It was cold and windy initially. And I had a "Christian" man get suddenly very angry with me - which I had to defuse.

But God allowed me to have some wonderful gospel conversations too! And I checked out some new potential locations for outreach.

I will be pacing myself with the view of a marathon, and not a sprint.

Will you please pray for me and the gospel outreaches I'm working on establishing? And, please, join me!

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