Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 180

It was another interesting day in our Lord's service. There was a young Lebanese woman who was most appreciative of our chat.

Also 2 Muslim men in their late teens or early 20s on their way to NSW received a "You may not have tomorrow" and "What law have you broken?" tract.

There was a young J.W. man who was a bit apprehensive at first but we ended with a respectful challenge to one another. I asked him to ponder Mt. 28:20 and how Jesus could keep His promise to be "...with you always...'' since He left and ascended into heaven. He gave me Ps. 83:18 which I rejoice to submit to in the light of progressive revelation!

Thanks for praying and remember the other outreaches and the team in Myanmar.

To God be the glory for He alone is worthy. 

---

Merciful Lord and Heavenly Father,

Thank you that you hear our prayers and answer from heaven. Praise your glorious and holy name! You are good and worthy of our praise, may we always come with hearts full of gratitude and joy to your throne.

Thank you for our city of Hobart. Thank you that you allow us to live in peace and bear witness here day by day. Thank you for the government that you have put in place and will hold accountable for the way they govern. Thank you for the many thousands who have heard the gospel through our work, and through the work of others like FOCUS, UFC and Helen Devenish. Thank you for the great natural blessings that you shower on our sinful and heedless state, please use those blessings to awaken people to awe and worship of you.

Praise your name Father that you are gathering a people for yourself from Hobart. Thank you that we hear from all sides stories of salvation and quickening of spiritual life in Jesus. Thank you for saving us, thank you for saving them! You are great and mighty to save, and nothing will ever stop your mission to redeem people from our time and our land. We rejoice to walk in your footsteps Lord Jesus, lead us to those you have destined for salvation. Help us to clearly share the gospel and never hold back anything you have revealed in your word. We walk in a great valley of bones. Oh Lord, give Hobart life eternal that they may arise a mighty army, ready to do your will.

Bless us we pray and forgive us our sins, we are not as we should be. We sin and do what you loathe, we groan to think of all the ways we have wronged you our great God and saviour! We know that death and hell is the just consequence of sin. Jesus is our only hope and our only plea as we stand guilty before you. Forgive us for Jesus’ sake and cleanse us from all wrong doing. We trust that you will do this, you have promised us that you will.

Please have mercy Lord on those that persecute us, lie about us, and revile us as evil. Please look on our suffering at their hands and forgive them Lord almighty. We hope and pray that you will break their hard hearts and bring them to repentance and faith. Through your Holy Spirit Lord, give life to the slanders, to those who have assaulted us, to the opponents, and to the grumblers. Banish from our city the demons that empower and inspire opposition to you and your word. Free people from the power of Satan and from slavery to sin. Help us we pray, to put aside our desires for personal justice while we at the same time seek to restrain evil wherever we encounter it.  We trust you Father to do what is right with our enemies, help us to lean on you and joyfully follow Jesus wherever He leads us.

To you and you alone Lord is the glory, the kingdom, the majesty, the dominion, the power, the honour, and the praise; both now and forever more.

Amen

---

On Friday night at the Gold Coast, God brought along both a large size team (over 20 people) and large crowds who were listening as the gospel was being presented.

During the preaching, we had few hecklers that were Muslim who started debating about Christianity and this drew large number of people to listen. As the preacher was answering their questions and responding with Bible verses to give a clear understanding of the gospel, we found the crowd attentively listening to the gospel message being preached. We praise God for a general openness towards the gospel.

The team also had many fruitful one to one conversations. One such was with a young girl about 12 named Ann, who asked for a gospel tract for her younger sister. When one of the team asked her if she has heard about Jesus, she replied with, "yes, from school". Upon being asked what she remembers about Jesus, she said, "he is so big and made everything". We then started to talk about sin and how every person must stand before God and that, sin separates us from God.

With simplicity, we also began to share how God has sent his Son Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin. She said she has heard about how Jesus paid for our sin. We told her about receiving salvation through faith, that she must trust in Christ completely for salvation, surrendering her life to him to be saved. We encouraged her to read the gospel tract at home and pray to God for salvation. She joyfully received the gospel before running off to her parents.

Please pray for this young girl so that she will put her trust on Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Please also pray for the team and for the gospel to go forth until every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10,11). Amen.

---

Redcliffe (QLD) Team

It was 36'C with high humidity as we made our way to Redcliffe for today's outreach. Upon arrival we set up the Free Bible and Literature table, and before we could finish setting it up properly a man stopped to take a Bible and DVD.

Shortly after the outreach began we had three young men come up to the table to ask for resources. They went to a local church, but they had no understanding of the gospel. I was able to share with them, and they said it made sense.

Towards the end of the day I also got to speak to two Baha'i members (seems to be a week for them!) This couple had been members of the Baha'i religion for thirty-six years. They told me that all religions are true, and that it all comes from one God. They then told me that they were former Baptists. When I heard this I said, "So you left the Christian faith to become Baha'i?"

Upon hearing this the lady flared up and said, "No, we took Christianity with us. Baha'i completed the teaching." I pointed out that Jesus didn't allow that option as He is God and He alone is the way, and the truth (John 14:6). At the words of Jesus the man then became angry. Through clenched teeth he started to seethe about how he wouldn't speak to me and that he has peace. I though the whole thing to be inconsistent; if you truly believe that all religions are true, then you really shouldn't get angry at the words of Jesus. Their anger simply revealed the hatred these apostates had for Christ. Please pray for them.

SDG!

---

How wonderful to be entrusted with telling forth God's good news. How good is God to keep equipping us and using our frail efforts to glorify Himself. Today was another day of great and varying responses to the gospel:

- a young man Andrew said that his Dad was a Christian but he was not. As I took him through an overview of the Bible's content, he kept supplying facts such as our first parents' names, Adam and Eve. He seemed to understand how God's justice and mercy are perfectly satisfied in Christ's life & death. Pray he is thinking deeply about what he has heard because his bus arrived before he could be challenged to forsake all for the sake of knowing Jesus as his Lord and Saviour - forever.

On the other hand, there was Lyn: After  getting her agreement to certain facts, she started to disagree with Lee-Anne. She has heard the truth that can set her free.. Pray that she will be tormented by the thought of having to pay the price for her own sins - forever - and flee from the wrath to come!

Another young lass didn't want a tract but when asked, replied that she was a Christian. On being asked if she worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ, she said "Occasionally". Then she indicated that she did not want to talk anymore. Pray that if she is converted, she will fall deeply in love with the Lord and commit fully to following Him.

The spiritual battle rages. The Prince of Peace is Victor. Let us serve Him with thanksgiving and keep on giving the glory to our great triune God through the one Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

---

Over the last couple of months, we have had some fantastic opportunities in our region.

Our monthly Saturday outreach continued and we were blessed by the presence of Michael, a seasoned evangelist who has returned from Brisbane and is in our neck of the woods for a few months completing his medical training. We also have had Christopher with us, possibly our youngest member of the team (he turns one this year)  who tags along with Mum and Dad (Sarah and Paul) as they share the eternal Gospel on the streets of Toowoomba.

Outside of our regular ministry, we prepared for the two biggest evangelistic opportunities of the year- The Carnival of Flowers Parade and the Toowoomba Christmas Wonderland.

The Carnival of Flowers outreach was rather unusual this year. In the lead-up to the parade, there is normally thousands of people on the street in the hours before. Not this time. It was very quiet in comparision to other years. We did, however, encounter a number of national and international tourists and their families and as such, it was a joy to share the Good News with them through tracts and conversation.


The seeds of the Gospel often lay dormant for a time and travel far and wide and so we ask you to join us in praying for the salvation of these families and that they would bring the Gospel to their hometowns.

The Christmas outreach was completely different.  Tens of thousands of locals eagerly flock to enjoy a stunning display of local food, culture and Christmas lights display in Queens Park.

Over three nights our team ministered outside the main event and were able to give over one thousand Christmas themed tracts to the many families in attendance.  There was little time for conversation or discussion due to the busy nature of the crowd but we were blessed by the encouragement of fellow Christians who were attending the event itself when they saw us sharing the true message of Christmas with others.

In large events like these (and even in more “run of the mill” outreaches), it can be difficult to point to tangible results for God’s Kingdom. As Nik Ripkin has pointed out in his excellent book, The Insanity of God “ God [has] never promised to reward obedient sacrifice with measurable success”.

Nevertheless, our trust is in Him and in His good timing. He is perfectly faithful to us.
We are imperfectly faithful to Him...and we trust not only in His disposition of loving grace towards us day by day but also in His heart for reconciliation towards the many who we will believe in faith will soon to enter His Kingdom in our region.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

How encouraging is our God and so gracious to us in our weaknesses! Lee-Anne was having a great conversation to a couple in their 20s who seemed to be receptive. A couple of us noticed this as we finished our own conversation and in one of those rare instances we prayed out loud, "Lord. Help Lee-Anne speak to their hearts."  Their bus arrived and Lee-Anne comes to us saying that she wished she had longer. Look again! The couple is not allowed on that bus so Lee-Anne returned and resumed their conversation. We thank the Lord.

There was Remiole who thought he would get to heaven because he went to his R.C.church.After going through the gospel, he correctly answered the diagnostic question. Then he said that he would go to Church for His sake.

Rebecca had recently been to a friend's baptism. She has heard the truth and has a gospel of John to read.

God gave us many more conversations and perhaps a seed was planted in some of thos young lives?

Whatever the result, it is glorious because it is God's work and displays His character. To Him be all the glory, thanks and praise!

---

Some of the more in-depths conversations from today's outreach:

     - Raman, a Muslim man who was trying to work his way to heaven was challenged with the Biblical injunction to not add to it but the Quran is a blatant attempt to be added as the latest word from God. He was shown the way of salvation by grace. He was urged to read the Bible asking God to reveal Himself to him.

     - Robin has a background of various non-Biblical sources. He had reached the conclusion that we sin because of the environment. This would make a drastic revised interpretation of Gen. 1-3 necessary if it were true. He does have a Bible and now he has heard the truth - in the course of about one hour! 

Most others willingly received tracts and some 'seed-planting' conversations were had with attentive teenagers.

The crew went home rejoicing and we give all the glory to God for the pleasure of serving Him and what He does with those we engaged with.

---

"One sows, another waters, but God gives the growth" was evident during our outreach on Thursday at Sunnybank.

We talked with a man named Lee from China who was taught in school that there is no God by the teachers. And so he had never given any thought about God until he visited Hong Kong just before he came to Australia to study a masters at university.

In Hong Kong he encountered a man who shared with him about God and the story of Jesus, but he didn't become a Christian. Lee himself described that it was like that man planted a seed.

So when we met Lee on Thursday, he already knew there was a God and knew about what happened to Jesus (that ground work had already been laid), but he still didn't quite understand the gospel. So as we explained what Jesus' death on the cross achieved, he said, "Wow I have never thought of the story of Jesus that way before" in regards to Jesus paying our fine for us, satisfying the justice of God so that we can be saved.

He was extremely thankful and said that he would have to carefully consider trusting in Jesus for his forgiveness, for he knew it would change his life. Lee said he was returning to China in 3 days time since he has finished his study here. What amazing timing. We gave him a gospel of John to start reading, which he gratefully accepted.

Whenever we share God's truth with people, God will use it for His glory, and can send someone else who can further witness to that person to water the seed that has been sown. We are nothing, but to God alone be the glory!

---

Yesterday for our outreach in Brisbane city we set up our "Are you a good person?" flipchart and the very moment it was set up, a group of six teenagers said, "I'd like to try the good person test". After going through it, explaining about sin, the coming judgement and salvation through Christ alone, they were appreciative of the chat and left counting the cost of placing their faith in Christ.

Throughout the afternoon, we took dozens of groups of people through the flipchart, including atheists, agnostics and even an elderly man who belongs to the cult called "Christian Science" (which is neither Christian nor scientific). He said that his religion denies that Jesus is God, and he said that only spiritual is good, all material things are bad. Apparently we created our own body through our mind and our aim is to rid ourselves of our body.

He denied the existence of Hell, and so we spent some time showing him verses in the Bible which showed that Hell is a real place, also verses that show that Jesus is God and how Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins (which he denied too, and instead said Jesus died for our healing).

After hearing the Scriptures he said, "I am just too old to change now." We expressed that it's not too late, by the very fact that his heart was still beating.

Please pray that this man (Wallace) comes to salvation, plus all the others we spoke with or gave a gospel tract to.

To God be the glory!

---

« Prev | 1 | 2 ... 178 | 179 | 180 | 181 | 182 ... 286 | 287 | Next »

---