Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 186

The rain came pouring down for the first half of the outreach last night in Brisbane city. But thanks be to God that there was an awning we could find shelter under, which happened to be where all the people walking by also were.

For a lot of the people we encounter on a Saturday night, they will never ever just rock up at a church, and that is why it is so important that the church goes out to the world with the gospel.

Last night, a prime example of these kinds of people were two Aussie blokes who were brothers and had never been to church in their life nor heard much about Jesus. They initially were not sure if there was a God, but after being shown that just as a builder must have had a builder, so must the universe have had a creator, they said, "That makes sense." We went on to run them through the good person test, which they flunked (as we all have!). And once they knew they deserved hell, one of them asked, "What can we do then?"

We went on to explain the news of Christ's death and resurrection, taking our hell punishment for us, and they said that that made sense. They wanted to find out more, so we also gave them a gospel of John each to take home and start reading. They are going to count the cost of trusting in Christ. Please pray that God brings them to repentance and faith in Christ alone.

Every conversation had and every gospel tract that went out will never return void! To God be the glory!

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God gave us a day where His protection was obvious as well as His usual guidance. One young man threatened Ryan with physical violence when he heard Jesus mentioned. Ryan walked away unharmed but the foul language continued for a little while longer. But that is all part of God's training and equipping of His witnesses and so the work continued. Please pray for:

 - Jacob heard it all before his mates enticed him away. The peer pressure was evident but may our Lord draw this teenager to the Saviour.

 - Matthew was given an overview of the Bible and how the gospel is central; that head knowledge is a precursor to saving faith. May the Lord stir him to read the Bible and see his great need for Christ.

There was one of those incidents that cheers the soul. I had given a "What is the Most Stolen Book?" tract to a man who was not religious and not likely to change anytime soon. The woman sitting on the bench behind asked for a tract also. As I seemed to be getting nowhere fast with the man, the lady started to hand the tract back so I asked her what she thought and she said, "Good!" Just then Ryan came by so he was able to help the lady to understand the gospel, for which she was thankful. Isn't the Lord wonderful the way He does things so we know He is aiding us in this work.

As always, to God alone be the glory and we thank Him for the privilege and pleasure of serving Him.

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It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon as Sarah, Kylie, Adro, Karl and I arrived to share the Gospel in the Toowoomba’s CBD. After meeting together and praying we decided to split into three teams and head out. Adrian and I took one side of Margaret street whilst Sarah and Kylie took the other.

Karl travelled by himself for a while down Ruthven street and was eventually joined by Paul who came after work to help with the work. The two of them continued handing out tracts and were even able to connect with some people who were sitting under a bridge. The Gospel is for people from all walks of life and thus sometimes you can find yourself in places you don’t normally expect to be. I always admire Karl and Paul’s quiet strength and this situation was just another example of where they stepped out for the sake of others.  Looking back on their conversation we pray that those people under that bridge will personally encounter the God who loves them.

Meanwhile Sarah and Kylie were able to engage a number of people. One of those was a woman sitting under a bus shelter. When they offered her a tract the woman gruffly asked “Is it about Jesus?” Sarah gently responded “Yes it is ” to which the woman’s face suddenly lit up and she exclaimed “Praise the Lord!” Turns out this woman was a local Christian and she was thrilled to see the work of evangelism going on in her city. Which goes to show… you can never judge a person by appearances.

Buoyed by this experience, Sarah and Kylie continued their adventure down the street. Off in the distance they saw a large group of tattooed people and they thought “Let’s go share the Gospel with them”. Now reader you must understand: Large groups of tattooed people are unusual in Toowoomba. Generally speaking we don’t have large tattooed groups of humanity walking around as you see in larger cities…so groups of such people around here tend to evoke all sorts of disconcerting old-school stereotypes. Kylie and Sarah though walked up to them and offered them tracts that explained the Good news of Christ.  The members of the group took the tracts and minus a few snickering remarks were willing to read them. This was the second time today God sought fit to explode stereotypes and show our hearts once again that appearance is not as important as we might think in exhibiting the heart underneath.

Adrian and I however were travelling down Margaret street during this time when we suddenly met an older man who was evidently quite drunk. As he began to speak to us you could tell that he was both friendly and earnest in what he was saying. He told us how he was a bloke who has made some mistakes with his life but that he would always be there for his family if they needed him. He also said he had respect for religion and knew of some of the ministries that serve the homeless in Toowoomba.

At the end of our rather lengthy conversation he said he would read the tract we gave him and thanked us for the conversation. We directed him towards some of those ministries who provide dedicated support for the homeless in Toowoomba and I genuinely hope we get to see him again someday. Jesus has often freed people from the grip of alcoholism and has reconciled families and we pray that this may be the life-story of this man as well.

After bidding farewell to our new friend* we had only walked a few meters before we met a completely different type of person. After rather bluntly refusing a tract, this man walked a little further on before spinning around and saying “Actually, I will take one of those!” He then came over, quickly grabbed a tract out of my outstretched hand and said rather triumphantly “This is going on FaceBook!” His tone left no doubt regarding what he thought of the Gospel tract.

Before I could get a word out he turned around and stormed off. To be honest I find this sort of behaviour really frustrating. We are currently living in a society that is more fractured than ever. It seems like everyone is talking and no one is listening. Never before have it been so easy for us to live an “echo chamber” of our own group’s thoughts and opinions and therefore genuine, truly respectful dialogue between opposing sides on *any* important topic is in short supply.

If we as a society are going to live together I believe we need to learn to listen to each other (this includes Christians learning to listen to others as well). We also need to learn how to “fight well”…where we can passionately debate and critique other’s views and then shake hands afterwards and share a drink. And when you think about it there is a no more profoundly important topic which holds such wide-reaching ramifications as that of religion. All religions…and all non-religious philosophies… need to learn to speak beyond the memes and the triumphalist talk and actually have a face-to-face discussion with “the other”.

So I suppose that is part of my frustration. But as is the case with street evangelism, things tend to change quickly and it wasn’t long before Adrian and I met a tradie who was happy to dialogue.

This tradie (Nathan) had come up to work on the new Grand Central development and was presently waiting for a door to open so he could grab some tools he’d left on the job site. The three of us chatted for a while and Nathan told us that he was an Anglican who went to Church with his aging mum. We went over his understanding of the Gospel and helped point out that God saves people not because of how good they are/have been but because of the fact that Jesus is good and has made a way back to God for all who would trust in Him and leave their life of rebellion against Him.

Overall we had a great chat together and I encouraged Nathan to become involved in a Small Group at his church.  As I look back over the events of the day I think I can speak for the whole Toowoomba team when I say it was fantastic day and we pray that God will receive all the credit for what He has done and will do in Toowoomba.  



*name withheld to protect privacy.

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It has been a cold couple of weeks here in Hobart and it is sometimes hard to go out into the mall and do outreach. Praise God that when we are weak He is strong and supplies all that we lack! In spite of the cold it has also been a wonderful time here in Hobart with many fantastic opportunities to share the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.

Over the last couple of weeks Mr S. our regular heckler has taken to setting up a pro-homosexual marriage table in speaker’s corner. This means that during the hour that he is set up we need to go to other areas. This has been a blessing rather than the irritation I suspect that he intended it to be. It has meant that we have spent much more time in prayer and many more tracts have gone out into the city, as tracting is restricted at speaker’s corner.

The other blessing is that this has been a prompt for us to pray more frequently for Mr S.’s salvation. He is a young man who is blindly committed to atheism in the face of many evidences and has been heavily involved in the occult for many years (he even has the tattoos to prove it). He desperately needs salvation as do so many in this sinful city. Please be in prayer for Mr S., that God would soften his heart and show him the greatness of his sin and the even greater love of Jesus. And if you are reading this Mr S., please be sure of our ongoing prayers and hope for your inclusion in God’s family.

Preaching went well today but was a little quiet as always is the case in winter here in Hobart. At one point a small crowd gathered as I spoke with a man and I could share the gospel with those gathered.

On the other hand there has been a flurry of interest in the bible table today, with most of my bibles taken in the first 2 hours. Also we had a couple of enquirers wanting to talk about theological issues. Both enquirers were utterly committed to anti-biblical positions, one of them parading as biblical.

Firstly was a man from the local hyper-charismatic church, they teach that there is no salvation possible without first baptism and then second speaking in tongues. We have spoken before and today was in many ways no different from previously. I opened scripture to show how their teaching contradicts scripture, and he refused to see what I sought to share. The only difference was a tragic one. Previously people from this church have sought to prevent me from sharing the gospel only by distraction. Today though I was told not to preach the bible message the way I do as it includes parts of scripture that are for Christians only and should never be preached outside a church. This man also told me that I am wrong to tell people to repent and believe only as they must also be baptized and speak in tongues.

These two issues stem from the same root, which is the legalistic rejection of God’s grace. This is a deadly error that the Apostle Paul wrote against in the book of Galations, salvation is all of grace or it condemns us outright. We destroy the gospel and make it very bad news indeed if we say like the legalists of Galatia that we must keep certain laws or do certain things (in this case baptism and supernatural languages) in order to be saved. If we seek to be right with God through law keeping we are bound to keep ALL the law, and none of us do that. Please pray that God will remove the deception that these folks are under and lead them into a relationship with Him of grace.  Please also pray for us that we will be kept from this same error of law keeping, we are all bent in the direction of this sin and it is only by God’s grace that we stand.

The second enquirer was a man who believed that the word of God was corrupted and a mish-mash of myth and legend. Yet despite this he appeared quite confident in being able to tell what was true and false in the “mix”. It is the first time I have ever been told that the Cross is a two-dimensional version of the Qiblah in mecca (think folding paper to form a cube…) and that the Davidic star of the Jews links into Revelation chapter 3 and the “synagogue of Satan” in Philadelphia.

Apparently two thousand years after the fact it is crystal clear that the whole bible is cobbled together from previous myths (including Mythras who came after the writing of scripture). Not only that but this man was also certain that Christianity was a hoax and a means of controlling us and keeping certain people in power. I was able to share some reasons to believe the bible is what it claims to be (the divine inerrant word of God) and unfortunately, he was unwilling to listen to much more than that. Please pray that God will open this man's eyes to the truth and bless him with salvation.

Praise God for the many and varied opportunities that He brings us each day!

SDG

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On Saturday night for our Brisbane city outreach, we were blessed to be joined by students from a local Bible college who wanted to get a bit of experience doing evangelism. We encouraged them each to tag along with a more experienced team member, so they could get a bit of feel for how it is done. And it was great to see a good number of them throughout the night get out of their comfort zone to share the gospel with the lost.

During the open air preaching, God drew in people to listen and watch as the gospel was also illustrated on the sketchboard. This also lead to a bit of interaction with a number of people in the crowd, as they were run through the good person test. And once the preaching concluded, it was a joy to see lots of gospel conversations being had with some of the people who had been listening.

One conversation the team had was with a man named Leo who had no idea on how to get to Heaven, but after hearing about sin, the coming Judgement and the cross, he said, "Oh that makes sense!" He said that he wanted to that day trust in Christ. Please pray he counts the cost.

To God be all the glory!

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For our outreach at the Gold Coast we had over 15 people on the team. It was chilly, but still there were plenty of people walking around.

We talked with all sorts, from those who subscribe to reincarnation, to those who admit they love their sin, and even to those who think that whatever anyone believes is true for them. We also got to speak to a Christadelphian family who were not aware that the Bible speaks of salvation by grace through faith alone (rather than through baptism), the deity of Christ, the reality of Hell and personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit.

As they were shown the verses in the Bible about these things, they understood what it said and so had no rebuttal. They said they would read about these things in the Bible when they got home.

Please pray for all who heard the gospel tonight - through the hundreds of gospel tracts that went out, through the one to one conversations and through the preaching of the gospel in the open air. To God be all the glory!

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God saw fit to use the team that gathered for the outreach today in Brisbane city. It was school holidays which meant more people were about. That excited us.

When we arrived, the first chat that one of us had was with a young lady who came to Australia six years ago. She was not sure about how to get to Heaven. She listened intently as the gospel was explained to her, and she said that she doesn't have a Bible. At that point, I realised that we had left all the gospels of John in the car. So I went back to the car to get them and then gave her one.

It was a day when quite a number of people we spoke with were happy to take a gospel of John to start reading after being shared the gospel, including Jason (from a Christian home but didn't know the gospel), Tivia (grew up Buddhist), John & Harris (secular) and Kat & Talia (never considered about eternity).

A Chinese lady named Summer also asked us if she could learn more about Christianity and the Bible and so we passed her details on to a local church in the area.

Every Christian is to be part of the Great Commission, and we praise God that we had the privilege of being part of it yesterday in Brisbane city. Please pray for those who heard. To God be all the glory!

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Today at Woodridge, many seeds of the gospel went out. Even though it was school holidays, we found heaps of people were happy to talk about eternal matters. Our common starting question was, "Do you think you'll go to Heaven when you die?"

When Cliff was asked that question, he said he would because he thought God will forgive everyone. So we explained to him God's character, that is holy and just and cannot just ignore the sins we've done, otherwise he is no longer just. That is why we need someone who is perfect who can take our hell punishment for us on our behalf.

Even though he said he already goes to a local church, he said he now finally understands the way to Heaven, and was going to place his faith in Christ alone for his salvation. He said, "I really needed this. I think God brought you here today and placed the idea in your head to stop me and talk to me."

Another man named Jordan said, after hearing the gospel, that he doesn't want to trust in Jesus is because of "Christians" who have done bad atrocities against him. I asked, "Would it be right for me to say to you 'You are a horrible person' if someone who claimed to be your friend did some bad things to me?" He replied, "No." I said, "So in the same way, we shouldn't judge Jesus based on some of his supposedly followers." He agreed that made sense and as a result was happy to take a gospel of John to start reading. To God be all the glory!

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Last night in Brisbane city we had a massive 22 people on the team, including 3 first timers! This provided an exciting opportunity to engage in many gospel conversations. The team even split up and covered other areas of the Brisbane CBD.

The many conversations engaged, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and general western soceity, "unbelievers".

One team member said that during a conversation with a young lady, who originally professed to be an atheist, went from being hard and closed to being open and interested in learning more!

A lengthy conversation was had with a man named Rob, who professed to be a Christian but was trying to mix his "Christianity" with ideas of enlightenment and postmodernism. He said God was love and only love. He rejected the idea of God's wrath or judgement. It was pointed out that God's love displayed in salvation makes no sense, unless we're being saved from something. He said he understood but was happy to declare that the "god" he worshiped would never punish anyone.

Please pray for the team that each would keep having the desire to step out of our their comfort zone and share their faith. Please pray for those who heard and received the words of eternal life tonight, that they may come to a saving knowledge of the truth!

And if you have the opportunity please join us in declaring this great salvation!

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We had a team of 14 or so of us this morning that met to get thousands of gospel tracts into people's letterboxes in Springwood (QLD). We started off with brekkie, and then loaded our hands with eternity postcards and set out. It was a great success, with lovely weather. Glory to God! Please pray for all those who will be reading the gospel tract they've received when they next check their letterbox. God is good indeed!

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