Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 217

It was a great outreach at Sunnybank on Thursday.

We set up the Chinese Bible table and a number of people took Bibles. It was great having Johnny on the team who spoke to those who could only speak Chinese.

One really good conversation that I had was with a young man named Bobby. He comes from China and is nearly finished High School. He thought he would be going to Heaven because he respects God.

He didn't know anything about Christianity and so after explaining the message of sin, the coming Judgement and the cross, he said he wants to trust in Jesus today for his forgiveness. He came to grasp the gospel and wants to submit to Christ.

I got his number and have asked a local pastor who lives near where he lives to disciple him. Please pray for Bobby.

Glory to God!

 

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On Saturday night at the OP513 Brisbane Outreach, some of the team members were able to speak to a young women named Sally. They spoke till about 3am and afterwards invited Sally to a local church near where she lived. Sally did go to that church and found that the sermon passage that morning was exactly what she needed to hear.

The passage: Mark 7:1-30. The message: "Targeting Sins Power - The real power of sin lives within and our hope is a new heart."

Little did the preacher know that as he spoke of the misunderstanding the Jews had regarding external cleansing rather than internal cleansing of the heart, that this young women was an ex-practicing Jew that was currently fasting to gain God's approval.

What Sally was told by the faithful witnesses on Saturday night was that she could find true freedom and peace in the finished sacrifice of Jesus, and what she heard the next morning from the faithful preacher caused Sally to be amazed at Gods love and patience with her despite her many sins.

Sally didn't go home from church after the morning service, but instead stayed to hear the evening message. Please be in prayer for Sally as she considers deeply the cost Christ paid for all those that would come to Him, and also the cost Sally would have to pay to die to herself and finally be free in Jesus Christ.

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Hobart Report 11/8/15

The work in Hobart continues and the last fortnight has been particularly encouraging and there have been many opportunities to share the gospel with the people of Hobart.

As has been the case for many months now people are continuing to ask for Bibles and most weeks we are almost running out. There have been many conversations around the Bible table and we have had one lady attending church at Cornerstone Presbyterian as a direct result. 

Last week I was able to have a conversation with a local neuroscientist who asked for a Bible despite his reservations about Christian beliefs. He and I were able to discuss faith and science for almost an hour and I was able to share the scientific basis for believing in God and His account of creation. While not agreeing on all points we were able to talk through thing well and I could present the gospel to him in light of the creation and fall accounts in the Bible. 

Over the last two weeks two new team members Nathan and Taylor have been reading the Bible aloud in the mall. This has been fantastic and it is wonderful to hear God's word going out because it is the power of salvation and we have His promise it will achieve His purposes. It is also a great encouragement to see others prepared to step up and boldly stand and speak God's word publicly. This week Taylor read aloud the 7th chapter of Matthew's gospel well and clearly. 

During my preaching there were quite a few hecklers and praise God, their noise attracted a crowd of listeners that lead to many gospel opportunities. 

Mr S. was at his usual vocal best, trying to preach his twisted distortion of the gospel. 

A couple of young men tried to tell us that God was not real because of abusive pedophile priests and tried to burn a copy of the new testament. After this failed to stop the preaching they tried to throw some food at me. 

A tall young man told us he was an incarnation of the arch-angel Michael and Jesus was not God. Because of this we were told to stop preaching the gospel or he would be violent. 

A Chinese ethnicity man tried to say that the God of the bible is false and God was responsible for both the origin of sin and incest in the first generation of people. 

A very comic older man mocked the Bible and God and tried to detract from the preaching with jokes and humour. 

A college student asked how we can trust the Bible since it has been translated from language to language so many times.

While these questions represent a challenge to the Christian worldview they are answered clearly by scripture and history. Not only that but these things also represent a challenge for those who would reject God. For example if we reject God as the source of good and evil people are left unable to say anything in the face of evils like pedophilia and violence. God be praised that we were able to declare the glories of God and the salvation in Jesus Christ alone. 

After the preaching the whole team was caught up in conversation for the following hour. Many times people heard the gospel from the others in the team and most people went away glad that they could discuss these things and thanking the team for speaking.

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We have had three extra people join our team, it is a wonderful thing to have the extra encouragement and help. As I have written previously, it is a wonderful thing to be part of the body of Christ! The skills and personalities of others in reaching our lost world is vital. No Christian is an island and this is especially true when we evangelise.

This week we had 9 bibles, and many tracts go out, this has been a consistent pattern for many weeks. For our small town this points to a significant hunger for the word of God and willingness to listen to the gospel. 

Likewise there have been many great conversations around the bible table and during and after the preaching. Some of these conversations are bearing fruit and leading to people not only coming back each week but also seeking churches and discipleship.

This is what we long for and pray for, that God would call people from the darkness into his glorious light. Praise his name for his kindness to the people of Hobart. May many more come to know him as Lord and Saviour. 

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It is the time of year when thousands of people from the Middle East travel to the Gold Coast for a holiday. That is why last night for the first time, alongside our normal free Bibles table, we also set up a table for giving out Bibles in Arabic. It was great to see many Muslims coming up and taking a Bible in their own language.

Last night, the team took turns either reading the Bible out loud or preaching. I also preached using the sketchboard and God saw fit to bring in a crowd to listen for quite a long time. There were a few people heckling and asking questions, such as: "Is every other religion false?", "Why is Jesus true?", "What about those who have never heard?", "What about homosexuality?"

It was great being able to address their questions, knowing that I was not just speaking to the questioner, but also to everyone else who was listening. That meant I kept going back to the message of the gospel many times. During this time, the team was busy in conversations and handing out gospel tracts.

Please pray for all those who heard the gospel.

Glory to God!

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One of the most encouraging things from today's outreach at Sunnybank was chatting again to a Chinese man whose English name is Butters.

Just over a month ago (see 11th June report), we met him at Sunnybank and on the day we met him he said that one day earlier he saw us preaching in Queen St Mall and even showed us a picture he took of us preaching. Being a university student from mainland China who had only been in Australia for several months, he said he was an atheist. After a bit of discussion, he came to acknowledge the existence of God and after hearing the gospel, said that he wanted to trust in Jesus that day.

Now a month and a half later, it was great to catch up with him and see how he was going. He said he has been reading the gospel of John that we gave him and said he wants to get the rest of the Bible too. He has a hunger for the word of God, and still has a good grasp of the gospel.

Today, I had Johnny along with me to help evangelise, and glory to God, Johnny knows Chinese! So he spent over an hour explaining to Butters further from the Bible in Chinese. Johnny commented that Butters was listening really intently to everything he was saying. We are going to continue disciple Butters in the coming weeks.

God's word never returns void!

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We praise God that the gospel went out in Brisbane city yesterday for our weekly Wednesday afternoon outreach in Queen St Mall.

I had prayed earlier in the day that it wouldn't be raining much in the city. God answered that prayer as later on when I looked at the rain radar, a long band of rain was heading towards the city but kept dissipating before reaching the city! This meant we could do some open air preaching. It is great hearing the word go out in public, with people stopping and listening.

I had a great conversation with a scientist who came up to the free Bibles table. He said he believes that all the religions are true, and said he had read the Qur'an and the Bible. So I reasoned with him for a bit, showing that it is impossible for all the religions to be true at the same time. He came to acknowledge that. Then I was able explain Christianity's message of grace compared to every other religion's message of work righteousness (doing more good than bad and hoping that it will save).

This man was beginning to grasp the gospel, and said he really needs to think more about what he heard. He commented at the end, "This has been so helpful. You have made my day!" His name is Larry. Please pray he comes to repentance and faith.

The rest of the team throughout the afternoon were busy handing out gospel tracts and getting into gospel conversations. We leave the results in God's hands!

 

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Many good conversations were had today during our outreach at Woodridge. I first spoke to a guy named Hayden, he said, "I don't believe in God, I only believe in what I can see!" I responded, "Can you see the air?" He said, "Good point!"

I then explained that just by looking at a building we know there must be a builder, even though we haven't seen him, so when we look at this universe and realise it had a beginning we know there must be a creator, even though we haven't seen Him.

He agreed and changed his mind about God's existence. So I then proceeded to talk about sin, the judgement to come, Heaven and Hell, the cross, repentance and faith. After hearing it all, he said "I have never heard it explained like that before. That actually makes sense."

Please pray that God would save him and for all the others who heard the gospel today.

The police were around on horseback for most of the afternoon nearby our outreach location. It is great having them there, people are much more well behaved.

To God be the glory for another great outreach!

 

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We praise God that the gospel went out in Brisbane city again today. As soon as we arrived in Queen St Mall, the busker who had just finished up his show in the area we were able to set up in mentioned to us that there was a guy sitting nearby who tried to start a fight with him during his show. So he said that this man might do something to us, especially because we'll be talking about God. We thanked him for the warning and kept an eye on this man.

At one point, this aggressive man put something in the bin and as he was returning to where he had been sitting, a young child accidentally got in his way. He then started continually cussing at this child and wanted to fight him. His parents quickly whisked the child away, but this man kept swearing and trying to start a fight with the child.

He ended up taking his seat again after a while. He sat there just staring at us, and I knew that I was about to start preaching. So the team got together to pray for the situation, particularly that this man would not disrupt the preaching. But to the team's amazement, as soon as I said my first sentence, the man simply walked away and we didn't see him again the whole day! We praise God for answering our prayer.

God drew in a good size crowd to listen to the preaching with the sketchboard, particularly when I mentioned the cross and what we must do to be saved. Afterwards Norm got up to preach and interacted with a group of young guys, explaining the gospel to them.

Not long after, Gerhard got up to read the Bible. He started off with Isaiah 53. There was a lady who stood listening to most of the chapter and after he had finished that chapter said, "Keep reading! I want to hear more of the Bible." This was great to hear, as God's word is powerful. So Gerhard then read from Romans chapter 3.

There were a number of really good gospel conversations that the team had today. From atheists, to those who believe in reincarnation, and even to former Christians. Please pray for all those who heard the gospel.

To God alone be the glory!

 

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Amazing night of evangelism last night in Brisbane city! God brought in large crowds to listen to the preaching of the gospel, with some in the crowd staying for at least an hour.

There were three main people from the crowd who were asking questions to me while I preached. The first heckler had some good questions about the gospel, what it means to trust in Jesus, and why there is a Hell. After interacting with him for a good length of time and pleading with him to come to saving faith, he came up and shook my hand, saying to the crowd that everyone should listen to what I have got to say. 

Soon after, I had a heckler who was a Muslim who was advocating that there are many paths to God. This allowed me to stress to the crowd that Jesus is the only way, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to get this man to come to understand why his works won't save him, but only by having a substitute for his sins can he be saved.

It was great to be able to focus on this topic, because I knew that I'm not just speaking to this man when I answer his questions, but to the whole crowd who is listening as well. And there is nothing they need to hear more than the message of grace and the cross.

Later on, another Muslim heckler was asking questions about Bible translations and whether Moses spoke about Jesus. I pointed out to him that even the Old Testament points to the coming of Jesus many times.

After I finished preaching, one young lady named Ashley who had been listening for over an hour came up to me, thanking me for what I said. She mentioned that when she was young she used to go to Church, but had since left it. So I reiterated the gospel to her, answering some of the questions she had. And by God's grace, she seemed to come to understand the gospel. Please pray that she will truly repent and trust in Christ. She said she has a Bible and is going to start reading it daily.

We had a group of students with us last night from Malyon College, a local Bible college join us. Some of them mentioned that it was great to be able to speak to people on the sides of the crowd who were willing to hear of news of Christ.

The seeds have been sown, thankfully the results are in God's hands.

All Glory to God!

 

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