Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 219

After a week of rainy days, it was good to experience warm sunny weather on Thursday at our weekly outreach at Sunnybank (QLD).

One of the first conversations I had was with an elderly man who attends a Uniting church. After asking him why he would be let into Heaven, he quoted John 3:16 to me. 

But then after probing a bit deeper into what he believed it turned out he denied the fact that Jesus died on the cross or experienced any suffering whatsoever. Instead this man said he picks out the nice things of the Bible and only believes them. 

So I spent a bit of time explaining how Jesus said he came to give His life as a ransom for many, and that forgiveness is available only because He died. But not long after, his bus arrived. However it is my prayer that this elderly man would seriously consider what he heard.

I then got into a conversation with a high school student named George. He didn't believe in God, but soon conceded that he would be happy to believe in a deistic God - that is, one that doesn't tell him how to live. I could tell then that it was a love of sin that was the reason for this young man's rejection of God. 

But he had a lot of questions. So I spent the next two hours reasoning and sharing the gospel with him. Please pray that God would convict him and save him.

Meanwhile, George's friend named Taneegee was listening for most of the conversation and so after speaking with George I turned my attention to Taneegee. He said he goes to a True Jesus Church, where they don't believe in the Trinity and instead think that God simply takes different forms at different times. So I asked him, "Who was Jesus praying to on the cross?" He couldn't respond.

The discussion went on to about how we are saved, and Taneegee thought it was baptism that saved him. I showed him Ephesians 2:8-9 and a few other Scriptures - that it is only by faith alone in Jesus alone that we can be saved. He said he is going to go home and study the Scriptures I showed him and come back to chat with us another day. This discussion with Taneegee actually helped George who was still listening, as from this he appeared to come to grasp the relationship between faith and works.

During this time, team member Col was handing out hundreds of gospel tracts to all the people getting off at the bus stop.

It was another very worthwhile day sharing the glorious gospel. Soli Deo Gloria!

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When we arrived for our outreach in Brisbane city today, we checked out the rain radar and saw a large rain band about to hit the city. So we decided to set up the Bible table undercover.

After praying and starting to hand out tracts, we met two new ladies who said they wanted to help us share the gospel today. The funny thing is that one asked the other, "Do you know where the Christian group is who share the gospel here?" The other lady replied, "That's exactly who I am trying to find too!" Their names were Grace and Emily.

We are always praying for more labourers to help us so this is an answer to prayer!

There were a lot of good conversations today with a bunch of different people. A few conversations were with atheists, but when I gave them a simple argument of - just as a building must have had a builder, so must this universe had a creator - they backslid from their position of atheism and acknowledged God's existence. This meant, I could go on to talking about sin, the coming Judgement and the gospel.

Also there were a few people after hearing the message said that that they wanted to repent and trust in Christ alone for their forgiveness today.

This included a guy named Jon who was sitting nearby where we were for most of the afternoon. He professed to be a Christian, but didn't understand the gospel. After talking with him, he came to understand grace and stayed around us till it was time for us to leave, and then mentioned to me that he wants to come next Wednesday afternoon to help us share the gospel with us!

Glory to God! He said, "I want to do something with my life now that is of eternal value."

Thirty minutes to go, the rain ceased and so this enabled Norm to get up on the step ladder to share his testimony in the open air (this is the testimony he is going to share this Sunday when he gets baptised). Afterwards Gerhard got up and read in public from John 3. It is great to hear these guys breaking the sound barrier and unashamedly making Christ known in the open air.

It is never in vain when God's word goes out. So to God alone be all the praise!

 

 

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It was a rainy day today, yet, despite the weather we still had our outreach in Woodridge. When we arrived today we saw that Police had a strong presence in the area, and also there was a large group of Maori Wardens (community support group). This had a positive impact in the area as it kept crime down. 

Today, for the first time we set up the Bible table in Woodridge. We had free copies of the Gospel of John, colouring books for the kids, apologetic material, and other evangelistic literature. We weren't sure how the table would be received, but to our surprise people loved it. Many people came over to take resources and to chat. We were even encouraged by a Police Officer who encouraged us in our work and said it would only be the Gospel which changes this community. 

Throughout the afternoon we had good conversations and many tracts were handed out. In particular, I had a great conversation with a young New Zealander who is a local drug dealer. He had never heard the Gospel before, so for the first time in his life I had the honour of telling him about Jesus. This young man acknowledge the truth of Jesus and the fact that he needed the Saviour. However, he openly said he couldn't come to Christ as that'd mean giving up his drug dealing. I stressed to this young man that sin, while it may look good for a time, will actually be the death of him. We agreed, yet he still held onto his sin. At the end of the conversation the young man couldn't stop shaking my hand and saying thank-you. Even though he wanted to continue in sin, you could see that he was seriously thinking through the issue. He took a Gospel of John and also an evangelistic leaflet. Please pray for him. 

Please remember to pray for all those we spoke to today. May the Father draw many to Christ. 

SDG!

 

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There were 4 of us on the team today for the outreach at Wellington Point. We split up in twos and positioned ourselves in two different parts of the point.

Rick got talking to an older lady who turned out to be Jehovah's Witness. She is very active in it, but didn't really know her Bible very well. She was advocating the idea that since the wages of sin is death, therefore no one will be judged on judgement day based on what they've done in this life, since they have already paid for their sin by dying.

So we shared with her some Scriptures like Romans 2:5-6, where it speaks about people storing up wrath for the day of wrath based on their actions now. She responded "You'll never change my mind!" So we encouraged her to be open-minded to what the Bible says and so she eventually agreed to write down these Scriptures we were mentioning to her to look them up later.

But she didn't have a pen. However, at that moment her teenage granddaughter turned up and said she would write them in her phone. She did this and then while Rick was talking with the grandmother, I started witnessing to the granddaughter who was an active Jehovah's Witness as well.

She had a lot of questions, like "How can there be a Hell if God is loving?", "What about the 140,000?", "What about the paradise Earth?" As I was answering her questions, I could tell she was listening intently.

At one stage, she mentioned how she believes the Holy Spirit is merely God's active force. I said, "Why then does it say in Ephesians 4:30 'Don't grieve the Holy Spirit?'" I asked her, "How can you grieve a force? Only persons can be grieved. That means the Holy Spirit is not a force but a person, one of the persons of the Godhead." She actually came to agree.

I then went on to explain how Jesus said in Matthew 5:48 we must be perfect for our whole life, but we are not and therefore deserve Hell. And simply trying to be perfect isn't good enough.

I went on to explain the gospel, and she was beginning to grasp it - that her witnessing, church going and praying couldn't save her, but only faith in what Jesus has done on the cross could.

I also warned her to not believe the Watchtower organisation, but only the Bible. For I pointed out that even the Watchtower themselves acknowledges that they have made false predictions in the past (like when Jesus would return), and so therefore they are a false prophet and shouldn't be believed. She thought that was a good point.

She said she would seriously think about what she heard and read those passages she wrote in her phone. 

Afterwards Rick told me that the grandmother wasn't open at all to hear what Rick was saying, but Rick continued the conversation with the lady long enough so that I could talk thoroughly with her granddaughter.

Please pray for both ladies.

To God be the glory!

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We thought tonight was going to be a quiet night, however, as my previous post made clear it certainly wasn't! 

The night started a bit slower than usual due to the rain showers, however, there still was a number of people out in the Queen Street Mall, so we continued the outreach. 

The team set up, and almost immediately we began having conversations. People were taking tracts, and many wanted to talk. 

It was also good that tonight we were able to encourage a few of the men in the team to get up and read the Bible in public for the first time. After, we had read the Scriptures, I preached on Matthew 7:13-14. As I preached, I had a couple of hecklers stop to ask questions. Sadly, a professing Christian took offence at our preaching and drove the hecklers away as I was sharing the Gospel with them. She came up and said to them, "God loves you" and that was it. Sadly, this well meaning lady drove away people who were about to hear the Good News that Christ can forgive sinners. 

After the preaching was when things really heated up. While the team was handing out tracts a group of about twenty Muslims of Middle-Eastern appearance walked by. They were offered literature, but they refused, and began to curse Christianity. They yelled out a few things about Muhammed, and then began to make threats towards us. They threatened physical violence because we are Christians. 

The gang walked away, so I spoke to two Police Officers about the situation. While I was talking to them the gang returned, surrounded us and continued to make threats. The Police drove the gang away, and then it was arranged that Police would send more Officers to the area to keep us safe. The Queensland Police Service did a wonderful job in ensuring our safety. We are thankful for their service. 

What we saw tonight with the threats from these young Muslims men is true and consistent Islamic belief. Islam always opposes by force those who would disagree with them. The West needs to wake up and realise that Islam seeks to dominate by force, and will be a major threat to our freedoms. My prayer is that Islam will be stopped through the preaching of the Gospel, and that these young men that threatened us would come to know Christ.

SDG!

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Illuminations Festival 2015

Despite the rain it was a productive outreach in Wynnum. We were able to hand out 500 tracts and have several conversations. 

I spoke to one lady who is a spiritualist. She was telling me that all religions are true, and are all paths to God. I asked her if God could lie, she said He couldn't; I then followed up by asking, "Is Jesus, God?" She replied that He is.

From there I said, "Jesus said in John 14:6, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' Is Jesus speaking the truth?" The lady quickly affirmed that Jesus speaks the truth.

So I asked her why she would reject the truth and follow spiritualism? This question seemed to stump the lady. She fumbled around for a bit, and kept saying, "I am going to the sprit realm, the spirits have told me." I answered her claims from the Bible, but she seem to be deaf to whatever I said to her. Please pray the Lord would set her free from the spirits that currently deceive her.

After talking to the spiritualist I then got into a conversations with two agnostics who identified themselves as anti-theists. They made the following arguments against Christianity: 1) The Bible enslaves women; 2) The Bible was made by men wanting power; 3) The Bible has been changed thousands of times; 4) The Bible is myth; 5) Christianity has done nothing good for society. 

I answered all their arguments from Scripture, history and textual criticism. The response from the two anti-theists was to say that I was brainwashed. I pointed out to them that they had made unsubstantiated claims which were incorrect, and that they rejected any answers to their questions. In the end they called me names and walked away. Clearly, they were not interested in answers. They just wanted an excuse not to believe. 

Please pray for all those who took tracts, and who we spoke to today. This was the first of two outreaches planned for this Saturday. Please also pray for tonight's outreach in the Brisbane CBD.

SDG!

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God's providence was on full display today in Sunnybank! At the commencement of our outreach we offered a tract to a Chinese gentleman who was walking by; he took the tract then looked us. As he looked towards us a expression of shock crossed his faith, he said, "You were preaching Queen Street yesterday!"

This man had stopped to listen to me preach on Wednesday, and he even took a picture of me preaching. Now, 24 hours later Ryan and I were able to talk to him in Sunnybank. The background of this man was atheistic; he had grown up in mainland China so that was all he was taught. However, after talking to him his atheism soon crumbled.

He listened intently to the Gospel as we shared it with him; and before he left he said nothing was going to stop him from repenting. He took a Chinese Gospel of John from us, and also a tract in his language. Please pray for this man.

Today, was also the first time we tested out our new Chinese literature table. We were able to set it up between the rain showers. The purpose of this table is to help reach the Chinese speakers of the community. I can't speak Chinese, but I can offer material in their language. One elderly lady came by and took a Bible. The smile on her face was priceless. There is something special about being able to read the Bible in your own tongue.

Despite the rain many great conversations were had, and many tracts handed out. Please pray for all those we encountered.

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The weather was perfect for this afternoon's outreach in Brisbane. We arrived in the Queen Street Mall at around 1:30pm, and immediately began to hand out tracts and talk to people.

The Lord was pleased today to bless the ministry with many people wanting to talk and listen to the Gospel. However, there were some very sad moments. For instance, I spoke to a lady who would have been in her mid-eighties; when I asked her about eternity she boasted she would go to Hell, and that she didn't care for Jesus.

She went on to say that she has never owned a Bible, and never wants to read one. At her age it won't be long before she meets her Creator, may the Lord soften her heart.

Other conversations were had with people who seemed very open to the Gospel. While I was preaching a man from Saudi Arabia became very excited. It turns out that he was formerly a Muslim, but had since been converted to Christ; his excitement came from the fact that he loved hearing the message of Jesus being freely proclaimed in public, which is something he never experienced in his home country.

The Lord was truly kind to us. To Him be all the glory!

 

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Queen's Birthday Public Holiday Outreach

It was very busy in Queen Street Mall during our outreach in Brisbane city on Monday. We had a good sized team and had good gospel conversations with many people.

I preached using the Sketchboard a couple times throughout the afternoon. A crowd stopped to listen to the message each time. Then Jordan got up and preached, spring-boarding off of James 4:13-14.

Afterwards I got back up to preach and pretty much straight away there was a loud heckler. It is great having loud hecklers as they attract a crowd. He asked all sorts of questions from 'How do we know God exists?' to 'What about slavery in the Bible?'

This resulted in a large crowd forming, which then started asking their own questions too (like 'Why is there a Hell?', 'Why doesn't God like shellfish?', 'What about homosexuality?'). The crowd didn't disappear at all during the 1.5-2 hours of continuous preaching, with some people staying the entire time.

I made sure to explain the gospel again and again in amongst the questions that people were asking. because I knew that there were new people in the crowd all the time.

The team kept handing out tracts during this time and talking to people about Christ. We handed out about 20 Bibles during the outreach.

We were planning on finishing the outreach at 4:30pm, but because the crowd was sticking around asking more questions, with new people arriving all the time, I ended up finishing preaching after 5pm. We then packed up shortly after that.

Please pray for all who heard the gospel on Monday in Brisbane.

To God be the glory that He would use unworthy servants like us!

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It was a slower night in Brisbane due to rain and cooler weather; yet, the Lord was at work.

I preached using the sketchboard on the topic, "The Way to Heaven." At the start of the message a young man stopped to listen. His friends tried to entice him away, but he refused saying he wanted to listen to the preaching.

After the open-air one of the team members spoke to him. It turns out that he's been thinking about this topic and wanted to learn more. He took a Bible, and exchanged numbers with a team member. He was extremely open to hearing of Jesus.

A crowd of about twenty people listened to the preaching. We rejoice that the Lord brought them in to hear the Gospel.

Two other members also preached, and the group was able to hand out many tracts and have some great conversations.

Please pray for all those who heard.

 

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