Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 220

Wow. It was a surprising afternoon of outreach at Sunnybank today. One Chinese man that I was attempting to share the gospel with, couldn't speak much English at all, so I encouraged him to get someone else to translate for him the gospel tract that I gave him.

So after walking a few metres up the pedestrian overpass, he encountered some Mormon missionaries who he had obviously spoken with before. He asked them to translate the tract for him. One of the missionaries quickly grabbed the tract out of his hand and threw it over the edge of the railing.

We saw that these Mormon 'elders' had done that, so Col walked up to the Chinese man to give him another tract, which he gladly received. The Mormons then tried to convince the man to give back the tract. He was reluctant at first, but after their earnest pleadings, he gave the tract back to Col.

I then said to the Mormon missionaries, "Do you remember what Jesus said to the Pharisee's in Matthew 23 - you go across land and sea to make one convert and when you do you make him twice a son of Hell as yourselves."

I then said, "How bad will it be for you on the day of Judgement that you would prevent this man from coming to know the gospel." At this, one of the missionaries started swearing at us and was flaring up in anger. He said, "How can you say I'm going to Hell, you can't say that, only God knows that. You're going to Hell!"

We pointed out the hypocrisy in his statement there. He then angrily came right up very close to our faces, still swearing at us, and appeared as if he was going to throw a punch at us. He said, "I hope someone kicks you guys really hard."

Soon after, he walked away. You'll know them by their fruits. I think the Chinese man saw a difference today between Biblical Christianity and Mormonism.

There were also many open and receptive people whom we spoke with today, so please pray for them.

To God be the glory!

---

On Sunday afternoon, we had our fortnightly outreach at Wellington Point (QLD). It was a overcast but there were still people around to witness to.

We had a few brief conversations before we had a close to two hour long conversation with a couple, Arthur and Lisa. It started off just talking to Lisa. She said that she would be going to Heaven because her soul is perfect. However, she did admit that she has sinned and she mentioned she believed in Jesus. I knew something wasn't right because of her answer about her soul being perfect.

After talking further with her, it turned out she didn't believe that God would punish anyone. She thought that two gods exist, one that is good and other not so good. She said that the Old Testament described one of the gods and the New Testament the other god.

So I asked her where she is getting her ideas from - she said from books that had supposedly been left out of the Bible. I knew straight away, she's into Gnosticism. It was an idea that was floating around soon after the time of Christ, claiming 'secret knowledge', and was responsible for a number of supposed 'other gospels' written (eg: Gospel of Thomas).

I pointed out to her that these 'gospels' were not written by the people they are ascribed to, but are later forgeries that came hundreds of years after the time of Christ. They are very different to the actual gospels, which were written not long after the time of Christ, by eyewitnesses of him.

Lisa wasn't comfortable with idea that Jesus bodily rose from the dead, for Gnostics say that matter is not good and ultimately our aim is to perfect our soul by ridding ourselves of anything physical. So we showed her Jesus' statement in Luke 24:39 where he says he has flesh and bones.

Soon after this, her husband Arthur came along and we continued to speak with both of them. We were showing them that there is a judgement Day to come and that God must punish sinners for their sin, unless they come faith in Christ - the only one who can take our punishment for us. We pleaded with them to leave their false beliefs and come to faith in Christ alone for their salvation.

I am very thankful that salvation is in God's hands and that even though they were very stubborn, they have heard the truth now and our prayer is that God would work on their hearts and draw them to Himself. Please pray for Arthur and Lisa.

 

---

Great night of outreach in Brisbane last night. We brought in 30+ New Testaments for the free Bible table, all went out. A few members of the team commented to me after the outreach saying that they spoke to a number of really receptive people tonight.

Our prayer that we prayed at the start of outreach was that God would prepare people's hearts to hear the gospel. He answered that prayer.

One such person I spoke to whose name was Danny. He mentioned that this last week he was speaking to a friend about how to get to Heaven and both of them were not sure. Then on Friday while at work up in Cairns a customer gave him a Bible. Then on Saturday (yesterday) he moved from Cairns to Brisbane and then at night he happened to be walking in Queen Street and came across our outreach, and I asked him whether will go to Heaven.

He said he sees these things as a sign from God that he should find the way to Heaven. So I explained to him about sin, the judgement to come, grace, repentance and faith. He came to understand the gospel, and so I encouraged him to count the cost of following Christ, but at the same time without delay, come to saving faith. He thanked me for the chat and said he is going to do that and start reading the Bible that he got the day before.

Please pray for him and all the others who heard the gospel.

All Glory to God!

If you'd like to support the work of Operation 513, including the purchasing of Bibles, etc to give out freely to people, you can donate online.

 

---

The gospel went out again today in Brisbane city. We gave out about 25 gospels of John and talked to lots of people.

From a Korean man with no religion, to a lady who says she only believes in people, to those who went to Christian schools but have never understood the gospel, it was a fruitful day.

A good number of people said they were challenged by what they heard and said they will count the cost of repenting and trusting in Christ.

I also did some preaching with the sketchboard and there was a guy right from the very first word of the preaching who started shouting profanity repeatedly to drown out the preaching, showing his hatred of God. It was interesting seeing the crowd repeatedly telling him to stop and so eventually he went away. And in a way, God used him to draw in a crowd to hear the gospel.

Glory to God for another great outreach!

 

---

The gospel was proclaimed in Brisbane city on Wednesday again this week. Some people in the crowd stuck around listening for the two hours or so of preaching, and then wanted to keep talking with us afterwards.

People were asking all sorts of questions and presenting their objections during the preaching. This encouraged more people stop and listen in to the discussion. 

Please pray for all those who heard the gospel, received gospel tracts or took a free Bible, that God would save them.

The city presents such a great opportunity to get the gospel out to many people. So if you have any time Wednesday afternoons to join us, please do.

 

---

One of the most encouraging things from Tuesday's outreach at Woodridge was that one of people who has become a Christian because of our ministry there (and has been attending a local church for past 6 months) was keen to help us hand out gospel tracts. He joined us for several hours.

Praise be to God!

 

---

I have been away for the last fortnight and today it was wonderful to be back into sharing the gospel with the people of Hobart. Apparently our absence has been noticed, lots of people have come up and commented that they haven't seen us for a while. I pray that God would use our presence as a visible reminder to people of who we preach and stand for. May God bring to mind all the gospel people know when ever they see us in the street!

We started the day with the bible table and chatting to people who came to the table. One of these was Mr R. who had questions about the bible and believed some things that were obviously contradicting the bible. We talked for a period but he left insisting that we/I were scare-mongering. Later in the afternoon during the preaching he returned and had a long conversation with Karl which was excellent. 

I praise God that He has raised up all sorts of different people to be part of our team here in Hobart. There are so many people that other members of the team can reach who I cannot. Never think dear friends that you are unable to evangelise because "I am not like person x who is gifted in evangelism...", there are people in your town that only you will be able to reach. God has gifted you with the life and experience that you have so that you can share His glory and gospel with particular people. Trust God and go share your faith with those around you, they need you to bring it to them and your Lord commands that you do.

Mr S. our regular heckler has also taken a different approach recently as I have written previously. This week Mr S. set up a table also in the mall seeking to engage with people about cults, psychics and clairvoyants. He is also seeking to encourage atheism and draw people away from religions of all types. While there is obviously major differences/disagreements between us I praise God for the opportunity that this creates. His work brings many atheists to our area of the mall and we are then able to share the gospel with them. Please pray that we will be able to boldly and wisely share the gospel with these people and encounter their world view in a way that changes them for Christ.

May God's Name be praised!

---

Evangelism in Leicester Square was fantastic last night. We had a good size team out, which really supported the preaching of the gospel in the open-air.

A number of people stopped to listen, and some even engaged. The chap in photo (with his back to camera, on the left) asked a great question and after the preaching Regan was able to converse with him more thoroughly.

This is what I love! — a public proclamation of the gospel that spills into one-to-one conversations. God is so good!

---

It was an interesting afternoon of evangelism at Sunnybank today. There were no Mormon missionaries about (they often hang around the bus stop), but one of the people I spoke to was a lady named Eva.

As I was explaining the gospel to her, she asked me what I thought of Mormonism. I thought she was wanting to make sure I wasn't a Mormon, but after I said "Mormonism is not Christian", she exclaimed, "What? Really?"

It turns out some Mormon missionaries have been speaking with her and so she has been reading the Book of Mormon and plus some of the Bible. They told her Mormonism is Christianity.

So she asked me what the main differences are. I explained the difference of salvation by grace alone through faith alone which the Bible teaches, compared to a salvation by works that Mormonism teaches. She was beginning to understand that.

I also spoke of how Mormons believe in many gods and that one day you can become a god of your own planet. She said, "They haven't told me that!"

So I encouraged her to visit carm.org to see some more of the differences between Christianity and Mormonism. I said, "Because like most cults, the Mormons won't reveal to you all the strange beliefs they have until they have gotten you into it." 

Then she asked, "There are so many religions around, how can I know which one is true?" I explained how the Mormons will say it's based on praying and waiting for a feeling. But I mentioned how feelings are not the way we find out if something is true or not, feelings will change based on whether we are hungry or full, healthy or sick. They are not a test of truth.

So instead I took her to Acts 17 where Paul commends the Jews in Berea for examining the Scriptures daily to see whether what Paul was saying was true. That is what I encouraged her to do. I said, "Everything you hear about God, check it with the Bible."

She was so thankful that I explained all this to her. She said she had no idea about this and said she is going to have to start reading the Bible a whole lot more. Please pray she doesn't get caught in the Mormon cult but instead will come to saving faith in Jesus.

Lots of gospel tracts were handed out today by the team, and we got to encourage a struggling Christian in her faith. 

To God alone be the glory!

 

---

Great day of outreach today in Brisbane city. We preached in the open air for almost 2 hours with constant crowds of 40-50 people listening throughout it. Some people were listening for the entire time too.

Lots of people were asking questions, while some people were trying to silence the message, but God's word went out to many people. And it will never return void!

At one stage, a young lady tried pushing the sketchboard over on top of me. But she didn't really succeed, and instead it allowed me to make the point that trying to silence the message doesn't get rid of the fact that it is the truth. It made a great illustration to the crowd.

One of the hecklers commented, "The preacher keeps going back to the same message" - yep, the gospel.

During this time, the rest of the team were having good one to one conversations with people who were around and handing out tracts. And almost all of the free Bibles we brought, people took.

If you have any time free on Wednesday afternoons to join us in Queen Street Mall sharing the good news of Christ, please contact us. We are always praying for more labourers.

To the King of Kings be the glory!

---

« Prev | 1 | 2 ... 218 | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 ... 282 | 283 | Next »

---