Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Online Evangelism

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Online Evangelism

Here are the tentative weekly outreach times for online evangelism:

Sunday 1-3pm (Practical Training Outreach)
Monday 9am-5pm
Tuesday 1-5pm
Wednesday 1-5pm
Thursday 9am-5pm
Friday 1-4pm
Saturday 1-4pm

These times are all in AEST (GMT+10), so adjust them based on your own timezone.

How to take part

To watch any of our online outreaches, you can watch live on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Or to take part in any of these outreaches, email us for the virtual room meeting link.

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It’s been a while since I’ve written a report.  I’ve been enjoying responding to direct messages on Instagram too much!  I still can’t get over the amount of opportunity God is trusting us with to engage people with the gospel.  It’s a big responsibility.  Please continue to pray for us.

I want to talk about one of those Instagram direct message conversations that I’ve had over the last few days.  It’s been fascinating.  I’ve learned so much from it.

So, here are some quotes from the early part of that conversation:

I think it just clicked
After all these years u just helped me so much!!
Thank you so much genuinely!!

Only Jesus Christ. You helped me realize that if I'm believing in Jesus Christ even if I sinned 10000x tomorrow and died, because of him taking my punishment of those sins I would've committed and will sometimes commit, I still go to heaven

Oh my gosh that's so insane
Idk how I've been over thinking it all these years

Wait wait wait
Gosh it just clicked and I almost forgot already 😂

If you're counting on anything other than Jesus Christ alone for the reason to go to heaven, then you aren't.

But obviously that doesn't mean you can't do good things, just don't be thinking that's the reason you're saved

Man you're genuinely doing the most important thing. Going after the one sheep (by texting me and others) while preaching to the whole world(social media)

Me: Join us, there will be sheep you can reach that we can't.

I'm seriously so excited rn!! I'm gonna go tell my family! I'll be gone for a little thank u so much!

Me: Right! So if doing good things doesn't play any part in getting you to heaven, why would you want to do good and not sin?

I'd do it to show God how grateful I am

Thank you genuinely so so so much. This is one of the bigger events in my life

So, that’s encouraging.  But, the conversation continued and it turns out he is Mormon.  So, I started explaining why he would not want to be a Mormon any more (because they don’t teach grace alone, faith alone) and would want to find a church that does teach that.  Well, he was resistant to that idea, and he insisted that the Mormon church does teach the same thing.  All my little tests to challenge that failed, e.g., does the Mormon church teach that you have to be baptised to be saved?  His answer: No.

I thought for a while, and decided I needed to back up a bit, zoom out so we can look at the bigger picture.  I needed to answer this question: why are we agreeing, when I know we don’t?  So I looked at three things: 1) Who is God?, 2) What is Heaven and Hell?, and 3) How do we know we know what God said?  I explained what I thought the answer was to those 3 questions, and he explained what he thought.

Instantly we hit important areas of disagreement.  1) I say there is 1 God: 1 in being, three in person: Father, Son (Jesus), Spirit.  God is eternal.  But he says the Father created the Son (Jesus).  2)  Hell is a terrible place of justice and punishment, a lake of fire that goes forever, even the smallest of our sins means we deserve to go there.  He says there are levels to heaven and hell, most people go to one of the levels in heaven, only the worst of the worst go to Hell.  3) I say it’s only the Bible, he adds the book of Mormon.

Zooming out like this made it really clear how he was misunderstanding the gospel.  He didn’t understand the holiness of God, and the seriousness of sin - that it deserved eternal punishment.  And, most critically, he didn’t understand who Jesus really is.  Only the eternal, holy, God could pay an eternal hell fine.  If Jesus is created, he is not eternal (and not God).  The Jesus he is trusting in can’t save him!

I explained this, and gently, yet firmly held him to it.

The last message he sent asked for bible verses - which I gave him, I haven’t heard back from him within the last 24 hours.

I’m not an expert on Mormon theology, and I’ve always struggled to know how to get them to understand the true gospel.  This conversation has really helped me with that.
 

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As I’ve been doing online evangelism with the team, there has always been at least one person dedicated to responding to direct messages on Instagram.

Well, on Thursday, I was introduced to helping with this task.  It was a real eye opener.  As I write this (Saturday morning) there are 107 unread messages, and 17 new message requests (that’s a lot).

I spent most of my Friday dealing with these messages.  What we are doing is: sharing / clarifying the gospel, answering questions, pointing people to their bible and a local church.

So, why are so many people contacting us?  Well, every day, we are sharing the gospel, one to one, with strangers on various online video chat platforms - so follow up messages come from that.

But not only that, we are live streaming some of those conversations on YouTube and Facebook.  So people who find us there may message in.

And then there is TikTok where regular short videos, taken from some of the online chats, are posted.  By the grace of God, this has really gained traction.  And so a lot of messages come from people who have seen these videos.

How did this happen?  Well it certainly wasn’t planned!  It started with Christians with a passion for the great commission, deciding to do something.  Getting out on the streets to talk to people about Christ.  And then Covid happens, and lock down is suddenly a thing.  Well, we can’t go to the streets, so let's go online.  Through trial and error, we discover online chat platforms.  But there is a lot of bad stuff there, so we (actually, Ryan) build tools to shield us.  And it grows from there.  All glory to God!

So, based on my first day of dealing with these messages, I have a fresh appreciation for the wonderful work that Pastors do, shepherding the flock.  Many Christians are messaging in asking good questions.  We clarify the gospel with them, try to answer their questions, and point them back to the bible and their local church (because we are not their pastors).  But I’ve also dealt with questions from people who don’t believe God exists.  It’s a real mix!

What a privilege and responsibility it is to represent Christ to all these people.  We certainly don’t take it lightly.

Since starting to write this post, there are now 109 unread messages and 18 new message requests.  I’m going to finish this report now, and get to work responding.  Please continue to pray for us!
 

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With our online outreach, we are able to easily keep track of many details of the conversations we have with people.

For a start, we know where in the world they are from (with some exceptions).  But after every conversation we can record extra information.

Firstly, we can record the progress of the chat: no progress, during God’s existence, during law, during false ways (working through the ways that won’t get us to heaven), during gospel, during checking questions, complete - not professing faith, complete - professing faith, already a believer.

Then we can capture their name, and leave a comment about the conversation.

This is very helpful in a few ways:

• We can review the previous couple days of conversations to help in praying for the people we talked to.
• We can get an idea of not only the amount of people we are reaching, but how many of them are actually hearing the gospel.  This is very encouraging for us.
• In the rare situations where someone in the team re-connects, the details of previous conversations can be displayed to aid in how to continue the conversation.
• It aids me in writing these reports.  This is very encouraging for you! :)

So, for yesterday and today, I spent all my outreach time online with the team.

For yesterday I can see that I had a total of fourteen conversations, it was a harder day, where I didn’t get to share the gospel as often - only six of those conversation was I able to completely share the gospel, and only once was I able to have a complete conversation (including the checking questions)! :O

But, that conversation was marvelous.  It was with a devout Muslim guy.  Initially he was quite resistant as I worked through the logic of the gospel presentation and various analogies.  But by the end of the conversation he had really opened up, dropping all defences and just wanting to understand my worldview, asking many questions.  At one point he said the battery in his phone was about to run out, but he took the effort to go get the charger so he could continue the chat.  He didn’t want to leave, and in the end, I felt like I’d exhausted all the lines of reasoning and needed to get to dinner with my family anyway.  He made it clear multiple times he wouldn’t be changing away from Islam to Christianity.  But the gospel is the power of God for salvation!  He has my contact details if he does decide to continue the conversation.  Pray for Yousef.

Today I had a total of eight conversations.  But Ryan must have been praying for me, because I was able to deliver the gospel in a greater percentage of those conversations compared to yesterday.  I had three complete conversations, one ended during the checking questions stage (he got the first one right), and three during the gospel sharing stage.  The other one I marked as no progress - the language barrier was too great (we used Google Translate for a while) - but they did receive a link to needGod.net.

The stand out conversation of the day was with a couple of late teen girls from Ecuador.  One of them did the talking while the other mainly listened.  She had a Catholic background, but believed deeply in reincarnation and karma.  I had to really labour against the concept of works for “salvation” with her.  Finally I had a breakthrough, and I think the gospel really started to sink in.  To end the conversation I asked if there were any questions.  To my surprise, the other girl chimed in and took over the conversation from their side.  She had a couple of very important questions.  (So, bad people could get to heaven? And, what about those that don’t hear about Jesus?)  The answers to these questions (esp. the first one) seemed to clear up her misunderstanding of the gospel.

Not only are we having many one to one conversations with people online, but we are streaming on YouTube and Facebook, with many regular followers who gather in the chat and also in Discord.  One to one training in evangelism is occurring.  Short videos are being posted on TikTok and other social media platforms that gather many views.  And finally team members are often dedicated just to responding to private messages on Instagram and TikTok.  It’s all very encouraging.  And all these people are being pointed to the Bible and local churches.  All glory to God.  Please pray for the ministry and all the hard working evangelists trying to serve the Lord and others in this way - so vital, thank you so much.
 

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The weekend in Christchurch was very wet.  They are saying two to three months worth of rain fell in the Canterbury area in just a few days.  Due to this I didn’t venture out - instead I fell back to online outreach.

An interesting note, as a team, we have now passed 5000 chats with people online (over a 2 month, 15 day period).  That is incredible; glory to God.

On Saturday morning I had the following chats:

• A great chat with some Muslim guys from Lebanon.  They started out being silly, but by the end of the conversation, it was dead serious as they fought against the logic of the gospel.
• A chat with a kid who laughed at me saying he wasn’t listening, but it was obvious he was listening - he gave great answers to the checking questions, showing he was soaking up gospel truth.
• A Muslim in Albania who believes in Reincarnation.
• A great chat with a couple of guys from the UK.
• A couple of girls from the UK who were laughing at the gospel, sadly.  They won’t be laughing on judgement day.
• A Muslim dude from Egypt, reasonable (understanding) but resistant (not trusting).
• A Muslim dude in India.
• A Buddhist dude in India.
• A rude person from India.
• Some kids in the USA: “This is not school, it’s summer break” - disconnect.
• And finally a fantastic chat with a girl from the UK, who was a bit distracted, but had an “Ah ha” moment as she came to understand the gospel.

In the afternoon, the team had a training outreach where we paired up for mutual feedback and encouragement.  It’s so good being able to listen to the nuance of another person sharing the gospel and learning from it.

I was paired up with Abraham in Melbourne - a recent training grad (I think).  It was so good watching him confidently and clearly communicating - well done Abraham!

One of my conversations went long, it was a rare reconnect.  One of the team had talked to this guy for 5 minutes 2 months prior.  He was combative initially, and it turned into an apologetics battle.  But as his questions were addressed, he calmed down and opened up to hearing the law and the gospel.  It was a great chat, glory to God.

Sunday afternoon and I was feeling more tired than usual.

By God’s grace, I was given the opportunity to share the gospel with a very open hearted young lady (pictured) who said there was nothing stopping her from believing that Jesus died on the cross for her today!  I pointed her to a local church and the Bible.  May the gospel seed take root and flourish, I leave her in God’s hands.

I then had a couple of very intense conversations.  One of those was about forty minutes long.  It was with a young couple who were Agnostic / Atheist - from the UK.  An extreme apologetics battle.  By the end of it they were curious; why am I on Omegle, of all places, talking about this stuff?  The door was now open for me to clearly articulate the gospel to them, and to plead with them to respond, because life is very short.

The final conversation of the weekend was with a guy with a Hindu background (pictured), from India (although the IP location placed him in Canada).  It was another long one - about twenty minutes.  He came to grasp the gospel, but he didn’t like the idea that he had to give up his Hinduism.  I became quite forthright with him, I told him he’d be going to hell - and given the context, I thought that was fair.  Well, he didn’t like that at all.  I made it clear that I said it because I loved him.  I don’t want him to go to hell, and I pleaded with him to trust in Christ alone for salvation.  The conversation was coming to a natural end, but amazingly he didn’t want it to end, we continued chatting for another five minutes or so.  I told him I hope we can play cricket together one day in heaven!
 

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Thursday is my longest day of outreach in the week.  Today I spent the whole day (8 hours) in online evangelism.  Of that time, over 5 hours was active gospel conversation time, for a total of 23 chats throughout the day - some as short as 2 minutes, some over 30 minutes.  I spoke with people in Pakistan, India, Jamaica, the UK, Sweden, Canada, Tunisia, and the USA.  (Yesterday, someone reached someone from Sudan for the very first time!)  Some of the people I talked to said they were: Hindu, Muslim and Catholic.  Some were open and curious, some were bored but hung around anyway, some were deeply resistant and fought against the logic of the gospel.

Most of them heard the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).  It is the message by which people are saved (Acts 11:14).

Sharing the gospel message should be our priority.  And we have discovered a deep vein of gospel opportunity, so easy to access - it is a wonderful gift.  The tools in place to protect us from the dark side of this vein are just getting better and better.

And you can watch it happening live or delayed via the Operation 513 Facebook page.

If you would like to give online evangelism a try, free one on one training is being offered.  Get in touch to schedule a time.  Come and join the team!

Otherwise, please continue to pray for the small team working this gold mine - we are literally reaching thousands of people with the gospel of Jesus.  All glory to God alone.
 

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Friday afternoon's outreach online was exciting a wonderful arvo full of chats! God was very kind in who he bought across the stream!

The first conversation of the afternoon was with Miles, an older guy who had initially rejected Christianity but then saw God's existence, understood that God sets the rules and that he is guilty and that the punishment would be very severe for those who rebel against the God of the universe. Then when asked for the solution he said he had no idea but asked, "Can you tell me? What can I do to not go to Hell?" He came to understand the simplicity of the good news that those we believe that Jesus Christ took the punishment for their sin are perfect in the sight of God and may even Heaven.

He also saw that his primary reason for rejecting the good news prior to this conversation was that he'd never understood it before. He then saw that the reason he was now hesitant to believe it not because it wasn't true but because he wanted to keep living his own way. This was pointed out and he acknowledged that living his own way would not be worth going to Hell for and said he was really thankful for the chat, he wasn't expecting it but said it was very worth thinking about! He was even encouraged to read the Bible and said he would consider starting!

Another conversation was with Amy who initially professed to be a Christian but very quickly saw that she wasn't sure of the way to Heaven, in fact she was hoping in her own performance as the reason she was going to Heaven. She too saw her guilt and that her actions could not be the reason she would go to Heaven, as they were actually leading her to Hell! She then said, "There is no way for us to get into Heaven". She then heard the gospel and came to understand Jesus' offer of forgiveness and was quite surprised at it. She said that today she would believe and was shown how that would impact her life and she said she would consider it.

Please be praying for these two that their response to the gospel in the conversation would be a result of the Holy Spirit's work and therefore that they would believe the good news and as a result would love to serve God and share with other people this good news!

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Thursday was another exciting day of outreach, topped off at the end of it all with an answer to two prayers (so stick around)! Usually I write battle logs in third person but occasionally when it is so exciting I will write in first person. It is hard to encompass in words how exciting today was! Over the past few weeks, instead of just sending up a quick prayer, a more lengthy and specific prayer has been put before the God of the universe between each gospel conversation and it has been so worth it!

The reason, each prayer prayed is another opportunity for God to display His glory and He has been doing just that. Each prayer answered is also and opportunity to rejoice in God for His kindness!

The prayer at the beginning of today's outreach, included a request to bring someone across the screen who would not only grasp the gospel but would believe it as well! The first conversation of the day was just that. A guy who initially was being silly, was challenged to be serious about this and the result was a conversation with a man who thought he'd left Christianity behind and today (based on his profession of faith) became his day of salvation! He saw the impact this would make upon how he lived and as a result said that he would start reading his Bible so that he could find out further who God is and see how he should live.

At the end of this conversation, I was able to rejoice, praising God as the sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth who answers prayers that are for His glory and the good of those who love Him! And then prayed a similar prayer and sure enough God answered it again in the positive. Conversation after conversation!

The final conversation of the afternoon slot was much the same! An Australian who'd had a past with the law and with Christianity and had the right information regarding the good news but was sadly unclear on it being faith alone that made someone right before God. Over the conversation at one point when it was stressed how deseperately I didn't want him to go to Hell he was actually moved to tears! At the end of it all, he knew the gospel well, he understood the impact it would make on his life and this change would be a result of the gospel, not a cause of his salvation, and he too was thankful for the conversation!

The day was glorious already. Nine conversations so far where God had been very kind in answering these requests for someone to comprehend the gospel and believe it, time after time. Cut then to the end of the outreach, the final conversation! I prayed once more, asking God to bring me whomever He pleases, knowing that I can't choose the person I pair with. I also requested that it would be someone open to the gospel, understanding their sinfulness and desperate to hear the good news! Moments later across my screen came an image showing a camera that wasn't working. Intially I was about to skip but the person on the other end hadn't. I said a few things, with no answer but I could hear noises.

Then I typed, "What do you think happens to us after we die?" and seconds went by. I was about to skip but just as I went to press the button, His response came though, "We go to Heaven or Hell". I agreed and then he turned his camera on and started talking. He shared that he was worried, he knew he deserved Hell because of his sin and that he had been trying to overcome some specific sins with very little success. This was noted and I mentioned that it was important but we would come back to that as I thought the gospel would be more important to clarify first.

When asked what he was trusting in to get him into Heaven he shared that he was trying to clean up his life so that God could accept him. With some simple analogies and explanations he grasped the gospel and was surprised and overjoyed. It made sense, the implications made sense and he acknowledged that he could be 100% certain that he was going to Heaven because of what Christ has done and him recieving it by faith! On the basis of this we then were able to talk about how life will look as a result, seeing that Christ is beautiful beyond description. He now understood that the primary desire of his life will be to serve and savour Christ! This was emphasised with a comparison of two stories from Greek Mythology.

There is an island that must be sailed past in order to arrive home but on the island are Sirens (half monster, half woman). They sing enchanting and tempting songs, trying to lure those who would sail past to come to them. These Sirens are surrounded by dead men's bones and rotting flesh from their many victims. As they sing, those who hear their song, get drawn in by the sweetness, lost for the death that awaits them. Having been warned of this upon approaching the island, Odessyus prepared his sailors, by taking a large block of beeswax, breaking it into small pieces and giving it to each of his men, telling them to put it in their ears so they will not hear the song of the Sirens and to row on no matter what he says until they are far away from the island.

He then orders them to tie him to the mast and once prepared they sail by the island. Odessyus as he hears the song, longs to plunge into the waters and swim to the island. He wants to embrace the Sirens. He strains against his bonds so violently that he tears the flesh on his arms and his back. To Odessyus the Sirens look as beautiful as "Helen of Troy", to the sailors they can see them for what they are, hungry and ugly monsters, seeking whom they can devour. But with the wax in their ears the crew are able to sail past, despite the great temptation to their captain. This is how Christians often try to defeat their temptations to sin, in their best efforts and their own strength they try to block out the song.

But there is another captain who sucessfully made it past the island with his crew. Orpheus, known for his great music, as his vessel was nearing the island, he walked to the front of the ship and played a song so much more beautiful than that of the Siren's the crew was so enthralled with his song, they didn't even notice the call of the Siren's.

The point, as Christians we can restrain ourselves and tie ourselves down thinking that in itself will be a solution but a far more powerful tool to overcome the calls of sin upon our life, is to sing the sweeter song. The more beautiful you see Christ to be, the more you savour His holiness, goodness, kindness, patience, love, mercy and justice... the more firmly your gaze is fixed upon Christ, the more the temptations of this world will grow dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

Upon hearing this story Cornelis was greatly encouraged and took the challenge to get into his Bible daily, to see the beauty of his Saviour and the commands and promises He has for him! Upon this he mentioned though that this conversation wasn't an accident! He said, "Five hours ago, in a moment of desperation I called out to God saying, "God, I am far from you, I need you to send someone to talk to me". So in that single conversation God bought together two men from opposite sides of the globe, to answer two prayers, prayed in secret, for the salvation of one soul and the encouragement of another, all resounding to His glory!

There are things that won't happen if we don't pray. There are opportunities missed to praise God if we don't pray and there are priviledges in this life that we will never have in the next. In Heaven, you will never be able to tell someone who does not know Christ of the glories of the gospel. Your only hope to share Christ with an unbeliever is this side of Heaven! Why not start today?

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Tuesday on Omegle was an exciting outreach! It was an extended outreach from usual, but this just meant more time for people to hear the good news about what Jesus has done to save sinners! A day with nine team members over six hours was wonderful!

The first conversation of the day was with Evan. He was initially a little silly pretending to be someone he wasn't but then came to understand the good news and was so excited at the end of the conversation that he was moved to tears! He was even asking questions about how he could bring the gospel to bear on the ears of his friends, family and neighbours!

The next conversation was with Jenelda. There were so many good quotes of things that she mentioned through the conversation but basically as she saw the simplicity of God's existence, her guilt and the solution she was greatly impacted and she too was blown away, even shedding a tear at one point as well!

One outstanding comment she made was, "I feel like a different person, you've changed my mind totally and it makes sense and I feel like I will wake up tomorrow and everything will look different and feel different". She could not thank me enough and was so keen to live for God thinking through all of the implications of the gospel acknowledging that it would definitely change her life and the way she lived!

She finished the conversation by saying, "I thank you for this chat but I think there are some other people that God has for you to talk to, I shall let you chat to them".

Next was a conversation with Carlos who took a while to grasp the gospel but once he got it he too said, "it really meant a lot". He had been struggling with Christianity for a while and was greatly encouraged by the gospel1 It was exciting to see his comprehension and a privilege to see the moment that he grasped it for the first time!

Then an unusual conversation took place with two Australia girls, Zoe and Kelsey. It seemed as if they should disconnect but despite rejecting God's existence and wanting to live their own way they came to see how we know God exists, how rejection of God is based on love for sin and then the good news that God offer guilty sinners a full and free pardon on the basis of Jesus taking the punishment they deserve. This meant that they could be forgiven this very day and on their way to Heaven if they would simply believe that Jesus took the punishment for their sin!

They didn't want to believe but they did understand it. Lastly a great encouragement came as a pair who had previously talked to the team remembered the way to Heaven, professing to believe and were encouraged to open up their Bibles and read the gospel of John!

Praise God for such a wonderful day, may those who grasped it be changed because of the conversations that took place and the Holy Spirit applying the truth to their hearts!

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Marvellous Monday's on Omegle are wonderful! 7 hours of outreach means across the team around 100 gospel conversations take place! 100 people come to see the simple message of the gospel (or at least the law) in just one day! The majority of those also are able to explain why Jesus taking the punishment for sin is the only way to get to Heaven and can explain why a Christian will want to obey God's rules.

This Monday was no different and as usual was filled with exciting conversations. The afternoon started with a chat with Eva, a young lady who struggled with mental illness and had some bad experiences with the Catholic church and as a result had used that as an excuse to live her own way. She came to see her guilt and that she was in trouble without Jesus and was able to understand the gospel but remained hard against the offer of forgiveness because he love for sin remained.

Then there was a really exciting conversation with Isain. He was a bit slower to grasp the gospel but upon understanding it was so thankful for it and said he would read the Bible for himself to find out more.

Then there was a chat with Gauge who also grasped the gospel and said he was glad we'd chatted, he already had a Bible app on his phone and said he would start reading John this week! He also saw that believing the gospel would transform his life and he acknowledged that.

Next was a conversation with two late teenagers from Sydney. They at first (after saying they'd gone to a Catholic school) said they rejected God's existence but then surprisingly heard the good news, grasped it and said they would think about it. They did say they weren't sure they'd believe it because they didn't want to (sin is more fun) but grasped it none the less.

A final and very exciting conversation was with Samantha and Stephen. They at first were talking about reincarnation and some other weird things but they acknowledged that God exists but thought they were pretty good. Then they saw that they were like the rest of us, guilty and deserving of Hell and that no good deeds, requests for forgiveness or any attempts to fix one's life could stop them from going to Hell.

Then they heard the good news of the cross and although full comprehension took a little while (at first they were still talking about trusting in Jesus to pay for their sin and their own goodness) but when they grasped it, really quickly afterward the understood that love for God and obedience would be a natural overflow in the life of a Christian and they were also encouraged to read their Bibles!

Some final words were shared by them, Stephen said, "Wow this was like one of my Bible lessons but now I understand it, it was so helpful" and Samantha said, "Yeah, this has been really awesome, thank you for sharing this with us". They were both encouraged greatly and said that today they would start trusting that Jesus taking the punishment for their sin was the only reason that they would enter Heaven!

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