Battle Log

Thursday, 9 May, 2019

Posted 17 May 2019, 2:26 PM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

On Thursday there were five members out on the team as most of the others were scattered throughout Australia on various trips. But despite being a smaller team the usual the afternoon was a great success. The first conversation was an absolute cracker.

Mariana a Spanish speaking Brazilian was approached and she had some Christian ideas but was pretty sure God would let her into Heaven because she is good. She was shown God's goodness and then taken through His law, revealing her sin and suddenly she realised she would not be making it to Heaven as she currently stands. She was asked what she could do and suggested lots of things, all centering around her abilities to improve or earn God's favour.

But then, upon hearing the gospel for the first time, that God offers salvation as a gift to the guilty, not as a reward for the righteous Mariana came to understand that her whole life up until this point she was thinking she was a Christian but for the first time today comprehended what it really means to be one. She was excited to be challenged in this and said that she wanted to trust Jesus today. She asked if there was a Church she could attend and she was recommended one and she even said that she would start reading her Bible as she wants to know more about God!

As usual there were quite a number of short conversations, establishing God's existence and our guilt. This week there were actually twelve conversations with people which covered this and they were each left with a tract to read and their eternity to consider.

A later conversation the took a while was with Che, she was similar to Mariana. She was a a Filipino, Catholic and for the first time in her life, she came to comprehend the beauty of the gospel. She struggled at first to understand the simplicity of salvation, centered on justification by faith alone but when she understood that all the other pieces fell into place. She got the checking questions correct and was encouraged this day to trust in Christ. Her bus arrived so some simple follow up couldn't be had but please be praying for Che that God would work in her heart!

Lastly was a conversation with Edgar which was very sad. He had attended a church for a while with his friends because they all became Christians but after a while he stopped going. He didn't understand the gospel yet but more heartbreaking was that he declared he would prefer to live his own way than to believe in any God, even if God exists.

He was shown God's existence and God's law and was shown the desperate position he is in but Edgar was resolute in his rebellion against God and desire to live for himself.

Please be praying for Mariana and Che that they would trust in Christ and start attending local Churches, reading their Bible and even telling others of the good news about what Jesus has done! Please pray for Edgar that God would humble him, show him the foolishness of his ways and cause him to trust in Christ!

When will you come on out to share God's glorious gospel? It's something any Christian can do!