Battle Log

Sunday, 28 August, 2022

Posted 28 August 2022, 4:30 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

The street work this week felt a bit slower than usual.  I often found myself praying in those moments - and that was a real blessing.  Just reflecting on how impossible it is for me to save anyone.  Just praying that God would be glorified.  And knowing that he will, people will come to know more about God, he will demonstrate either his justice or mercy, that his kingdom will come.  I’m so grateful that we get to be involved in all of this. He condescends to use us, in our weakness, to proclaim who he is, and allow his strength and power to be displayed in spite of us.

On Tuesday (in Riccarton) it was so slow that twice I went for wander down Riccarton Road in search of people to talk to.  I looked down a side street (which has an entrance to the mall) and I noticed a large group of kids.  I was up for the challenge, so I headed towards them.  It turns out there were about 20 of them!  Oh well, they need to hear the gospel too.  So I dove in.  I tried to get a conversation going with as many of them as I could, and I passed out a few tracts.  Suddenly a large part of them took off, and then the rest of them ran off as well.  A guy in a tie ran past me chasing them.  Then another guy came past and told me that a car had been broken into :(  Putting it all together, I guess the kids were involved?  I told them I was trying to tell them about Jesus.  He smiled, knowing that’s exactly what they need!  He accepted a tract from me as well.  Anyway, there wasn’t much I could do, so I headed back to our normal outreach stop via the bus stops.  Low and behold, the group of kids were coming past from the other direction (they had done a loop).  I was able to offer more tracts as they piled on to a bus, I don’t think any of them accepted one, and sadly, as I continued to walk, I found discarded tracts that I was able to pick up.  God willing, I (or other Christians) will have opportunities to engage with them in the future.

I can’t remember anything from the rest of the outreach, I’m confident I had other chats - I just can’t think of them right now.  I know Roger did, I took a photo of one of them (attached).

On Friday (in the city), the Hare Krishna’s went through, and this time they remembered to bring a pamphlet for me! :)  I exchanged it for a gospel chat.  They didn’t want to stop to chat.  But I’ve started reading it and it is interesting getting some more background about what they are all about.  I’m hoping I’ll have more opportunities to engage them.

But the conversation that stands out the most for me from Friday was the last one.  A young lady came over and accepted a tract from me.  She started out by saying she used to be involved with Christian ministry, but is no longer, because she is queer.  We fell into a long conversation starting from there.  I think she was challenging me with her introduction, so I decided to not give her the answer she expected, but instead ignored it for the moment.  It was one of those conversations where I couldn’t take the standard direct approach, I just had to be patient.  Her worldview involved no absolutes, and yet her conversation was full of absolutes.  From time to time I would gently point this out, but she wasn’t open.  Through the conversation, I was able to talk about the law, and even explain why homosexuality is sinful.  And I was even able to explain about Jesus - as closed as she was.  We could have talked for a very long time, yet I don’t think we would have made much progress, and so I wrapped up the conversation.  She left with a tract and an offer to continue the conversation via electronic means.  But I won’t be surprised if I don’t hear from her.  What overwhelmed me in the conversation is how selfish relativism is.  Basically what it’s about is ‘me’.  What ‘I’ want.  It’s idolatry.  And it grieves me.  Oh God have mercy.

This theme rolled into Saturday’s outreach in Riccarton.  Again, a slow start, and prayer.  Finally a couple of guys stopped (and a girl who kept her distance).  They were very pleasant and respectful.  One of them really seemed to respect what I was doing.  I took them through the script and was working through the law, when the demeanour of the main guy suddenly changed.  “Are you telling me I’m going to hell?”.  “Yes”, I said, “God is angry at us for our sin, but I’m here to talk to you about God’s mercy”.  That didn’t help, he suddenly declared that he is Mormon, and then his friend parroted what he said, “yeah, I’m Mormon”.  The main guy ripped up the tract and threw it and stormed off.  His friend went with him, and the girl laughed as she joined them.

I grieved, and yet I rejoiced at the obvious conviction that came upon him.  God, please have mercy upon them.

Later in the outreach, a young lady stopped.  She had deep questions and was open to chat.  She had a Russian Orthodox background, but considered herself to be agnostic.  Due to the nature of the questions, I responded with deep answers.  The key question was over why God allows suffering and evil.  So I addressed that, as well as explaining how we know God is real, the law and the gospel.  In hindsight, I think I needed to labour the law more.  None of what I was saying was making sense.  I checked in to see if she could remember what was getting her to heaven, and her answer was, “keep the ten commandments”.  Totally wrong answer.  So I went back to explain, but I think she had checked out.  She was esp. offended when I explained that even murderers and rapists can be forgiven (touching on a question she had earlier) - she just wasn’t understanding the mercy of God and that’s because she wasn’t understanding the justice of God, or how they work together in Jesus.  We parted on pleasant terms, but there was a real look of disgusted in her eyes as she left.  I think that’s partly my fault for not explaining well - I’m reflecting on that a lot and want to improve.  But also, I had an overwhelming sense of how much she hated the idea of God telling her how life was to be lived.  She wanted to make her own rules and be her own god.  Again, it so grieves me.  God, have mercy on us all.

Sunday was interesting.  I received a text in the morning from the Russian guy I had talked to a couple of Tuesday’s ago in Riccarton.  He was interested in coming along to church.  I gave him the address and he came.  It was perfect timing, because we are working through Romans at the moment, and today’s preaching was on Romans 3:9-20 - this is exactly what my Russian friend needed to hear (Jerome preached this passage really well) and it had the desired effect.  After the meeting, Andy and I were able to continue the gospel conversation.  I ended up leaving Andy in that conversation as I headed for the streets.  (It’s now evening and I’ve now got some fresh texts from him. I'll be responding with an invite to come to church next Sunday where we will be studying from Romans 3:21 - the good news!)

Sunday’s outreach in the city was again a bit slow, but the time went really fast.  I had one solid gospel conversation with a couple of guys - it was a really good one where they seemed to grasp the whole message well.  I challenged them to count the cost and respond.

James the glue sniffer turned up later in the outreach.  He wasn’t in a good state at all. :(  I came over and sat next to him to see how he was.  His speech was very slurred and his eyes were glazed.  But he was keen to talk about religion, and I was surprised at how well he was understanding (by the questions I was asking and the answers I was getting I could tell he was actually processing what I was saying).  As I was taking him through the law, he took the two tracts I had given him and found a pocket to put them in.  Maybe when he has a clear head he will read them?  But suddenly he said he wanted to die, and then got up and walked off.  I went back to my usual spot away from my flip chart.  A minute later, he comes back and goes over to my flip chart and steals my outreach bag!  I was close enough to stop him.  I told him all it had were tracts and Bibles.  Realising there was nothing of value (but ironically the greatest value), he gave it back.  And then we wanted to talk about religion again.  2 minutes later he suddenly got up, went and got his glue bag he had left and walked off.  Interesting.  Apart from the grace of God - that’s me.  God have mercy!