Battle Log

It’s been a month of gospel chats with those that have been open - praise the Lord, may his mercy be magnified.  It’s been a month of gospel chats with those that have been resistant - praise the Lord, may his justice be magnified.  Yet, it may be those that are initially resistant that end up accepting the mercy of God; and likewise, it may be those that are initially open that end up rejecting the mercy of God.  Who knows?  God knows.  But either way, he will be glorified in him becoming more known through our feeble effort.

 

Often when people ask me how the street evangelism is going, I’ll tell them about a recent chat I’ve had where the person was resistant.  In my mind, I’m just excited that I had the opportunity to talk to them, and bring glory to God in the process.  But then the person I’m talking to will misinterpret that into thinking I need encouragement.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do need encouragement, and I need the prayers of the saints, as we all do.  But, I’m content in my labour, without that allowing me to become slack in my labour.  I have the sufficient encouragement of scripture and the sound theology that comes from that.

 

Our job is to plough, sow and water.  It’s God’s job to bring the increase.  It’s hard work, and yet, the burden is light.

 

And when you are persistent, then the reward comes.  Yes, there is a lot of rejection and indifference from those walking past, but then someone will stop and you will have a gem of a conversation!  And so, to you: reader, I want to encourage you!  Don’t go soul winning once and give up!  Make a commitment to go regularly, and be persistent, and before you know it, years will have gone past and you will have memory after memory of God honouring gospel conversations where those you talked to may have been resistant or open, but you know God was glorified either way.

 

The opportunity for the gospel is unlimited.  And it’s been very encouraging for me to have a couple of the young men from my own local church joining me in outreach this month.  Rovin has been joining me on Sunday afternoons, and Toby joined me on a Saturday afternoon.  I’m loving having you guys join me!  And, if you are in Christchurch, I’d love to have you join me too.  Get in touch.

 

Here are a couple of highlight chats from the last month.

 

I’ve been working on being more disciplined in my personal devotions, prayer and Bible study.  One of my constant prayers is that, in my evangelism, I’ll be faithful to the word of God, and not compromising out of fear of man.  And yet, I pray that I’ll be gentle and respectful in my communication.  Now Society is fickle.  In one season, a particular issue (e.g., gender identity, or climate change) will be hot, but then the next, it’s not.  I’ve been through seasons where everyone will be asking / challenging me about homosexuality, but currently, it’s not an issue that comes up often.

 

But, two Fridays ago, I got into a gospel chat with four young people from Perth.  They were all in different spaces, and most of them were not taking the chat too seriously.  But, as the chat progressed, one lady did become serious.  She initially denied that God is real, but as she came to realise that it didn’t make sense that God was real, she challenged me: “well, I wouldn’t be welcome at church”.  “Why not?”, I responded innocently.  She shot back: “I’m gay”.  Faithful, yet gentle and respectful.  My initial response was to play neutral, “we are all sinners” - which is true, and yet, I knew that wasn’t faithful, and so, I had to be honest.  “Yeah, homosexuality is a sin”.  The air became icy.  It was uncomfortable.  But we must be faithful.  The conversation continued for a bit, but there was no real engagement at this stage, and so it was natural to let the chat wrap up.  As the four young people moved on, I offered follow up tracts, 2 took one, and to my surprise, the girl who claimed to be gay took one.  From her own mouth, her reason for saying God is not real is because she is gay, and yet, I made it clear that that didn’t make sense.  God is real, we all know it, yet we suppress that truth because we love our sin.  If we humbly face the truth of our sin, then there is mercy and forgiveness - because of Jesus.

 

Later on the same day, an older man went past.  “Excuse me sir, can I ask you a question?”, I say.  He was initially surprised by my question “What do you think happens after life?”, and yet he stayed to talk.  Yes, although most have their head in the sand, many want to talk about this - esp. with someone who is safe: that is, a stranger.

 

It turns out this man was Jewish.  As we chatted, he felt he trusted me enough to confess that he was grieving the loss of a close relative in Israel, he was a soldier who had been killed in Gaza.  He, like everyone else, is trying to process the evil and suffering and reconcile it all.  Glory to God!  I was giving the privilege of ministering to him.  Sadly, he was resistant to the gospel - it was like all his reasoning ability was turned off.  And yet, soil was ploughed, seeds were planted, questions were answered.  Although he was rejecting the gospel for now, nothing is wasted: God’s mercy or justice will be magnified.  As the conversation wrapped up, I was again able to express my sympathy over his loss. He teared up again in grief as he moved on.  God, have mercy!

 

On the following Sunday, I had a wonderful chat with a young lady, very resistant at the moment, and yet she was challenged by the reality of God’s law.  She moved on before I could share the gospel (although she did take a tract).

 

As I looked up, a lady was sitting on the bench across from me and watching intently.  She recognised me, but I didn’t recognise her.  I approached, and it wasn’t long before I remembered exactly who it was.  It was a young lady that I’ve been praying for.  I had a long chat with her, maybe a year ago(?).  She had opened up about some very painful and difficult situations at the time.  Things were no different now, and so I was able to continue the chat.  Amazingly, in spite of all the terrible things that had happened to her, she had no conception of her own wrong.  She seeked to justify all she did, to the point of absurdity.  She insisted on her goodness.  So I patiently laboured with her.  Although she is not outwardly open at this stage, I know there is something in her that is honest about the things we were talking about.  I gave her a gospel of John to read.  Pray that she does.  I hope to see her again and continue the conversation.  Or maybe you will be the one to continue that chat?  Come join us in the harvest!

 

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