Battle Log

Sunday, 5 October, 2025

Posted 5 October 2025, 7:02 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

Another month has passed.  Another month closer to eternity.  Time is moving fast.  The older I get, the more I want to forgo the pleasures of this life and invest in the kingdom to come - for God’s glory alone.  The best way I know to do that is to tell as many people as I can about who God is: His justice and His mercy.  And to try to encourage other believers to do the same - as much as I fail to do that.  My prayer is that He will use our feeble efforts to show His strength.

This month we had the joy of running a short term mission to… our own city!  Christchurch.  Why travel so far at so much cost, when you can just step out your door to the local streets, markets and meeting places to tell people there about Jesus.

For 1 week in September: Monday to Sunday, we spent our days ministering the gospel in our usual outreach spots: Cashel Mall and Riccarton, but we also got to re-visit some of our old haunts: the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops!  It was so good to be back in those spots - Andy and I talked about trying to visit them more often in the future.

One chat I had at Northlands is burned into my memory.  It was so encouraging.

A bus had just degourged its passengers and I managed to strike up a chat with one of them: a young man - probably in his late teens.  When I asked him what he thought happened after life, he became sad, “I hope it’s heaven, but, there will probably be nothing after I die”.  So, starting from there, I was able to explain to him how we know God is real.  This was when I was rewarded with his first facial change - it made sense to him, there must be a God - hope dawned on his face.  I then proceeded to explain how we know there is a heaven and a hell.  The look of hope on his face broke into a smile - again, it made sense – that means there won’t be nothing after life!  Finally, I was able to reason with him about the bad news: that we clearly deserve hell, but then the good news: what God has done so we can mercifully go to heaven.  And that was when I was rewarded with the final expression change - there is true hope for heaven!!  What a joy and a privilege it was for me to minister this good news to him.  How wonderful is it that God condescends to use a wretch like me to deliver such wonderful hope.

Suddenly he had to go, I was able to give him a tract before he scooted across the road and into the mall.  I didn’t have a chance to really work through any of the check questions.  I may never see him again, but, in those brief minutes I was able to pass him the bread of life.  I leave him in God’s hands - I didn’t even get a chance to learn his name; yet, God knows what it is.

On Saturday, Craig and I were in Riccarton.  I was handing out tracts when an older lady went past.  “Have you got one of these?”, I said.  She stopped and turned.  “What is it?”, she asked.  “It’s about Jesus”.  Her face beamed.  She bounded up to me and gave me a hug, and then she kissed me on the cheek!  “I’m a Messianic Jew, you’re doing a great job young man”.  She took the tract and bounded off before I had a chance to say anything further.  Haha, I don’t think I’ve ever been kissed for sharing the gospel before!  Always a first.  It made me re-evaluate, am I being faithful in my delivery?  I mean, if I’m being faithful, then the reaction is more often than not going to be that I’ll be spat at – people hate God because they love their sin.  But, no, I think if we are faithful, we will get a range of responses: including joy and hatred.  We must be gentle and respectful, but we must be faithful too, no compromise on the truth.