Battle Log

Page 197

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The thermometer was showing 38'C as we arrived in Woodridge for our final outreach in this community for 2016. The air was still, and people seemed to be moving a bit slower than usual. Even though it was oppressively hot, the heat actually opened up doors for gospel conversations as people wanted to stand in the shade.

When I arrived at the outreach it was good to see Alan and Ryan already engaged in conversations with people. The gospel was spreading and people seemed to be quite open and interested.

My first conversation was a middle-aged man named Tim, who wanted to talk as religion was destroying his family. Recently, his partner had been attending Bible studies with the Jehovah Witnesses, as a result she had been converted and also their children had embraced the heretical teachings of the JWs.

Tim, even though he was not a Christian had enough smarts to know that something wasn't right, so in his words he went out to get a "Lutheran Bible to prove them wrong." Through reading the "Lutheran Bible" he was able to find that the teachings of the Watchtower didn't align with Scripture, but the more he pointed this out, the more the JWs tried to separate his family from him. We chatted for sometime about the cultic nature of the Jehovah Witnesses and also the gospel. When he left he asked if he could have my contact number so that he could talk further. I happily gave him my details and I pray he gets in touch to talk again.

By this time Ryan had finished a conversation he had been having with a man named Tama. It turns out that four years ago members of the team spoke to Tama, and he wanted to chat again. After he finished talking to Ryan, he decided to speak to me. I reinforced the gospel message, and then encouraged him to attend a local church. He gave me his details and asked if a church could contact him. We have already handed his details over to a church in his area, and know they'll follow him up.

The conversations kept flowing today. At some points it was a case of going from one conversation to another. Straight away after talking to Tama, I got talking to a black African man named Arthur. It turns out that Arthur goes to church but thought to be saved he had to keep the Ten Commandments. We examined the Law, and he soon saw that he had failed in keeping the Commandments, this then opened up into a wonderful conversation about the gospel and how Christ loves sinners. At the end of the discussion Arthur said, "I am going to trust in Christ today. I finally understand." Please pray that the Lord would save Arthur.

As I was talking to Arthur I noticed a man standing nearby eavesdropping. When I finished my conversation with Arthur I walked over to him and began to chat. This man is Romanian and had grown up in the church; his brother is also a Pastor. He readily acknowledged that what we were sharing was the truth, and that Jesus is the only way to be saved. He even went on to explain the gospel very clearly, but then he said, "I'm not trusting in Jesus." I asked him, "You know it is all true; you know that Jesus is who He says He is, so why aren't you trusting in Him?" The man hung his head and said, "I don't know. I need to." I shared the gospel with him again, and he shook my hand saying that he would give the matter some more thought. Please pray that the Lord would rescue him.

By this stage I was feeling on a bit of a high; we'd had several wonderful conversations without any opposition, but then entered a young black African Seventh-Day Adventist. She was fired up and full of her own self-righteousness. She boldly told us that to be saved someone had to keep the whole law and trust in Jesus. I pointed out that this is works righteousness, and that according to the Scripture a person cannot be saved that way.

She strongly disagreed, so I opened my Bible and asked if I could read God's Word to her. She agreed, but said it had to be NIV only (this is the first time I have met an NIV-onlyist!). I found an NIV on my phone, and read to her from Galatians 3:10-11; after I had read the passage I asked, "Are you relying upon the Law to be saved?" She said she was. I then asked, "Do you keep the Law perfectly?" She claimed she did, so we began to look at the Ten Commandments. It soon became clear that she had and was breaking many of God's Laws. When she admitted this I read the passage to her again, and stressed that she was under a curse. I then went onto read Galatians 3:13 and explained how Christ became a curse for us.

She didn't like the idea of Jesus saving and us having nothing to do with it, so once again she argued that if we don't keep the Law perfectly then we would be damned. I asked, "If you lie to me now, then walk out and get hit by a car and die, would you go to Heaven?" She said, "No, as I hadn't repented of that sin." This is the trouble of works righteousness; you can never have assurance of salvation, and you live in constant fear that you could accidentally sin and be lost forever.

I explained the gospel to her from 2 Corinthians 5:21, and stressed that we are perfectly righteous because of Jesus, but she wouldn't have any of it. I then took her to Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5, and asked her according to these passages what role works played in our salvation. She read the verses and said, "None, salvation is all of God." I thought, "Finally! She's got it." But then she turned around and once again started to spew the dribble of works based salvation that the SDA had taught her.

Once again we went back over the gospel, but I noticed that the more I stressed the salvation is all of grace the ore aggressive she became. No one likes to hear the truth that we cannot save ourselves, but that is what the Bible says. The message of the gospel offends our pride, but we must realise this truth. Eventually, I broke away from the conversation, and that is when she really lost it. She began to yell and me, blaspheme God's name, and swear.

A friend of hers then came up and said she was going to spit on me and my Bible, and the SDA just started screaming, "GIVE ME YOUR BIBLE AND DON'T JUDGE!" At that moment I imagined this must have been how the Pharisees responded to Jesus; the self-righteous hate the gospel. Please pray that the Lord would humble this lady and bring her to salvation that is all of grace.

The seed was sown today and the Lord will bless the sharing of His Word. Please pray for all those with whom we spoke.

SDG!

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Today the team consisted of Jacob, Rob, Chuck, Wesley and myself.  I was very thankful for the turn out.  We preached and handed out Christmas tracts.  Christ was glorified. SDG

Rob chatting to a young man on the high street.

Andrew preaching a Christmas Gospel message from Luke chapter 2

Wesley chatting with a lady about the Gospel

Chuck preaching

 

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We praise the Lord for the amazing week-long outreach at Schoolies on the Gold Coast last week. Thousands of year twelve graduates received a gospel tract or had a conversation about Christ with us.

God sustained our voices, kept us healthy and kept us relying on Him for strength. It was great seeing so many labourers with us on the team this year, and also seeing so many of them step out of their comfort zones and start conversations with people about eternal matters.

All glory to God that He uses unworthy servants such as us to make known such a wonderful message of reconciliation!

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Before we started our outreach last night in Brisbane city, we prayed that God would prepare people's hearts and bring in people to hear the gospel. And praise be to God, He answered that prayer numerous times throughout the night.

Usually we need to approach people to get a gospel conversation started, but last night, it was different. For not long after we arrived, two young men came up to us, as we were setting up the free Bibles table, and asked us, "Will you go to Heaven when you die?" We responded and then asked them the same question and they said they thought they were going to Hell, because of their sin. This provided a great opportunity to explain the news of the cross to them!

Not long later, a man from Vietnam came up to two of us on the team and asked for a gospel tract. We were able to explain the whole message to him and he was very receptive, saying at the end, "I want to trust in Jesus for my forgiveness today." We gave him a New Testament and also details for a local church.

As we were rejoicing about that last conversation, a young man approached and asked us what we are sharing. These conversations were all apart from all the other conversations that the rest of the team were having at the same time!

Later on in the night, our regular atheist heckler, Wayne, arrived and God used him to draw in a crowd as he discussed with the preacher in the open air on a variety of subjects. He has been heckling us in the city for over 8 years now and we are praying that God will save him soon.

To God be the glory!

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During our Friday night outreach at the Gold Coast, we noticed that there were already some Schoolies who had arrived, and so we had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of them about Christ.

They are some of the most open people to talk to, because they have nothing to do down there, they're at a crossroads in their life, and they don't have their parents around - so they have to think about the issues for themselves.

We had two people on the team who preached with the sketchboard and God drew in a crowd to listen to the message. During this, the rest of the team were handing out gospel tracts and getting into conversations, including with a young lady named Melissa.

After hearing the bad news that we have sinned against God and deserve punishment, and also the good news that Jesus died for our sins if we repent and believe, you could tell she was clearly pondering the message. She said, "I am going to have to seriously think about this tonight."

God's word never returns void! To God be all the glory!

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It was a fruitful day of evangelism today in Sunnybank with gospel tracts going out and some great gospel conversations had. There were four of us on the team, which meant we were able to cover both sides of the road.

One person we spoke to was named Shika. He said he was a Hindu and thought God would let him into heaven based on his goodness. So we named a few commandments and he admitted to breaking them, just as we all have. He said that he had been taught that doing more good deeds than bad would solve the problem though.

We said, "Imagine if an earthly judge did that. 'Murderer I am going to let you walk free without any punishment because you've done more good things in life compared to how many murders you've done.'"

At this point, it began to click for him. So we went on to explain how if God is just, he cannot compromise justice by ignoring our sin. So instead we need someone perfect who can take our punishment for us. For if that person pays the penalty for our sin, that satisfies God's justice so that God can show us mercy and let us into Heaven. And that perfect person is Jesus.

This Hindu man then said, "I get it now. I have always been wondering how God's justice can be satisfied." He came to realise that he needed a substitute and that Hinduism doesn't provide one.

We went on to explain that he can't just add Jesus on to his existing religion, but that he needs to leave Hinduism and trust in Christ. He was seriously going to consider this and he was happy to take a Bible.

To God be the glory!

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We had a great outreach at the Gold Coast Friday night last week. It was wonderful to see that all the gospels of John on our English free Bibles table ran out by the end of the night.

We also had an Arabic free Bibles table set up, and so people visiting from the Middle East were able to get a copy of the Bible in their own language.

One stand out conversation we had was with two men who approached the Arabic Bible table near the end of the night - one was from Saudi Arabia and the other from the USA. Martin was the second man's name.

He said he was an atheist until a few months ago when he became a Muslim. I asked what the reason was for changing his beliefs. He said he was worried about death and about what happens after, and he had some Muslim friends who told him what they think happens after death.

He asked us the question, "There are so many religions in the world, how can we know which one is right?" So we explained how there are only two kinds of religions in the world - one kind that says you need to earn your way to Heaven by doing more good deeds than bad, and this encompasses every religion besides Christianity. The other kind of religion, which is only Christianity, says the only way to Heaven is by having a perfect person who can take our punishment for us on our behalf.

We asked, "If a judge in a courtroom accepted a bribe and let the criminal go free on that basis, that would be corruption, right?" He agreed. "In the same way, if God just ignores our sin because of something we offer him (like a good deed), that would be him accepting a bribe and therefore would be corrupt." He said that makes sense, and that only that latter kind of religion would work.

He had never read the Bible before and so he was more than happy to take a New Testament. He had heard from his Muslim friends that the Bible has been corrupted, and so we addressed his concerns by explaining that we still manuscript copies of the Bible in the original languages today from thousands of years ago, and we can compare our Bible today to the ones from then and it says the same thing.

Please pray for Martin as he considers repenting and trusting in Jesus for his forgiveness.

To God be the glory!

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"We don't want to read the Bible because we might get convinced of it."

We praise the Lord that His gospel went out to a lot of people on Saturday night in Brisbane city. We had 20 to 25 people on the team across the night including two new people who have never come out before. They both said they really enjoyed it.

One conversation that we had was with two Muslim ladies from Malaysia. They stayed talking with us for at least an hour, intrigued about what Christians believe. They thought that they might have to be sent to Hell for a while, but eventually they will be let into Heaven later on because they are Muslims. They said that is why they are doing their prayers and wearing special clothing to earn their forgiveness.

We shared with them that they won't be able to earn forgiveness since God is a just and holy God and he won't be bribed by any of our deeds. The good news is though that God Himself has provided the payment for our sins 2000 years ago on the cross, and we receive it as a free gift by placing our faith in Christ.

We then encouraged them to read the Bible, particularly because even the Qur'an says that the Bible is from God. After talking with each other in their language for a little bit, one of the ladies said, "We don't want to read the Bible because we might get convinced of it."

We responded, "But if it's the truth, wouldn't you want to be convinced of it?" They agreed and were both happy a take a New Testament from us to begin reading. We praise the Lord we had the exact right amount of Bibles with us on the night, as there were also quite a few other good conversations had where people wanted either a full Bible or a New Testament. Glory to God!

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For many months, we have tried to establish a Melbourne based ministry with only limited success. In the past 3-4 months, teams of 2 to 4 people have gone out Friday nights to share the gospel and by God’s grace we have had many wonderful conversations.

This week was different. Just 2 hours before our 7pm start time, people began to indicate that they would be out with us on the streets and by 6pm, we had 11 people committed to join us on the streets for the evening. This was a massive answer to many months and even years of prayer.

We gathered together at the GPO building to pray and get organised and then with tracts in hand, we paired up and walked out into the mall to share about our Saviour. Within just a couple of minutes I could see that almost every pair was engaged in conversation. Up and down Burke St Mall there were people sharing the gospel.

We talked to Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, Buddhists, Agnostics, lapsed Catholics and a couple of atheists. Many of the people in the mall are tourists and so we often share with people who are from relatively closed countries where mission work is difficult. Several people from the team obtained phone numbers to follow up people they chatted to.

One notable conversation from the night was with 2 girls from Bendigo who had a strong Catholic background. They had little understanding of the gospel but were very open to talk and asked some brilliant questions. Towards the end of the conversation it was clear that the message had got through to them, but rather than submit to the gospel, one started trying to find excuses to not believe. She seemed to be grasping for a way to wriggle out of repentance.

A couple of our team had to leave early but when most of us gathered back at around 9:30pm to debrief, everyone had great stories of people they talked to. Even though some of us were tired from our labour there was a genuine excitement about what had happened during the evening. We are immensely excited for where God is taking this ministry from here.

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It was beautiful weather at Wellington Point with the sun shining and a gentle breeze to provide us a enjoyable time to reach out to locals and visitors at this wonderful location in the Redlands.

We met up and prayed together and set off to our usual areas, the ladies on one side of the point the men on the other side. As we were walking, Lee-Anne met a young man named Ben and spent a long time sitting at a table with him. During that, Railee & I prayed and handed out tracts to people passing by. 

Then the two of us went over to the jetty and handed out more tracts. Railee got to talk with a guy named Sam for quite a while I prayed for them. One of Sam’s friends came up to try to pull him away so I tried to engage with him but he wasn't responding so I gave him a tract and encouraged him to read the message as it is so very important. Eventually he did pull his friend away but Railee got to share the glorious Gospel with him.

Lee-Anne came over after a while, and we had a few more short conversations. But it was more quieter than usual, so we decided to slowly walk to the other side and hand out tracts on the way. Just as we were only metres from the men on team, we handed out tracts to three young adults. They said they didn't believe they would go to heaven as their belief is that only Christ Jesus went to heaven and when he comes back there will be a resurrection and God's kingdom will be established on earth.

They didn't believe that Jesus is God or the trinity doctrine. They did not believe Hell exists either. We discovered that they were Christadelphians. These young people have been brought up in this false religion and their eyes are blinded by twisted scripture.

They use the King James Bible but have been taught lies, such as this for example: Jesus cannot be God because God cannot be tempted, and we know Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. 

Lee-Anne showed these young adults, two girls and a male, that Jesus is God by opening her Bible and speaking and showing them the Scriptures. The three of us spent some time with them reasoning and pointing them to the truth of who Jesus is and also the reality of the hell punishment for our sins, that it is a conscious eternal punishment where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12).

Railee had to leave, so Lee-Anne and I kept engaging their questions and their false belief of the Scriptures. Later on, Rick joined in as well. We spent well over an hour with them. 

Please pray for them as they were listening as we were urging them to look into what we were saying. They need to have the right understanding of who Jesus is for salvation.

You can see how this cult deletes the essentials of the Christian faith and therefore they are not Christians even though they will tell you they are. We need to always check anyone who says they are a Christian.

We can not see the heart but God can, so we are very grateful that we know His power to save is in His Hands and to give us the words to speak as we go. We did share the gospel clearly to them and that we care for them and their salvation. Rick shook hands with the young man and Lee-Anne and I hugged the girls and pray they will search for the truth. To God be the Glory forever and ever. Amen.

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