Battle Log

This afternoon in King George Square in the heart of Brisbane City many people heard the Gospel.

As the afternoon started there were some charity workers nearby, who were getting people to sign up for a charity. Across the afternoon the team was able to speak to all of the workers, early on a conversation was started with one female member but soon after James the team leader began engaging and ended up staying for almost thirty minutes.

He threw a lot of questions out, at first, not really interested in the answers. Every time an answer was given he would jump to a different question, sometimes even raising multiple at once. It seemed that James was using the questions to dodge the reality of God's existence and God's judgement of sin.

Slowly and surely, as each question was answered, James started to understand Christianity. The beauty of a lenghty conversation on the street is that as each question is answered the picture of Christianity gets clearer as the answers link together and tie back into each other. 

As the converastion was wrapping up conversation James said, "I was expecting this to be a much worse conversation but you have made it very clear. I now understand Christianity a lot more, thanks for talking to me".

As James left one final reminder of the Gospel was given to him and a call was given for him to find forgiveness and salvation in Jesus.

Another conversation was had with Georgia. She had absolutely no issues proclaiming that she was one of the most vile human beings and talked about her past armed robbery and current drug use.

Sadly, this knowledge of sin was not saving her. She was still desperately proud and self-reliant. She declared that she did not need a saviour but would simply, when she is ready, clean herself up and make herself right with God. No matter what God had said or how it was explained she could not understand that we can't ever remove our history of sin, or atone for one single sin. Georgia was adamant that she needed no Saviour and would be fine.

This was an incredibly sad conversation. Even pondering it in hindsight, it causes tears to well up. Georgia was so clearly broken and hopeless but had no interest (yet) in calling to the humble and patient God, who has everything that is required for sinners for find forgiveness.

As the outreach came to a close a conversation was had with Luke and Paris. Paris asked one question but spent most of the time distracted where as Luke couldn't get enough. He asked many inquisitive questions, seeking to understand Christianity. 

He began talking about God. Luke started by saying that be basically believes most of the things in the Bible but just disagrees with a few. It was then explained, that the first two people to be in this position were Adam and Eve. It isn't good enough to trust God and most things and live our own way even on a single issue. As Adam and Eve found out, wanting to be your own god, even over which tree you want to eat from, is enough to separate you completely from the Holy and Righteous God who created us. (Whilst this conversation was going on James, from earlier, overheard and listened this this first part).

Luke understood this and  said he knows a God exists but he isn't sure it is the Christian God. Many simple proofs were given as to why the Christian God, is the one true and living God. Ranging from Jesus' resurrection from the dead, the miraculous power given to the Apostles, the prophesy in the Old Testament or even the beauty and master craftsmanship of the Bible. Luke slowly listened and asked questions about each answer. 

He also asked about how Christianity is different from all the other religions and was surprised to hear that it was primarily a salvation issue. All other religions point us to ourselves, to clean ourselves up and God will honour that. Where as Christianity is the only religion in which God Himself, comes down, to redeem sinners from punishment.

With a few more questions answered, Luke was very excited and said, "You have been very convincing, I am excited to learn more about this!"

Please be praying that James ponders the Gospel and that the Holy Spirit will use this exposure to bring him to salvation. Please pray that Georgia is humbled by an understanding of God's immense Holiness and will turn and trust in God's humble Saviour and please pray for Luke that He will not rest until he has placed his trust, solely in the work of Christ on the cross!

And may you also pray, that God would give you the boldness and courage to step out in love and obedience, to declare His glorious Gospel to those around you in your every day lives!
 

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