Battle Log

Wednesday, 15 May, 2019

Posted 21 May 2019, 11:14 AM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

Wednesday in Brisbane City was overcast meaning that many more people were sitting around the area, making opportunities for a whole host of conversations.

The hard part with a conversation is knowing what pace to take. If you try and rush person may get lost or confused and leave the conversation. If you go too slowly they may have to leave before they comprehend the gospel. Usually at a bus stop outreach, it is always better to be quick knowing you have less than ten minutes in most cases to have the conversation. But in Brisbane city the balance is harder to find. The first conversation of the afternoon with Carly was cut short as she had to leave.

Before that point she came to realise that we all know God exists, that all of humanity is guilty and therefore there is no other religion in the world that can solve this apart from Christianity because exclusive to Christianity is God taking the penalty for the sins of those who will be going to Heaven. During the chat as a young lady she asked some interesting questions about sexuality, Hell and a few other things in light of how she has perceived Christians. What she was so surprised at was the graciousness of the answer. Scarily she said, "You're the first Christian I've talked to that hasn't been really rude about this".

The conversation was finished before she came to understand how a sinner can be forgiven but she took a tract and was thankful for the conversation.

Another conversation soon after was with Andrew. He has spoken to the team before but is very interested in his own ideas rather than what God has to say. Similarly to last time he said it was proud and presumptuous to be declaring who we think God is but then he would go on and start sharing the he thinks God is impersonal, just a force and doesn't care about right and wrong. Sadly the irony was lost on him.

This time, with great effort the conversation was mostly kept on track as Andrew was shown that any religion, including his religion of secular humanism, that says all we must do is be good people and that will be okay in the end are sown with the seeds of their own destruction, as we fail to do good continually. He was shown that where he was placing his hope would never be able to solve the issue. He had to head back to work before he could come to hear of Christ but please be praying for another opportunity to talk with him in the coming weeks!

A conversation with a guy, named Liz, took place and similar to Andrew he was blinded to the irony of his claims. The sad part of the conversation was that during the conversation he shared that he grew up in the Pentecostal Church and ultimately left because he doubted the Bible and started to think, there isn't enough evidence to conclusively say that there is a God.

Many simple evidences of God were pointed out, chiefly that a God who doesn't exist cannot act in history, so the very fact there is a universe, that God has told the future through prophets and apostles, that He has done miracles and most notably that He walked this earth, died on a cross and rose from the dead are things that God has done, there is absolutely no doubt about God's existence. Rather Liz was questioned about the original issue and was asked if that his doubts about God stemmed from a desire to do things God said he wasn't allowed to and then he had to make a choice, to ditch God or to stop sin.

Liz agreed that this was the case and then following that he'd started "disbelieving" in God. He was shown why this is foolish, both because of the judgement to come but also the the only hope for sinners is found in Christ and what He offers but despite comprehending the depths of God's love for sinners, Liz choose to reject the forgiveness that could be his if he will acknowledge that his sin is sin and trust in Christ, instead choosing to continue living his own way.

Please be praying for Carly, that another opportunity will come up where a Christian can share with her the glorious gospel. Please praying that Andrew may return for another smoke break and may get to hear of what Christ has done and please pray for Liz, who in his pride and self-love is making a very foolish decision to reject the only offer of forgiveness available for guilty sinners.