Battle Log
Wednesday, 3 June, 2020
Posted 3 June 2020, 6:21 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
Tuesday started with some online evangelism, before heading to Riccarton for the weekly street outreach there. Roger wasn’t with me this time, so I decided to dispense with the flip chart and roam.
The heavy road works are now mostly complete and I had great access to all the bus stops. I had a field day reaching many people with tracts and via conversation. I completely underestimated the amount of tracts I would need and started to run low.
I talked to a lot of people who had either claimed to have been Christian or were currently Christian, but didn’t know the gospel. Time and again people would look to their good works as the reason why they would be justified before God. And time and again I would have to coach these people to remember the real reason for our justification: a faith in Jesus' sacrifice for their sin. It is very deeply concerning.
The hardest conversation of the afternoon was with a guy who instantly said he didn’t want to talk to me, but then proceeded to engage me in conversation. He claimed to have been heavily involved with a major church in Christchurch: youth and music ministry. But then he said he went to university and did philosophy papers where the clear fallacies of Christianity were apparently exposed. So I proceed to explain how everyone knows God exists. It was a wrong move. This man didn’t need evidence, he needed the law. He became angry, and his pride rose. He said he didn’t want to talk to me, so I went to move on, but then he goaded me for walking away - so I returned. And then he proceeded to accuse me of a list of things I wasn’t doing that he was doing himself! I should have walked off right at the start when he said he didn’t want to talk. I felt like I had failed at my attempts to be extra cautious in light of the heightened tensions I’ve become acutely aware of last Friday. A poignant reminder of how easily we fail, and how desperately we should be praying for God’s help in everything we do.
Wednesday I turned up in Cathedral Square to see a group of Christians open air preaching! I had a chance to listen, and to get to know them. I hope to see them again, and get to know them better.
I then headed off to Cashel Mall for one to one gospel conversations. The highlight was a conversation with a young man from Indonesia with a Buddhist background, who was very open to me patiently explaining the gospel to him - it was very encouraging.
I finished the day by joining the Aussie team for online evangelism. A conversation that stands out was one with a young man who came to understand justification by faith, but who slipped back into thinking his good works would save him. This amazes me, and is a strong reminder at how foreign the concept of justification by faith alone is to the mind, and how important checking questions are.
All glory to God alone for the work He is doing!