Battle Log
Friday, 27 November, 2020
Posted 28 November 2020, 6:36 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink
Thursday morning I was online with the Aussie team. I had seven solid gospel conversations - glory to God.
An interesting chat with a lady who was very interested in the question: “What happens after life?”. I was able to share the law and the gospel. And she rejected it. As I was talking she typed: “I still don't believe in him tho”. I asked why, and her excuse was that it was all confusing. So I asked what part was confusing, and she said, “I don’t know man… It just doesn’t add up”. But then she said, “but your explanation was very well made, I have to admit that”. Something was missing. But I persisted by re-explaining the gospel - her response showed that she was gaining clarity. She then asked me more about hell. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to share with her, I leave her in your hands.
Later I had a good chat with a young Catholic guy who loved his religion. He came to grasp the gospel - but he didn’t want to give up his religion. He was left counting the cost of the gift.
I then joined Andy at Eastgate.
I had an encouraging short encounter with a lady who accepted a Christmas tract from me, I gave her a brief explanation of the gospel emphasising justification by grace alone through faith alone. She interrupted the flow to tell me a bit about herself - she is currently going to a church, but had come from a background of drugs and alcohol. She said that she often feels confused, but that my simple explanation had really helped her - she thanked me. She needed to move on. Thank you Lord for the brief opportunity!
Andy had a long chat with a lady (pictured) who is getting mixed up by the cult: World Mission Society Church of God. Andy has learned some really good background information on this cult and so was able to have a good gospel conversation with her. Oh Lord, rescue her!
We moved to Northlands, I was able to have a long follow up chat with a young Muslim girl among many other gospel chats.
On Friday it was great to have a team of three join us from up north!
We started the day with the gospel + abortion outreach outside Christchurch hospital. In contrast to last week, where we had a lovely counter protester that we were able to engage with, this week we had one very nasty counter protester. Rude, insulting, abusive even. As I write this on Saturday, I’m still feeling the sting of her cutting words - and I didn’t cop the worst of it. Her words and actions were a glimpse of her world view. At one point she was attacking the older members of our team saying they were less evolved (probably meaning social evolution). Later she was abusing my Mother who refused to respond. The girl ended up by saying my Mum was meaningless. And this girl ended up stirring up the hatred in two other of the counter protesters. It was a really tuff outreach. I lost my cool at one point, and had to work hard to gain it back and continue to ignore the insults. Later I had an opportunity to tell of my care & love for one who had just told me she hated me. We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). But, in spite of this - or more likely - because of this, many many opportunities for conversation with members of the public occurred. I had two great opportunities to engage with people - one of them I was able share the gospel with (he understood the logic, but sadly resisted it). Andy and Emma were very busy in conversations with people. Andy ended up staying to well after the outreach was over in conversation with one guy. We are encouraged to continue to stand against this modern day holocast of abortion and bring the hope of true forgiveness - even for murder - found in the sacrifice of Jesus.
We headed to Cathedral Square where I and a number of others preached before we headed to Cashel mall where the team was busy in one to one conversations. The weather turned to rain thirty minutes before I was scheduled to finish, so we decided to head for a coffee early.
I made up the time while I was online in the evening. It was one of the best periods of online outreach I’ve ever had. Seven solid gospel conversations.
I had a 25 minute chat with a Muslim from the UK (based on accent) who was resistant, but actually came to grasp the gospel. He then started counting the cost - it was too high for him (for now). Lord, he is in your hands.
I then had one of the best conversations I think I’ve ever had. 40 minutes. The guy I was talking to was so open, I wasn’t having to fight, and I could just teach. He came to grasp the gospel and there was nothing stopping him from accepting it. He had many good questions. I leave him in the hands of the Lord, but with pointing him to the Bible and a local church. He has a friend who is getting mixed up with a cult, I think some of his questions were so he could help his friend.
I then moved straight into a 15 minute chat (almost as good) with a young Christian guy who wasn’t a Christian. He was not expecting someone to be talking about the gospel - but it seemed to be just the right time for him to hear it.
Oh Lord, please give us strength to continue sharing your gospel with people. Help us do this in love, in spite of the opposition and hatred we face. Save people for your glory Lord. We leave these people spoken to in your hands.
