Battle Log
Friday, 15 January, 2021
Posted 16 January 2021, 6:32 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink
Evangelism is terrifying work. I understand why most Christians avoid it. Today I had to deal with a new atheist (a “new” atheist is one that says religion is bad) who started the conversation by belittling me. I hate conflict, so I want to avoid evangelism too! And yet, when I wrestle with the Bible, theology & logic and I understand what is at stake: eternal life in hell - this motivates me to push past my fears. I think of those that have gone before me: Jesus, Stephen, Paul - and I go anyway.
Evangelism is, therefore, lonely work. Very lonely. Ironically, if more Christians could push past the fear, it wouldn’t be so lonely, and it would actually become easier - we would have each other to lean on when we encounter those difficult situations - that will come!
So, from a lonely Christian to the terrified Christian - come and be terrified with me (and the few others), trust in the strength of the Lord - who knows what it’s like and will always be with us.
Thursday and Friday were long days of outreach for me. But I feel like I’ve pushed through a barrier in the amount of outreach I do. It seems like the more I do, the easier it is to do more. And this life is so short compared to eternity. I’m grateful to the Lord for provision to be able to do what I do - and I’m grateful to the Lord for those he uses to provide - thank you!
The gospel + abortion outreach is still happening, but due to the amount of counter protesters we’ve been attracting - and the hostility they bring. The ability to actually engage people with the gospel has been diminished. For this reason, this outreach will be occurring at non regular times (for the time being at least). This weeks outreach was wonderful - with many opportunities to engage people in respectful conversation about why abortion is murder, and the hope for true forgiveness found in Jesus. We had the usual support, and non-support. One lady yelled from a car window as it drove past: “Stop abusing people!” The irony was lost on her - I just shook my head and said nothing in return.
Andy and I were in Cathedral Square. Andy open air preached to a decent lunch time crowd. He attracted a heckler who he started to engage with. Sadly, others became involved and it started escalating out of control. For this reason, I decided to head over and talk directly with the heckler. It defused the escalation. Andy was able to continue preaching, and I had a great conversation with the heckler. He was obviously extremely resistant, so I didn’t have an opportunity to share the law and gospel with him - but we did exchange names and parted with a hand shake.
Before the open air preaching I had some great walk up opportunities. I engaged two construction workers, who it turns out Andy had talked to on a previous day!
But the highlight was a conversation with a couple of ladies who, sadly, it turns out were high on drugs. Yet, they came to grasp the gospel - one slower than the other as she processed the implications. At the end of the conversation, they both wanted tracts - and they were excited about how they could learn more on TikTok.
I had thirty one solid law and gospel conversations online over this period too. With people all over the world, including: the UK, South Africa, Argentina and the Dominican Republic (for the first time). I’m out of time to write about any of those chats.
Again, thanks for your prayer & support. But most importantly, be encouraged to get involved - as scary as it is. Think of the God you love, think of eternity, act out of love - no matter the cost!
