Battle Log

Friday, 30 April, 2021

Posted 1 May 2021, 7:39 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink

A fascinating series of gospel chats on Thursday morning:

• It started with a text chat with a guy from India, sadly he became resistant when he realised he would be guilty before God - rather than hearing the good news, he insisted on his innocence.
• The next chat was with a guy from Sweden who also insisted he would be innocent because, sadly, he considered all this as God’s fault!
• Yet another resistant guy - this time from the UK.  It was a wonderful chat because he heard the gospel and also because it went deep - we discussed the concept of biblical repentance and even on who chooses who in salvation.  Every direction he took the conversation there were biblical answers painting him into a corner where his only escape is Christ.
• Next up, I was connected with a kid who started the conversation by saying one word: cat.  People who know me really well will know why that is significant, for those that don’t, I like to use the word ‘cat’ randomly - so I felt like I had connected with a kindred spirit!  The kid heard the gospel.
• A girl who believed in God, heaven and hell.  But through her good deeds would get her to heaven.  She hears the gospel.  Amazingly, at the end of the chat I noticed a strap on her wrist that had the letter W on it.  Yes, it was a WWJD (what would Jesus do) strap!  I suggested she change it to WDJD (what did Jesus do).  So sad that these kids are being taught morals, but completely missing the gospel.  So, very, very sad.
• Next chat was great.  With a guy who seemed very interested in the conversation.  He grasped the gospel quickly.  But then he started asking questions about sexuality.  This led to a discussion about the reality of change in the life of a believer.  Suddenly he ended the conversation by smiling and saying: “I’d rather go to hell for my porn” and then disconnecting.
• Lastly, I connect with a guy lighting up a bong.  He came to hear the gospel and why it would cause him not to want to smoke a bong any more.

The gospel + abortion outreach went well.  A team of three.  Again, no counter protesters, and this gave us many opportunities to engage other people with abortion apologetics and the gospel.  The stand out conversation was with a kid who agreed with our stand.  He seemed to have a good grasp of the gospel, and so I asked him which church he went to.  It turns out he had recently stopped going to church and was now in a Bible study.  Sadly with the JW’s!  I was able to warn him away.  I gave him multiple tracts, and a card for my church.

Back online, the highlight chat was with a guy sitting in a Chick-fil-A drive through!  He hears the gospel between placing and receiving his order.  The great thing was that his wife (sitting next to him, but I couldn’t see her) became engaged, and started helping him with the checking questions I was giving him.  He had heard the gospel by the time he started driving out of the drive through.  I told him not to use his phone while he was driving and disconnected.

On Friday morning I was online, before heading into the city.  The online chats were difficult, lots of resistance.  It took me thirty minutes, and lots of false starts before I was able to share the gospel with my first person - and that person wasn’t interested.  I also had a fascinating chat with a Muslim who said he lied when he said he believed in God!

Andy preached in the city, there was a homeless guy on a bike who stopped to listen for a long time.  I was able to talk to him briefly, and later Andy must've handed him a tract, because at the very end of the outreach (hours later) we walked past him lying on the pavement reading the tract (pictured).

A team of five were in Cashel Mall - Bridge of Remembrance end.  Many good opportunities to engage people with the gospel.  But much resistance, sadly.

To end the day, I had a couple more chats online.  The first one was hard, and I gave up on it - I was tired.  But then, my last gospel chat of the day was one of the best I’ve had in a very, very long time.  It was a real divine appointment with a lady in a call center in the Philippines.  She came to tears as she slowly realised there was hope for forgiveness for a sinner like her.  The conversation went for 30 minutes as I was able to encourage her, answer her questions, point her to the Bible and a church.  What an honour to be able to bring such good news!  Thank you Jesus - you are amazing - all glory to you alone.