Battle Log
Sunday, 5 February, 2023
Posted 5 February 2023, 1:15 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
What a surprise! I invite a lot of people to church, but not many of them accept the offer. Well, today at church I had a double surprise!
On Friday, Roger fell into a conversation with a young man at the end of the outreach, a Christian struggling with assurance. To me, he seemed to be overthinking it, and so I tried to reiterate the gospel, with an emphasis on its simplicity. He’s on holiday, and was looking for a reformed church in Christchurch to attend. I invited him along to the church I attend. It was wonderful to have him turn up and be able sit with me through the meeting. Our church is working through Romans and today we were up to Romans 6:1-2 learning about the transition between justification and sanctification. It’s just what this young man needed to hear! After the meeting ended, he said he felt a bit overwhelmed with all the information, but that didn’t surprise me with what I know of his personality. He is keen to go and listen to last week's sermon (a recap of Romans 1 - 5) now. Please pray that he would be able to digest the rich truths taught and that he would come to an assurance of his salvation.
But, also, on Saturday, I was in my usual spot in Riccarton, when a couple of ladies from Zimbabwe came past and we fell into a good gospel chat. One of the ladies seemed to have a good grasp of the gospel, the other said some questionable things but didn’t resist correction. They are new to Christchurch and looking for a church. They have a pentecostal background, but that’s not a problem. I invited them along to my church, as they live close by. Well, low and behold, this morning as I was walking towards the hall where our church meets, these 2 ladies were coming up the path and I was able to be the first to greet them and welcome them!
And so, the guy from Friday sat on one side of me, and the two ladies sat on the other side through the meeting.
And wow, how wonderful was that church meeting! The singing, the Bible reading, communion, fellowship, but the teaching was phenomenal. I felt like we were all pieces of meat marinating in a rich and spicy curry (the depths of the word of God). After the teaching, I felt like if anyone took a bite of me, their head would explode with the heat! I unashamedly wept as we sung the final song of praise and glory to God.
And I took that teaching to the streets today, directly applying what I had been marinating in this morning into the conversations I was having this afternoon. Applied theology at its best! :) God is so good!
I was also on the streets on Tuesday, with Roger. I love the picture’s I have for this report, smiles all round! The one with Andy was from Friday’s outreach. The guy Andy was talking to got a double dose. Andy talked to him near the start of the outreach, but near the end of the outreach, I approached him at the other end of the mall.
I’ve forgotten to mention how hot it’s been. On Friday and Saturday it hit around 33 degree Celsius. We had a reprieve on Sunday, with rain coming during the outreach.
The online outreach is going as well as ever. Some of the video’s on social media must have gone viral, because the amount of direct messages coming through on Instagram has spiked, keeping us busy sharing and clarifying the gospel. Also, I had a great online chat yesterday, with a young man who lives near me, you can check that out here.
Many other conversations, and tracts were distributed this week too. Keep up the good work in sharing the gospel in your contexts. All glory to God alone.
