Battle Log

It’s report time again.  Good weather during the week, but a very rainy weekend.  So, only 2 street outreaches this week.  Roger was with me in Riccarton on Tuesday; Andy, John and Roger joined me on Friday in the city.

There is no problem with going out in the rain.  I’ve done it many times, and the harvest field is so ripe that opportunities always present themselves, even if standing under a shop front!

But at the same time, God is blessing us with an almost overwhelming amount of gospel opportunities online.  We have face to face conversations with people, sharing the gospel with them and pointing them to the Bible and a local church.  From that, TikTok and YouTube videos are generated.  And that in turn generates people to come to us, via Instagram Messenger, with questions, and that always turns into a gospel conversation, leading to people being pointed to the Bible and a local church.

This morning, before church, I spent a couple of hours sharing the gospel via Instagram Messenger.  As per the picture, there were 1040 unread messages, not including new message requests.  Each unread message represents a person waiting for a response from us in a gospel conversation.  This brought the reality of the ripeness of the harvest field to mind.  And it’s not only online; on the street, there is limitless opportunity to share the gospel!

Yes, of course we should be sharing the gospel with those within our natural spheres of influence: friends, family, work mates, etc.  But, in the sense of the # of people you can reach, the opportunity is always going to be limited (it’s a long term game).  But when we intentionally go out to find gospel opportunities (a numbers game), the opportunity is limitless.  We need both, no doubt.  Of course we want to reach our friends, family, and work mates, etc with the gospel.  But if we don’t also be intentional in reaching out beyond that, the church will miss opportunity to glorify God.

The foundation is Christ and his word: the Bible.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, through prayer, we can overcome our fears in spiritual warfare to bring the gospel to the lost.  All to the glory of God alone.  This applies to the church, families and individually.  Teach the Bible, pray, and share the gospel.  All in reliance of the triune God of the universe, who shows his strength through our weakness!

Anyway, enough rambling.  I’m struggling to remember the details of Tuesday’s street outreach (I’m writing this on Sunday).  I think it may have been a bit of a slower outreach.  But I had a familiar face turn up.  A young man who I think has been to a few Tell Me Conferences turned up to investigate the street outreach.  He ended up joining me for about half an hour.  In that time, I had a young soldier and his girlfriend (wife?) stop to find out what we were doing.  They were willing to give the good person test a try, although there was much hesitance on their part.  Many people try not to think about the difficult realities we were discussing.  He tried to buck away from it.  But I was able to get him to stick around to at least hear the gospel, if not understand it.  They didn’t stay long.

I’m racking my brain, I’m sure I must have had other conversations, but I just can’t remember.  I remember glancing over the street and seeing Roger busy.  What a blessing!

On Friday, I paired up with John and we did some ‘walk up’ down Cashel Mall.  We both had conversation opportunities, but they were awkward in their own way.  We decided to cross Colombo St and head towards High St.  I don’t often go that way.  I ended up getting a conversation going with a young man from the USA, in NZ to play rugby.  He had a Christian background, but he pointed to ‘being good’ as the reason he was going to heaven, and so a law / gospel conversation ensued.  He became mildly emotional as he wrestled with the realities of the difficult truths we were discussing.  He started asking hard questions in defence.  One of them was: “what about those that have never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus, where do they go?”  Now, I’ve got a stock answer for this, but I sometimes forget that the question is less intellectual, and more emotional (and a deflection).  I tried to address the emotion as best as I could, but the intellectual answer is still valid and helpful, even though difficult.  Here is the stock answer by the way:

Everyone, even those in the amazon jungle with no contact with outside society, know God is real in the same way: the universe proves the universe maker (Romans 1:18-20; Psalm 19:1-4).  And, everyone knows they have done wrong: by conscience (Romans 2:14-16).  Therefore everyone justly deserves hell.  God is not doing wrong (in fact he is doing what is right) when he sends people to hell.  But, by his grace he saves some.

So, someone who doesn't know about Jesus will go to hell.  But, God is so merciful, he has asked us to go and tell everyone the good news!

The tensions in the Bible can sometimes be difficult to hold rightly.  Christians struggle with this stuff.  I struggle with this stuff.  But the truths of the tensions in the Bible are there for a reason.  They are right, good!  But John and I had to sit down and spend some time discussing, and digesting these truths.  The gospel, in one way, is so simple that a child can understand it, but in another, so deep, that a scholar will never exhaust it.  Even today, as I was listening to the truth’s of the gospel being explained in church, I was in tears.  Why does God choose me?  Oh, the wonders of his grace!!

Later, John and I had an opportunity to share this grace with two young Indian guys.

I’ve been doing more training work online.

On Friday I was able to spend an hour with a young man from Malta.  He has come to understand God’s grace and is now passionately sharing it with his friends.  But he wants to get sharper!  To my amazement, this young man has a stutter.  I was so encouraged that he would be willing to train with me to share the gospel, in spite of his impediment.  May this encourage you to face your constraints and fears and be prepared to share the gospel!

I was also able to spend about 45 minutes with a Pastor in Mississippi, who is writing a paper on sharing the gospel across cultural boundaries, online.  I was able to explain what we have learned about the benefits and shortfalls of online evangelism, and the tools and rules we have put in place to manage this.

On Saturday, I had a 2nd session with a lady in the USA.  I’m so encouraged to hear all she is doing, encouraging her church in evangelism, and leading training and outreach (flea markets, door to door, etc).  In this session I was able to communicate the power of questions, both to 1) keep someone engaged (don’t monologue), and 2) check that they are understanding the gospel.  I think she has much to process (I know it took me time!)  God willing, she will be ready for a 3rd session soon!

I’ve been having some wonderful face to face gospel conversations online too.  But I’m out of time to discuss them.

Come, join us in the harvest field.  It’s so exciting!  Come share in the joy of telling people about Jesus.  All glory to God alone.
 

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