Battle Log

A fantastic week of street outreach in Christchurch.  Roger is away, and so I let Riccarton lay fallow this week.  So 2 city outreaches this week on Friday and Sunday afternoons.  The rest of my week was filled with online work.

 

I had a special opportunity online yesterday.  I was live streaming with Ryan, and so I had my ‘live’ sign up behind me.  I connected with a lady who didn’t have her camera on, but she could see me and my sign, so she knew I was live streaming (this will become significant later).  So anyway, her initial response to my question of, “what happens after life”, was really good, and so I moved straight into checking questions.  I detected a wobble when she raised the issue of repentance but wasn’t able to clearly define what it meant.  So I backed up to the law and then moved to clarify the gospel.  It turns out she was defining ‘repent’ as ‘ask for forgiveness’.  And it was clear she meant that as a work, because she talked about needing to ask for forgiveness every night.  I was able to labour with her to come to gospel clarity.  Initially she was confused, but she could see how it made sense.  I continued with other check questions.  She got the 2nd to last one wrong, but that only led to more clarity, but then she got the last one right!  It was such a good chat, when all of a sudden the connection dropped.  I prayed for her and we moved on.  God knows what the fruit will be.

 

But, and this is really encouraging, half an hour later, Ryan posts a YouTube comment.  It was from the lady!  She was engaged enough to be able to search for and find our live stream, and she wanted to thank us for the chat!  God is good.  May the gospel clarity lead to her salvation, for God’s glory alone.

 

The takeaway here is to be precise.  People are so subtly missing the good news!  We need to esp. be careful in explaining repentance.  It’s not a work we do, instead it’s a change of mind about sin and Jesus that WILL lead to a change of action.  Asking for forgiveness is good, but it’s not what saves us.

 

You can actually watch this for yourself on YouTube, just find the 2 hour live stream for Saturday, 11th May 2024 on needGod.net

 

So, on Friday, I was with Andy, John, and Mark at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Since Roger was away, I decided to take my flip chart and use his usual spot.  After prayer we got into a very busy outreach.

 

I was pretty much straight into a chat, and I noticed the other guys were all busy too.

 

My first one was with a guy who had ethics I strongly agreed with: abortion is murder.  He called himself Protestant.  But something wasn’t right.  He liked to talk, and so I had to be patient, but the more he did, it was clear that he was resolving things in his thinking politically, rather than biblically.  Eventually I was able to touch on the law and the gospel, which he agreed with.  But then I started popping check questions.  The ‘out of 100% how sure are you’ one did the trick.  His response and my counter question caused him to stop and really think.  After that, he started talking less, and I was able to talk more.  I was able to point him back to his Bible, that he hasn’t been reading, and I even invited him along to church, which he isn’t currently involved with.

 

Next I had 3 German tourists.  Actually, now that I think of it, the first chat was with a German guy too.

 

2 of the 3 were not interested, but 1 of them was intrigued enough with the flip chart to stop and engage, and so his friends did as well.  2 out of the 3 were resistant, but 1 was listening.  Interestingly, it was a different 1, and so his friend inadvertently enabled him to hear the gospel!

 

Next, I had a chat with a young guy who was also interested in the flip chart.  He started out by saying that good and bad is subjective, but then in his very next breath he talked about good and bad objectively.  I pointed this out to him, and instead of doubling down, he smiled in acknowledgement of this fact.  He opened up at this point, to hear about the objective basis: God, and then to hear the law of God.  But then he started to close up.  He heard the gospel, but he resisted it.

 

I’m struggling to remember any of the other chats, but I know there were more, because I was busy for the whole 2 hours of the outreach.

 

On Sunday, Thomas was with me.  We decided to bring the flip chart, and I’m glad we did.  We had an exceptionally fruitful outreach.  Nice winter weather, plus it was mothers day, so lots of people were out and about for that.  We literally had people queuing to do the flip chart multiple times during the outreach.

 

Some of the chats were short but sweet, with follow up tracts to take away.  Some were resistant.  But many were very open.  1 In particular, the first one, was very providential.  A young lady with a Christian background was struggling with issues of conscience that had caused much division in her family: tattoos, but esp. Vaccines.  This was all related to ‘the mark of the beast’.  And sadly, this was all a distraction to the gospel for her.  By God’s grace, I was able to give her answers that were very helpful to her - she really appreciated it.  And not only that, she gained some gospel clarity.  I pointed her to the Bible and a good local church.  Words don’t describe it, but it was a special chat.

 

Another outstanding chat was my last.  A young couple were queuing to do the flip chart (Thomas was having a great chat with a young man who was now rejecting the new testament - I don’t have time to talk about that, but I’m in email contact to follow up).  So, I approached the young couple.  She was a professing Christian, and wanted me to ‘convert’ her boyfriend.  She was pointing to her goodness for her salvation, and so I initially focused on him, but I was speaking to them both when I shared the law and the gospel.  Great chat.  They are from Timaru, and so I was able to point them to Covenant Grace Baptist Church.

 

Thomas and I were rejoicing after a busy, but wonderful outreach.  All glory to God!

 

Well, I’m out of time.  Be encouraged to be salt and light where you are.  Be open about the fact that you are a Christian, and then take opportunities to actually articulate the gospel.  How can they trust without hearing, and how can they hear without you speaking!  It’s not about your ability, God shows his strength through our weakness, so all the glory is His.  Be encouraged.

 

---