Hi Everyone

Today I decided I would join the team in the stream room. Although today is Easter Monday in my neck of the woods, it is still Resurrection Sunday in a lot of the world, so what better day to go online to tell the world the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when He kicked death in the teeth?!

I haven’t been in the chat room while they are live for a while, so as soon as I joined I knew they would want me on the YouTube stream. Like most people, I can’t stand listening to my own drony voice. But for the sake of helping the team out, I decided to go on. You can watch here – I start stuttering at about the 2:03:30 mark.

Straight up I was paired with a guy from Lexington, NC – and this turned out to be a great chat! He thought he would go to heaven, but after admitting he had broken some of God’s rules, he realised he was headed to hell. I was able to show him that Jesus took 100% of his hell punishment for him. He came to understand that he would need to place 100% of his faith in Christ in order to avoid his hell punishment. He said he has done this already, so I was able to tell him that if that was the case, I would see him in heaven one day!  This was a great way to start!

 The very next connect was with a guy from Southampton, England. It was also a great chat! He was a very humble guy. He thought he would go to heaven if he repents. I asked what that meant, and he said saying you are sorry. I took him through the law, and it revealed how bad he really was. After this, he didn’t think he could ever make it to heaven. Using Easter, I managed to show him how Christ took his hell punishment for him. He came to understand that he had to accept this as a gift in order to go to heaven. After some checking questions, I was able to point him to where he could download the Bible, and find a good church. It was another awesome chat!  

After a few short bailouts, I was connected to a girl from St Louis, MO. She believed in reincarnation as well as heaven and hell. She agreed that God gets to set the rules for how we behave in His universe because He made it. She also agreed that we should be punished for breaking these rules, but that we could redeem ourselves. I managed to explain to her that changing our ways does not take away the fact that we are still guilty of breaking His laws, but she skipped straight away. I pray someone re-connects with her! 

Next was a guy from Toronto, Canada. He thought God lets people into heaven if they are good human beings, but goodness is subjective. I tested his goodness, and as usual, he fell way short of God’s standards. He thought that being better would fix things, but I asked him if that takes away his punishment? He said he didn’t know, maybe. I explained if you told an officer that you did speed, but haven’t done anything bad since, what would he say. He said something out loud that I couldn’t understand, then bailed the conversation. I guess his guilt got the better of him. I pray that the guilt he feels would drive him to the cross!

 The next guy from Bay Shore, NY believed we go to heaven or hell. He told lies, and is a thief, and cussed people out using bad language. He agreed that he deserves a punishment for these things in hell. We avoid hell by building a better connection with God. After explaining to him that it wouldn’t work, he said repentance and forgiveness will fix it. I used a courtroom analogy to show how this wouldn’t work. God is perfect, and He won’t be lenient with us on Judgement Day. While I was explaining that Jesus took 100% of his hell punishment for him, he bailed. This was a surprise, as I thought the chat was going great. I pray that the last bit about Jesus taking his hell punishment stuck, and would bring him to repentance!

After this, I spoke to a guy from Myrtle Beach, SC. He agreed that we would go to heaven or hell. If we repent God will forgive us, he said. I went through the law with him, and he admitted to being a liar, a thief and a murderer through his cussing people out. He said we avoid going to hell by living a Christ-like life, and repenting. I explained about God’s justice and mercy meeting at the cross. If he died tonight, how sure would he be that he would make it to heaven? He said no one could be fully sure, but he was confident about it. He said his faith would save him. I asked is it his faith, or what his faith was in? But then for some reason, he bailed the conversation. I pray I managed to correct his thinking before he left. We can only leave him in God’s hands!

 That finished the Youtube live section. While the Q & A session was on, I went and got some water, and decided to continue.

I was paired with a guy from Flevoland, Netherlands. He was eager to talk, and talk he did! He had a million questions for me. Every question I asked, he picked apart everything I said, and had questions of his own to counter them. I was happy to go along with this in order to sway his thinking, but it became very tiresome. He knew enough about Christianity in that he knew all the usual worldly fabrications regarding it. He looked up all the Bible references I gave him, and tried to throw them back at me out of context. He was nice about it all, but I was getting nowhere with him. He was like a tyre-kicker extraordinaire. Outside I heard a massive thunderstorm, and I had washing on the line, so I used it as an excuse to leave the chat. I gave him the social links, so hopefully he can pass his questions for someone else to answer. When I looked at the time, it turned out we were chatting for over 70 minutes!

 So a great time online today, and it was good to catch up with all the crew. Praying that God will receive all the glory, regardless of the outcome!

 If you want to learn more about what online evangelism looks like, check out Operation513’s Youtube page. 

If you would like to try this yourself, then Operation513 can train you for free! Visit their website needgod.net and flick them a DM on one of their social media platforms!

Blessings

Blessings

Craig.