Hi Everyone

Present today: June, Marie, Simeon & Ian. Pastor Jarryd, Frances, and Helen met us down at the shops.

I opened with ‘The Song of Heaven and Earth’, from Charles Spurgeon’s Gospel Extracts:

Heaven singeth evermore. Before the throne of God, angels and redeemed saints extol His name. And this world is singing, too: sometimes with the loud noise of the rolling thunder, of the boiling sea, of the dashing cataract, of the lowing cattle; often with that still, solemn harmony which floweth from the vast creation when in its silence it praiseth God.
Such is the song which gushes in silence from the mountain lifting its head to the sky, covering its face sometimes with the wings of mist, and at other times unveiling its snow-white brow before its Maker, and reflecting back His sunshine, gratefully thanking Him for the light with which it has been made to glisten, and for the gladness of which it is the solitary spectator, as in its grandeur it looks down upon the laughing valleys.
The tune to which heaven and earth are set is the same. In heaven they sing, “The Lord be exalted: let His name be magnified for ever.” And the earth singeth the same: “Great art Thou in Thy works, O Lord! and unto Thee be glory.”

We spoke of how God’s creation is so obvious. Man has to resort to denying this, because if they don’t, then they will be held accountable to Him for all their sins against Him. We prayed for boldness to tell the truth, but with compassion and love.

 It was pretty quiet in terms of vendors today. But if you walk around the shops, there are plenty of people coming and going from their cars to talk to. No excuses! Ian asked if he could tag along and observe, which was fine.

Doubtful Dylan: Ian & I were walking around the rear of the shops when I spotted Dylan and decided to ask him about the afterlife. Straight off the bat he said he wanted to go to heaven, but would go to hell because he was still sorting some stuff out in his life, like trying to quit smoking. But he said he was trying his best. He said he believed in heaven, and that if you keep repenting of what you have done, you will go to heaven. This seemed a little bit off. I asked the question of if he trusted that Jesus took his sins 100%, but committed a sin, then died, would he go to heaven? He said he would go to hell because he never repented for that sin. No amount of trying to convince Dylan that Christ made a one-time payment for all of his sins was enough to satisfy him. He was making a work out of repentance, making it a pre-requisite for salvation every time he sinned. He told us that he and his wife pray and read the Bible every day, and they are bringing their children up the same way. But sadly Dylan was still lost, because he couldn’t guarantee full assurance from the cross. He was stuck in an endless loop of sin & repent, or go to hell. Even admitting that he was only 80% sure he would make it to heaven wasn’t enough to shock him to do something about it. He said he enjoyed the chat, but had to go. He said he might come to our church, so I gave him a church contact card, along with a couple of tracts. Please pray for Dylan!

Picking a fight: I engaged a man walking through past the vendors, asking him what he believes about the afterlife. He said he had his own views. I asked if he could share them with me, but he asked what I thought, quite sarcastically. I said I believe there is a God, do you? He said prove it, so I went through the building / builder analogy. He tried to belittle me by saying I was an idiot. He was an angry man trying to bait me, but I’ve had too many of conversations like this to fall for it. He said Jesus was just a figure of my imagination, that He never existed. I asked him what year it was, and he said 2024. I asked 2024 what? He was going to answer but realised he was caught. I finished the sentence for him: “2024 after the year of our Lord. He split time in half.”. He then threw the usual strawmen arguments back at me – the Bible has been changed, we can’t prove that God created the universe etc – but it was all in a very argumentative, sarcastic tone. I think he wanted a screaming match, but I was calmly diffusing with facts. I would have come off second best anyway, as he was a big Samoan man with an attitude problem. I wished him well on Judgement Day, and told him to have a nice day. He was eyeballing me, trying his best to intimidate me as I left him.

Evasive Ethan: This man was walking past with his little girl. I asked him what he thinks happens after we die. He said he loves talking about these things, learning about other people’s thoughts on religion. I asked if he believes in God, and he said yes. I asked if God was the creator of everything, and he said yes. I said if it’s His universe, doesn’t He get to set the rules about how we live in it? He said that made sense, that it was the 10 Commandments. We were constantly on the move, trying to keep up with his daughter, who was wandering off exploring. I asked him how he was doing in keeping the commandments. He thought he was doing OK, but it turned out he was a lying, blaspheming adulterer just like everybody else. We went through the punishment he deserved, and he didn’t like where this was going. He said there were a lot of religions in the world, not just Christianity. He had to rescue his daughter on the play equipment, so I gave him a tract and he thanked me.

Daniel, it’s all in the the name: This man had just finished talking with Helen. I said hello. He had a couple of tracts from her. I asked him if he was going to heaven. He said yes. I wanted to know if anything Helen said had got through to him. I asked him why he would go to heaven, and he said because his name was Daniel. I looked confused. He said there was a story in the Bible that God blessed Daniel in the lion’s den. Therefore if your name is Daniel, then you are blessed by God. I said I don’t think it works like that, where in the Bible does it say that if your name is Daniel, you are blessed? He said “I told you, Daniel was spared in the lion’s den. Therefore all Daniel’s are blessed. All David’s are too, because God blessed him”. I again asked where it specifically says that. His eyes got bigger, and he asked me if I was thick: “I told you already, are you deaf?”. I knew of plenty of Daniels whose lives are anything but blessed. He walked away cussing at me. It felt like I was in the twilight zone. What was that all about? Later on, he walked past me and apologised for his language, but he had a couple of young kids in tow, so couldn’t stop to talk.

Trevor, the ‘don’t talk to me’ talk: This was Ian & I’s last chat. Trevor was sitting in the sun. I gave him a tract – he accepted it, but didn’t want to talk. The sun was making me warm, so I put my bag next to him, took my jacket off to stuff in the bag. While I did, I just subtly asked him what happens after we die? And just like that, he was drawn into the conversation. He thought he was good enough to get to heaven. A quick walk through the 10 Commandments proved otherwise. He understood he was going to hell if he died that day. I asked him how he could avoid his hell punishment. He gave the usual answers – be good from now on, saying sorry, not doing those things anymore. Using a justice/courtroom analogy, I explained how those things weren’t going to help him. He was lost to how he could escape his hell punishment.

Using a couple of pictures, I was able to show Trevor how the only way he could avoid his hell punishment is by someone taking 100% of it for him. He understood straight away. I asked him if someone took 100% of his hell punishment, how much would be left for him to take? He said zero. I asked him if he had no hell punishment left to take, where would he go when he dies? He said heaven.

Then it was our  pleasure to tell Trevor that Christ was willing to do this for him out of love. Only 100% faith in Him would suffice to make it to heaven. Any faith in himself would spell disaster for him. He understood all of this. I asked him when he was going to place his faith in Christ, and he said he would do it when he got home. Ian asked him what would happen if he never made it home alive, where would he go? He said hell. I asked him that since he didn’t know when he was going to die, when would be the best time to transfer his trust in Christ? He said straight away.

We encouraged him to do so as soon as possible. He didn’t have a BibIe at home or his cell phone on him, so I showed him on mine how to download a free Bible app. I also encouraged him to get hooked into a good Bible-based church. He thanked us for the chat. We prayed that he will follow through with his convictions!