Hi Everyone

Present today: Caro, Peck, Mike, Di, Maree & Helen. Pastor Jarryd, Mary & Bruce met us down at the shops.

I opened with the edification of Paul to the believers in Thessalonica:

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thess 1:2-10).

Sometimes we get uncomfortable when people thank us for doing God’s ministry. We enjoy that people appreciate our endeavour, but we don’t want to appear un-humble. It just feels awkward. However, Paul goes out of his way to edify those who have stuck to the task and are faithful to the cause of the Gospel.

What is the antidote to this embarrassment or discomfort? It is knowing that all of our endeavours would be in vain without the providential hand of God, who leads and guides us in everything we do. We can then simply say “Glory to God for all He has done!”

We prayed that we would remain faithful in carrying out His work, and that He would provide open hearts and ears to hear the good news.

Down at the shops the weather was confusing us. It was breezy, and there were massive threatening black clouds circling the hills, yet in the valley it was sunny and mild. There were plenty of people to keep us occupied, though!

The tracts were being gobbled up, and conversations were started, but the ground was a hard plough today.

Peter – this conversation was an easy conversation. Too easy. He agreed with everything I said the first time I said it, that he would be going to hell without Christ, and that he would need to transfer his trust in Jesus to escape this. Then I realised that he had a learning difficulty. I softened a little bit, and simplified my words. He did take a couple of tracts off me, and said he would trust Jesus. At the end of the conversation I had no idea how much he had taken in, but that didn’t mean the Lord wasn’t working on his heart. I just had to leave him in His hands and uphold him in prayer.

John – this conversation could not have been any more opposite than the last. He knew exactly what I was saying, and his responses were an attempt to wind me up: “Yeah, so?” “According to you, that is”. My natural respsonse now is not to bite back, but simply just raise an eyebrow or shake my head. He did get to hear the Gospel and take a tract, for which I am thankful for, so I just have to leave it to God to slap him out of his slumber.

Then I had quite a good conversation with an elderly Island gentleman. He knew that faith in Jesus would get him to heaven. There was only one problem though – it was Jesus plus good works. Jesus was not enough for him. I tried lots of analogies to get him to change his mind. He did think twice when I used the analogy of a parachute plus all his household goods on his back that would prevent the parachute from opening. Still, he wouldn’t backtrack or consider it any further. I had to shake his hand and wish him all the best on judgement day, and just pray that he would read the tract and come to his senses.

Dan – I have seen this guy about often. He told me he was the volunteer organiser of the market. We used to have a table at the market, but there were complaints from the other vendors about our “negative message”, so the previous organiser told us we could not continue, although they couldn’t stop us from walking the market witnessing to people. I still wanted to be respectful to the organising team, but still be able to keep Dan accountable for his sin. Like all of us, he failed the good person test miserably. His response was that God is forgiving. This is a natural fall-back for those who understand little about how justice works. You would never expect a judge to just forgive someone for their crimes. God should be the ultimate example of a perfect judge, well, because He is the perfect God! Dan understood this, and couldn’t think of any other way to get off his crimes. That’s where the beautiful Gospel does its’ work, giving the sinner a way to be reconciled with God, but only through faith in Christ taking his hell punishment for him. Again, Dan understood this, but not to the point of doing anything about it. He said he would think about it. Thinking about it is only good if it leads to action, and that needs a Holy Spirit spark – so I had to leave it in God’s hands, and pray Dan wakes up from his sleep. 

So, it was both a good but frustrating day out for me. It’s times like these that I just need to throw my hands in the air, and say “God, I am nothing. Please bless my feeble efforts. It’s all in Your hands.”.

Blessings

Craig.