Hi Everyone

Present today, Marie. Peck & Mary met us down at the shops.

A few were away on leave today – on holiday, or helping set the church hall up for a visiting international speaker.

The meeting got off to an unusual start, as at right on 10 am, a Jehovah’s Witness turned up the back door. Sometimes you don’t need to go fishing when they just jump into your boat! This woman was trying to convince me that a few obscure verses in Psalms was the key to the future on earth for believers. From memory I believe it was Psalm 37:9-11. I asked her that only 144,000 JW’s make it to heaven, what about the rest? She said they will be the ones that inherit the earth. I asked was it the new earth? She said there didn’t need to be a new earth, what is wrong with the current one? I said “Are you kidding me? This one is full of disease, destruction, sin and death. That’s why it’s going to be burned up and a new one created”. She said that wasn’t true. I asked her if she has kept up her quota this week. She said he didn’t know what I meant. I said I knew that her church leaders and elders have a quota of how many people she can drag to their meetings, and if they don’t meet them, they are threatened with expulsion, and risk being cast into outer darkness. She flatly denied this, even though I know this to be true.

I asked if believing that Jesus dying on the cross for her was enough to get her to heaven, and she said no. We had to do our best on earth as well. I asked her how did she know she had done enough. She said only God knew. This woman had zero assurance of salvation. She was lost, and leading others astray as well. I told her that the Jesus she believed in didn’t exist, as she didn’t believe that Jesus wasn’t God. I said that her version of God and Jesus was a figment of her imagination, and she was breaking the second commandment by having a false image of God. I said her Bible is demonic, as it has been re-written from the original Hebrew and Greek. She said we would have to agree to disagree. I said that she was not disagreeing with me, she was disagreeing with God Himself, and that she needed to repent and place her faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of her sins. I may have come across as a little blunt, but sometimes the only way you can get through to cultists is to shock them out of their blindness.

She handed me a card where I could ‘learn’ more about the movement:

I gave her a couple of tracts where she could ‘learn’ the truth: 

The Way to Heaven – which shows the folly of believing in good works, and the lie of believing that God will just overlook our sins if we ask for forgiveness without justice being served.

Good Person Tract – which takes us through the 10 Commandments, and how we can avoid our hell punishment.

She went on her way, and by then it was time to get to the shops. Marie and I headed down, and we prayed when we got there.

 Just like the last few months, there weren’t many vendors at the mall, but there where people coming and going in cars – you just had to pick them off as they went to and from the shops.

I decided to start with walk-up conversations.

Fula: This man was sitting eating. I sat down next to him and asked about the afterlife. He pulled out a tract that he probably got from Marie. I asked him what chance he would make it to heaven. He said he was pretty sure he was going there. We went through the law together to see if he deserved heaven. He didn’t. I asked what God should do to him for breaking His laws. His demeanour changed, and he started crying. They weren’t contrite tears though, because he kept saying how hard he was trying – giving his kids the best start in life, and trying to change his ways. His emotions got the better of him, and being from Samoa, he became even harder to understand. I asked if he had broken the law, would the police ignore his crimes if he told them how much he loved his kids? He said no. He said the words I was saying were so hard. He started crying again. The flow of the conversation was all over the place, and I didn’t want to lose him. So I decided to cut my losses and give Fula the good news of the Gospel without all the questions. I told him how the only way he could avoid his hell punishment, by placing his faith in the one who offers to take it for him. He knew it was Jesus. Then he told me he was a Pastor that had fallen on hard times. I had to leave him in God’s hands, because at the end I still didn’t know the state of his heart. He wanted to finish his lunch, so I left him there with a couple of other tracts that would help explain things better.

Olo and Iti – Olo was waiting outside the gift shop for his wife. He had a large piece of card in his hands but I couldn’t tell what was on it. Regarding the afterlife, he thought he was a good person and would go to heaven. We went through the law, resulting in him admitting he wasn’t a good person after all. I asked how God should deal with those who break His law. He said God is forgiving, so would overlook the things he had done wrong. We cleared that up with a couple of courtroom analogies. Then Iti came out of the shop with some fake flowers. They said they were off to a funeral of an elderly lady at their church. Olo turned his card around to reveal a wreath he had made. It fit in beautifully with the conversation, and I was able to segue to the Gospel beautifully. They both listened intently and answered some checking questions. They said they knew how to get to heaven because Iti was a lay preacher at their church, which surprised me given their lack of knowledge of the Gospel. They said they had to go, so I gave them good person tracts each. I prayed that they will both come to their senses.

Tavita – he was sitting sharing some food with his toddler daughter. This was a great chat, he was very humble. He thought his good works would help him to bribe his way into heaven. Using some worldly courtroom analogies, I was able to show him the folly of this. He was gambling his eternity on a perfect judge overlooking his crimes. His daughter kept wandering, so he had to keep leaving. But he left all his food on the seat next to him, so I knew he would come back. He didn’t lose focus, but listened and understood. He came to the conclusion that the only way to heaven was by faith in Christ alone. He said he would do this when he got home. I pray he does!

John – I had Mary with me for this chat. John walked past, so I engaged him. He said he follows Christian morals, and believed that this would be enough to get him to heaven. I had to take him through the law to show him how deplorable him, and everyone is before God. Then he tried asking for forgiveness, and changing his ways as outs for God’s judgement over him. I asked him how this would work with an earthly judge, and he agreed it would be foolish. Then he said he would give his heart to Jesus. I asked him what that meant. He said his father was a minister, so knew a few things about Christianity. He said if you follow God’s laws as best as you can, and give your heart to Jesus, everything will be fine. I asked him if that was what his father told him. He said in a nutshell, yes. I asked him if that was what the Bible said, and he thought so. I asked him what Matthew 5:48 means: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. He said no one can be perfect. I asked if Jesus said we must be perfect, and we can never be perfect, how do we get to heaven? He said pray and do our best. I showed him how that won’t remove the punishment for what we have already done. He said he had to catch the bus, so we walked with him. I quickly moved to the only way in which we can get to heaven – someone else taking our hell punishment for us. “That’s why Jesus died on the cross, to take our hell punishment. He said he understood now. I asked him a couple of quick checking questions before he got on the bus, which he got right, and he jumped on board with a couple of tracts in his pocket.

 So it was an other awesome day out. Our numbers were limited today. But that didn’t mean that God was limited as well. Regardless, He still gets every bit of glory due to Him!

Blessings

Craig