Hi Everyone

Today was the monthly outreach postponed from last Saturday due to heavy rain.

Present today: Mike, Di, Marie, Peck, Royce, Erwee, Andre, Pastor Jarryd. Frances met us down at the shops.

I opened with Romans 5:1-11:

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

We spoke of how people don’t believe they need “Christianity” or “religion” because they all believed they were basically good people anyway. Christ will judge everyone, and those relying on their own goodness to get to heaven will suddenly learn that it wasn’t enough to escape God’s wrath. Christ has not died for them, because they thought they didn’t need Him to. This is the reality of what the world has boiled Christianity down to, and it is the Christian’s role to shock them out of it! We use the law to prick the conscience of the unbeliever, showing them that our goodness will fall way short of God’s required perfection.

We prayed for courage and boldness to do this, out of love for them.

It was quite a nice day down at the shops – not many vendors, but the mild weather seemed to bring the people out.

Erwee and Andre asked to team up with me, so we went off looking for people to talk to.

Jo-Jo – almost immediately this Samoan lady walked by, so I asked her about the afterlife. It turned out to be a great conversation. She thought her goodness might have been enough to convince God to let her into heaven, but a quick roundup of the 10 Commandments with her soon put paid to that. She knew she was in trouble, and couldn’t think of a way to avoid the wrath coming her way, so through a courtroom analogy I was able to show her that the only way to avert God’s wrath was if someone else took it all for her. She asked if that was Jesus, to which I confirmed. It made complete sense to Jo-Jo, and she saw the need to transfer her trust to Him, as she didn’t know when she was going to die. We went through some checking questions, which the boys also chimed in with also. It was a great conversation, and a great way to open the outreach! It was a great learning experience for the boys, who are just starting out on their evangelistic journey. They both did great!

Terry – I can’t recall much of this conversation, but from my notes we managed to get through the law with him, which was going really well. Then he suddenly had to be somewhere, so we relied on God to speak through the tract we gave him.

The boys wanted to try some evangelism on their own, so they split off. 

Steve – this was a long conversation. Steve told me he knew where he was going, because he knew Christ. I asked him why God should let him into heaven, and he said because he followed Him, and did things He asked. Then came story after story of situations where God gave him insight into other people’s lives, and he would reveal things to them. I decided to change tact and asked him what the Gospel was. He said he was telling me the Gospel – shining God’s light into other people’s life so that they see Jesus. This became quite frustrating, as he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) directly answer the question. He kept side-stepping and regaling stories. After about 20 minutes of this, I was left unsure if he was actually saved. That’s the difficulty I have with those in the Charismatic / Protestant movements. It’s always hard to get a direct answer from them with regards to the Gospel, without them resorting to feelings or miracles. In the end I had to just shake his hand, wish him well, end the conversation, and pray that God would wake him up. 

Va’a and Taumarangi – I approached Va’a while he was watching the Chinese musical group perform. He was very open to talking. It transpired that he was a fallen transgressor who thought that God would ignore his crimes. A quick judicial analogy made him think again. Taumarangi sidled alongside, listening in. I assumed it was his wife. She said that mine was not the only religion, and that there were plenty of other ways to heaven. So I had to go back to the start, with creation/creator analogies. She eventually came around, but ended up pulling him away. She did take a tract, though.

Jessie & Mum – I offered tracts to these ladies, and almost straight away the older of the two started getting passive-aggressive with me. She moved away, but was still shouting stuff at me. The younger one was much more lenient, said her name was Jessie, and the other was her mum. I was able to lead Jessie through the Gospel conversation, all the while her mum throwing verbal volleys at me. It was like having my own personal heckler. Jessie was very humble, admitting that she would be judged by God and given hell as a punishment. But she was distracted and embarrassed by her mum’s behaviour, and said she should go. She ended up taking tracts off me for her and her mum. 

I handed tracts to a guy who said he was a Christian, and thanked me for doing what I was doing. I asked him why God should let him into heaven, and he said because he believed in God. I asked him what God did to give him access to heaven. It seems like a weird question, but there are plenty of people who believe in God but are still unregenerate. Even the devil believes in God. He asked me why I was asking him these questions, and I said I wanted to make sure he really knew the way to heaven. He told me I was a (redacted) idiot, and walked away, thus proving my point. 

Samantha, Jayda, +1 – Most of the others had finished for the morning, so Mary asked to team up with me. We walked around the back past the bus stop, and we came across 3 college girls. If I was by myself I wouldn’t have engaged them, as there was no one else around, and for safety purposes I don’t approach females alone. But with Mary with me, I decided it would be OK. I asked them about the afterlife, and they were very eager to chat. It turned out to be a great conversation! All three admitted they would go to hell if they died today, and they all listened intently when I went through the Gospel with them. Some checking questions later, all 3 of them told me they would trust in Christ alone as the only reason for getting to heaven. What more can you ask??!!

So it was an awesome day out today, and thanks to God for every conversation we had. Regardless of how they responded, Gospel seeds were sown, and God is glorified!

Blessings

Craig