Hi Everyone

Well, we are now into full swing on Day 4 of the outreach, and I for one are feeling the affects of constantly being on my feet for 6 hours a day!

Today we were back in Lower Hutt, returning to the place we went to on Saturday afternoon, the streets around Queensgate Shopping Centre. In the afternoon we hit the Jackson St shopping / cafe precinct in Petone.

Queensgate:

A few of the regulars joined us this morning. Everyone else was paired up, so I decided to wander around by myself.

Andrew – This guy had a lot to say when I asked him the afterlife question. A lot of Christianese came out of his mouth, but not a lot of substance. He said he had just moved down from Gisborne. I had to start from the beginning with him to determine what was going on. First he openly stated he not just a good person, but a great one! He didn’t really like going through the law, as he thought I was being too judgemental. I suspected he may have been a false convert. I asked him who sets the rules about heaven, and he says God does. And where do we find the rules? In the Bible. What rules are in the Bible? He went through some of the 10 Commandments we had already discussed, and stopped himself mid-sentence, realising that he was contradicting himself! He looked embarrassed , shook my hand, and told me to have a nice day. I emphasised the Good Person tract I gave him, and he said he would read it.

Johnson – he had some interesting ideas about how God lets us off our sinning that didn’t involve Christ dying for them. I found it hard to track with him, as he was quoting all sorts of philosophers that I had never heard of. No matter what angle I came at him, or how hard I tried to turn the conversation back to the gospel, he kept steering it back towards absurdity. I think he could tell I wasn’t believing anything he was saying, so he said he had some shopping to do, and shook my hand. He did take a couple of tracts, though. I left scratching my head after that conversation!

Harmony – this young lady was very humble, but I could tell she was determined to keep the wall of her self-justification up. She agreed with everything I said, and that she would definitely go to hell when she died because of her sins. She agreed that the only way to heaven was through Christ taking her hell punishment for her. But when I asked her how sure she was that she would go to heaven, she said not at all. She said she was not ready. I asked her when she would be ready, and she said she didn’t know. I asked her when she was going to die, she answered she had no idea. So I asked her if she died without trusting that Jesus took her hell punishment, where would she go? She said to hell. I asked her what sin was she holding on to that was worth going to hell for? She said none of them, she just wasn’t ready. I had to just keep stressing the urgency of the gospel message, and pray that God will prick her conscience until she gives in!

T – This guy said he was a Christian, but failed every checking I asked. Not that it automatically means he is going straight to hell, but if our knowledge of certain fundamentals of the Christian faith are off, then it could spell dread for us on judgement day. I started from scratch with him, and he had no idea that God was angry with him over his sin. People with no fear of God see no urgency of submission to Him. This guy was another false convert. He was probably told how loving God was, but not that he was in need of a Saviour. It was all a foreign concept to him, and he found the whole thing too hard to swallow. He was about to walk away, so I gave him a few verses in Romans to follow up with, a couple of tracts, and left him in God’s hands. It makes me angry that modern churches have defined evangelism as getting people to ask Jesus into their heart, with no fear of God. I would hate to be their pastor on judgement day.

Kelvin – this guy was very open to listening to what I was saying, but I could sense that he had some form of learning disability. So I had to tread carefully with him in order not to overload him. There is a reason that the Gospel is simply designed that it can understood by children! Kelvin understood that breaking rules was not a good thing, and when we do bad things, we deserve a punishment. I said that the same is with God. His place of punishment is not a time out, but an awful place where we can’t escape. I used a courtroom analogy to explain that the only way he could escape going to prison was if someone paid the fine for him. He understood this, so I was able to move to the Gospel, this is what God did for him. At the end of it all, he said he understood everything, and that he would transfer his trust to Jesus. I couldn’t read his mind or his heart, so I showed him how to download a free Bible, and prayed that God would find a way for the information to stick.

Anna – this was an interesting chat. It was going really well, until I got to Jesus taking her hell punishment. She said “Yeah, but first you have to forgive yourself”. I showed her the folly of doing this – saying to a policeman that you did the crime, but now you forgive yourself – will that take away the punishment? She said no, but that’s not what she meant. She was meaning that before you can change for the better, you need to forgive yourself. It was just another layer of false works to add on to the usual ones. This one was easy to refute, but not if you are not closed minded, like this young lady was. It then became an automatic response to all my points: “You need to stop trusting in your own goodness, and trust in Christ in taking your hell punishment”. Response: “Yes, but first we need to forgive ourselves”. “Changing your ways and asking God for forgiveness won’t get you to heaven”. Response: “Yes, but forgiving yourself is the first step.”. She was fixated on one response only. So I changed the angle of questioning to that of a free gift. “Do we need to do anything to earn a free gift?” “No, then it wouldn’t be free”. “So if your favourite aunty or grandmother brought you the perfect gift, and you said ‘thanks Grandma, it’s beautiful. Here’s $50 for the gift’. How do you think she would feel?” “She would be angry or upset”. “Yes, because she did it out of love. It’s the same with God. He offers you the free gift of Jesus paying your hell punishment. To turn around and say ‘Thanks, but let me forgive myself first’. How silly does that sound?”. She said “I think it’s still a step you need to do”. I said “Then it wouldn’t be a free gift, because you are having to work for it.”. I think she had a weird concept of what repentance was, with a little bit of new age mixed in. She said she had to get back to work. All I could do was warn her of the danger of trying to work for her salvation. I pray God causes her to come to her senses. She took a couple of tracts off me.

Petone: The wind had gotten up again, and it was worse in Jackson St, as it was only a couple of blocks from the beach. It was a matter of finding sheltered spaces in front of buildings to have chats. I took no photos on Jackson St.

Andy & I paired up. He stopped to chat to someone, and it felt like having two of us there may have come across as a bit intimidating, so I walked on.  

The first person I bumped into wasn’t an evangelistic encounter, it was my brother,! He was waiting at the bus stop. He lives around the corner from Jackson St. I haven’t seen him for a while, so had to spend the first 20 minutes of the outreach catching up with family stuff.

Andy had finished his chat. We found a sheltered spot where the footpath was wide. He chatted to people from one direction, and I the other. No one could escape!

Desiree – this lady took a tract, wanting to know what it was about. When I said it was a Gospel tract, said she was a Christian. Not taking her word, I threw some checking questions at her, and her responses were solid. She went on to say that she was an Anglican lay vicar, one of those that do sermon ‘tours’ to churches around the region, where there are not permanent vicars installed. I sighed inside. She went on to outline all the good community work the church does. I asked her offhand “Just checking – do our good works get us to heaven?”. She said no, of course not. It seems weird to me how people have a good solid understanding in one area, but are totally defiant and ignorant in another. However, I wasn’t prepared to stop and waste evangelism time challenging her on women leaders and preachers in the church in a long-winded  egalitarianism / complementarianism cat fight. So I wished her well, and left her in God’s hands.

Russell – this was a great chat. He walked past in his hi-viz jacket. He thought he would go to heaven because he was mostly good. I challenged him by saying that meant he was partly bad. He thought that was funny. So I had to re-define what bad looks like, and why it is important. He said “Well, that’s the end of it then, we are all going to hell”. I said we all deserve to go there, but that doesn’t mean we will definitely go. He asked about how to avoid hell, which is what I normally ask other people! I said we need someone to take our hell punishment for us. This notion was a revelation to Russel. He asked who would do that. I was then able to lead him through the greatest news he could ever hear. I asked him why wouldn’t he want to accept God’s gift? He said that anyone who rejected it would be bonkers. I agreed! I went through a few checking questions with Russel, and he knew without a doubt what he had to do. He said he would think about it. He was so close, agreeing that it is what he should do. It just needed the sovereignty of God to call him over the line. I had to leave him in His hands.

Tyson – this was another excellent chat. Tyson was so open and honest, answering all questions with a humble heart. He was pinning his eternal hopes on his goodness, but his goodness fell way short of God’s perfect standard, just like the rest of us. When I showed Tyson the picture of his hell punishment coming for him, he realised that no amount of pleading, asking for forgiveness, or changing his ways could stop it. When I showed him the picture of Christ taking his hell punishment for him, everything made sense to him. I asked him when would be the best time to place his faith in Christ, and he answered “Right now!”. That was music to my ears, but that could have just been the angels in heaven rejoicing. I went through a few checking questions with him, which he understood and answered correctly. Tyson showed all the outward signs of conversion; however, it is the Holy Spirit that seals the heart, through the regeneration of God alone. I am just honoured and blessed that He chooses broken vessels like myself to carry out His work!

Ryu – this intermediate school aged boy was on his way to his mum’s shop. I think it might have been one of the many Asian cafes or restaurants that are on Jackson St. He was having a few troubles understanding me. It was apparent that English was not his first language. Things took a while to get going, but when they did, he was getting the gist of things. Then his cell phone rang. After he hung up, he said it was his mum checking up on his whereabouts. He said he told her he was talking to someone about God. He said he needed to go, so I did a quick summary of the Gospel, and went through some checking questions with hm. He understood what he needed to do to avoid his hell punishment, so I gave him a couple of tracts to take with him. I could only pray that the Lord would prevent Satan from stealing the Gospel seed that was planted. 

I finished the day handing out tracts to passers by. It was another great day of evangelism, with many of the team reporting awesome conversations. God had indeed gone before us again, preparing the hearts of those He has predestined to hear His glorious Gospel! 

Blessings

Craig