Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 175

The team of about 15 were able to hand out plenty of gospel tracts throughout the night and have conversations with people. One person we spoke with named Moi said he had grown up sometimes going to a Catholic church but now was not sure if even God exists.

After being reminded about how things that get made must have a maker for them, he agreed, "There has to be someone that made it all." He also thought that he was a good person, good enough to get to heaven. But even after admitting that he has lied, stolen, lusted and so on, he said, "I think I'll still go to Heaven, those things are small."

So I said, "Let's say we sin only 5 times a day, if we multiply that out over our entire lifetime that is hundreds of thousands of sins that we'll do by the time we die. That's a lot! Even though we might think that the individual sins we do are small, collectively they're massive. Plus, God says even one sin is enough to make us fall short of the standard he requires." Moi began to see that he wasn't good enough.

The gospel was then explained to him. He pointed then to the sketchboard and asked what it meant. It was explained: "There were two criminals on either side of Jesus being crucified for their crimes. One in the last few moments of his life came to trust in Jesus that He was dying for his sin. As a result, Jesus said that he would then be in heaven with Him. While the other man continued to reject Jesus and so will have to face the consequences of his sin in hell forever."

So I asked Moi, "Which one will you be like?" He thanked us for the conversation and said he would think about it, and left with an Easter tract.

To God be the glory!

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God gave us 7 workers today, including an 81 year old who had spent 2 years evangelizing in Hong Kong. The first contact he and his teammate made was with a Chinese lady who spoke no English. So he spoke to her in a language she was familiar with. We had some 'good' conversations, including these for follow-up prayer:

 - Raj or Ruj, a Persian man  whose sister has already been converted. He heard it all, received a tract and John's gospel. He appreciated the web contact details so he can pursue his inquiries without attracting undue attention to himself. Please pray that he does email us.

- Connor, a life-guard who had attended a Christian school. Since then, he has looked at other religions and concluded that some sort of divine force was in charge. We covered some preliminary points of contention before we got to the law and Substitutionary atonement and what he needs to do. Conner readily received a gospel of John which we asked him to prayerfully read asking God to reveal Himself to him.

There were 3 young marrieds couples plus toddlers - all university students (except the toddlers) from Vietnam and with no belief in God. They asked me if I was a J.W. to which I replied, "No! I am a Christian."   I did some apologetics with them, gave them tracts and warned them  that when they return to Vietnam that their government does not like Christians. Interestingly, they knew this already.

There was more going on but we leave the ongoing work to our sovereign God. What a privilege to tell forth God's good news of how sinners may be reconciled to Him. To Him alone our praises arise. Heb. 7:24b,25.

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At Sunnybank (QLD) yesterday, a team of 5 of us met to share the good news of the gospel with whoever came by. And across the afternoon, a few hundred gospel tracts went out and God brought along some a bunch of people who were open to talking about eternal things.

This included some high school students, some of whom did not believe in God, but quickly changed their mind when given the building/builder analogy. Please pray for Nathan who was very receptive and took a gospel of John to start reading.

Please also pray for Maverick who, after hearing the bad news about how our sin makes us deserving of hell but how Jesus volunteered to take our punishment for us if we come to trust in him, he said, "Today I will do that. This is a great talk."

He saw the importance of what we were talking about, and so he was encouraged to carefully consider what it means to trust in Christ (as Christ doesn't want half-hearted followers). He didn't have a Bible, so we gave him a gospel of John which he gratefully received.

To God be the glory!

PS: If you can, consider joining one of our evangelism teams: www.Operation513.com/street-evangelism-teams

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Hear from Tobias and Harry how God has used them tonight to advance His gospel in Brisbane city (Australia) for His glory!

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There were numerous gospel workers today encouraging those who would listen to think on the coming Day of Jesus Resurrection from the dead.

An encouraging time was spent as Lee-Anne met up with Marsha and Justin from a few weeks ago. They were thankful for our prayers for their need for accommodation  which were answered very positively. They were encouraged to attend a local church and Lee-Anne is forwarding contact details to them - they are without transport of their own.

Thanks to God for Jack Smith for his encouragements as he patiently waited for his bus. (He likes that portion of Scripture, 1Tim.6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.)

With 6 on the team, including out ACT couple, there was great coverage of commuters.

SDG 

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The Lord stopped the rain/showers long enough for us to do what He has commanded: Take His good news and proclaim it as He has revealed it. The variety of people conversed with included: 

- an Irish man who thought he would go to heaven because he was a R.C. and a good person who sometimes went to church. After being tested against part of God's  standard of righteousness, the 10 commandments, he confessed that he was guilty of sinning against God. May he seriously consider his need to trust Christ his righteousness, Jer. 23:5,6; Rom. 4:23-25; Heb. 4:15. and in the finished work of Christ on behalf of God's people.

- a couple of ladies who announced that they were to marry. They thanked our ladies for doing a kindness to them but did not want to be prayed for. 

- a couple of Muslims who did not believe that Jesus died so the resurrection is a non-event to them.

It was our pleasure to work with a couple from the ACT who are gathering information and ideas on witnessing in their own church area.

As always, we thank God for tracts handed out, conversations had and that He does His sovereign work just as He planned. How glorious is our covenant-keeping God? Beyond our ability to adequately describe. 

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It was an unusual day for the 5 of us. As Railee and I were walking down to our team meeting place for prayer, we got engaged in a most unorthodox half hour dialogue with Mr. R & A. Mr. A was seeking inner peace and Mr. R also and he said he was inclining towards Buddhism. Mr. R thought the God of the Bible was too strict. Furthermore he said that the God of the O.T. showed no love and was quite different from the God of the N.T. (He could not think of a specific example right then.)

Overall we managed to present most of God's good news. By God's grace, they both gladly received copies of John's gospel with the "Does God exist?" tract inside and said that they would consider what we had presented to them.. Pray the Lord deals with them in mercy.

We then found the other team members who had prayed and were busy engaging others in conversations. However, there was a half hour spent countering a couple who were drop-outs from church life and had some strange teachings like 'generational curses' and worse still some heresies from the word of faith movement. {They had approached the 3 saying that they wanted to encourage them in this work!}

After that, there were some productive conversations. We thank God for enabling us to handle the various challenges. We give Him all the glory for His work which always reflects His beautiful nature.  

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We had a good outreach in Brisbane city yesterday afternoon, with 6 people on the team.

The "Good Person Test" flipchart keeps working a treat, with plenty of people willing to go through it. We also had lots of gospel conversations with people around, including with an Aussie bloke named Lindsay - he said he was not religious and never thought about where he would go when he dies. But he came to grasp the gospel and said he would seriously consider it.

Ryu was another man we spoke with, from Japan and studying English here for a year. He said he sometimes believes there is a God - some days of the week yes, other days no. But once he heard that just as a building has a builder, so must the universe have had a creator, he said "Of course, that makes sense."

We then explained to him about the coming judgement, sin, heaven and hell, and the cross. After hearing all that, he said that trusting in Jesus is what he should do, but he said that sin has a strong pull on him. So he is going to count the cost of following Jesus. He happily received a gospel of John to start reading.

To God be the glory!

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The Lord gave each one of us an in-depth conversation near the start of our time at the bus stop. Here are 2 summaries:

     Peter did not believe in God. After listening to the builder/building analogy, he said that made sense. He could believe there is a God. (Later it turned out that he did not want to believe in the God of the Bible.)  In response to the law and gospel, he proclaimed that he did not want anyone to fix his mistakes. Then he was taken through this  analogy: A  man was diagnosed with a deadly illness. He was then told that he had only 2 months to live. There was a very costly medical remedy which he could not afford. However a friend gave his all to raise the money and bought the cure for the dying man. The man left the cure sitting on his shelve for 'some' day.  Likewise Jesus has already done all that is needed to satisfy God's justice on behalf of morally bankrupt sinners. Peter saw the point. His bus arrived. May the Lord break his pride and give him the grace of repentance and faith in Christ alone.

     Mitchell knew the core facts of Jesus death for our sins and His resurrection. Going through the law and gospel to 'prove' that we are hell deserving sinners and only Jesus can save us and bring us to glory, all made sense to him. Meanwhile his workmate was quietly reading the tract. Closing with the Blondin illustration and the need to count the cost as there are difficulties in following Christ, they gave the impression they would check the message out. Pray they do. And if they take my advise to 'ask God to reveal Himself to them as they read His word', may they be wrapped up in His covenantal love - for now and for ever. 

What else did our Lord of Glory do here today. Only He knows all but we know to ascribe all glory to Him. 

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Last week my pastor Campbell Markham and I received news that the Anti-Discrimination case against us had been dropped. Praise God for His kindness in removing this difficulty from our lives and taking away the threat over our church and families!

This has been a difficult time in many ways and the process has underlined to us the wrongness of these offense based laws. Before the case was dropped, hundreds of man hours had been spent on forming a legal defense against the accusations. In addition, Campbell, one of our legal team and I were required to attend a conciliation meeting at the EOT (Equal Opportunity Tasmania) in Hobart under threat of punishment if we did not attend. This meeting was a tedious affair, scheduled to last for 2 hours but lasted 4.5 hours.

The meeting began with courtesy and at all times the two female staff treated us with courtesy. But the kindness of the staff could not paper over the glaring injustice of the situation. There we were, forced to explain why we were not guilty of unsubstantiated, subjective and often absurd accusations. Then to make the process more arduous still, we had to sit and wait to see if our offer of conciliation would be accepted by Mr S. who was in the next room.

On a more positive note, while we waited we were able to enjoy each other’s company and Campbell even shared his sermon with us. We couldn't help but feel for the EOT staff who had to deal with Mr S. who was I suspect at his cantankerous best by the muffled sound of a loud and often angry sounding male voice from the next room.

When the allotted time for the conciliation had passed we were permitted to leave for a lunch break, but there was no mention of stopping the conciliation. We returned to a list of unreasonable demands from Mr S. and further back and forth as we sat obediently in our allotted room. Ultimately, we were informed that Mr S. was not happy, but as the conciliation had gone on for 4.5 hours the meeting was to be continued by email. This extended the process into the next week as we waited for and responded to emails from the EOT.

On Thursday we received an email stating that the conciliation had failed to resolve the matter and that we would need to appear before the tribunal. This was no surprise, we all thought it very unlikely that the matter would be resolved. What was a blessed and a wonderful surprise, was the email that followed 5 minutes later saying the case had been closed. What a roller coaster of a week!

It is not primarily Mr S. or the EOT that have created this debacle. Rather it is section 17 and 19 of the Anti-Discrimination Act that permits the gagging of others if someone is offended. Section 17 holds every Tasmanian to ransom for their words, under the threat of anyone who sees them as that which “offends, humiliates, intimidates, insults or ridicules”. Section 19 is so ill-defined that it allows even a lovingly and carefully worded presentation of Christian convictions to be labeled as “hatred, severe contempt or ridicule” and punishable by law. The utter subjectiveness of these laws mean that it does not matter what you say but rather what someone feels about what you say.  We are very concerned about the laws that have made this entire fiasco possible. With this in mind we will be continuing our Supreme Court proceedings to challenge these unjust laws.

We hope that God will grant that these unjust laws will be repealed or significantly changed. We will be praying that God will protect the freedom of all the people of Tasmania. Please join us in these prayers.

Thank you to the many people who have faithfully prayed during this time of trial. May God be glorified through your trust in Him and His kind deliverance from times of trouble! God has been good to us in this last 7 months, there has been much rejoicing and even laughter in the midst of the difficulty and stress. We have seen many opportunities come to share the gospel because of this complaint. We have had the blessing of fellow Christians offering their support and encouragement. And over all this there is the wonderful joy of knowing that no-one can do anything to us that is outside our heavenly Father’s good plan to bless us and make us more Christ-like.

Praise His name!

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