Battle Log

Page 239

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It was a wet and windy Friday afternoon as Adam, Andrew, Paul and I gathered to share the eternal gospel with the lost of Hobart in the Elizabeth street mall. I was expecting that there would be opposition today from the Hobart City Council just as there had for the previous six months. I was not disappointed on that count and even the Hobart police force became involved in attempting to prevent us preaching the good news.

Previously we have been harassed by the council who informed us that we need a permit to preach and hand out tracts in the mall and we were breaking the by laws. I investigated this thoroughly and the only relevant law that could be construed this way was one forbidding political meetings in the mall. There are several laws relating to religious activity in car parks around the city, but as the mall does not count as a car park I disregarded these laws. In spite of this the council persists in pointing to their conditions of use document which explicitly forbids preaching, one to one witnessing and tracting in the mall, the conditions of use document then points back to the by laws as a basis for the restrictions. This circular reasoning is used regularly to restrict freedom of religion in Hobart.

We began the day with handing out tracts and talking with people in various places in the mall. I always rejoice to see tracts in the hands of people and often seeing them reading or showing them to friends.

I found a convenient place to preach from behind a wind break which thankfully also acted as a sounding board and allowed me to project my voice down the mall. I began to preach using the recent budget and other financial concerns globally. From this regular concern for most people I turned to what God’s word says on the matter, in particular the comments in Mt 6 on money and the other common modern preoccupation - worry. The Bible is plain on this count, greed is only another form of idolatry and worry is distrust of God at best and practical atheism at worst. We are commanded to worship God only and when we refuse to do this we become guilty. Judgement/Gospel/Appeal

Adam preached for first time – death and certainty of judgement and need of the gospel.

Council officers approached Adam when preaching – need a permit. Referred to me, tried discussion but not interested, they called the police. Left saying we were God-botherers

Police arrived after Adam finished and we were talking and handing out tracts. Told complaint had been made and we were breaking the bylaws. Also told were breaking the public disorder laws by preaching/making noise/offending people. Discussed laws and police became very antsy and upset with this and I was told to become a police officer if I wanted to know the law so much.

Clarification sought at the Police station, inspector informed us that the same things apply

• Council by laws should be upheld

• We were breaching public order laws – contradictory

• We were not being discriminated against as it applied to all “not just you”

We are seeking legal information and political approaches to resolve this matter quickly

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Operation 513 Olympic Outreach Video Blog - (Day 6)

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Operation 513 Olympic Outreach Video Blog - (Day 5)

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Operation 513 Olympic Outreach Video Blog - (Day 4)

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Operation 513 Olympic Outreach Video Blog - (Day 3)

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Operation 513 Olympic Outreach Video Blog - (Day 2)

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Operation 513 Olympic Outreach Video Blog - (Day 1)

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From Rob Hughes, London team leader, currently on mission with JeremiahCry Ministries in Glasgow, Scotland:

Yesterday was a real blessing witnessing with the team. It's truly wonderful to labour with so many faithful men of God in the proclamation of God's Word. 

Here are some of the great conversations I had...

I spoke with a chap (David) who beats himself up over the wrong he has done in the past, and so he labours to "fix" the past through many good deeds. This is ultimately a self-righteous pursuit to justify oneself in the eyes of God. 

I explained to him that forgiveness found in Christ sets us free. We are saved and transformed, the evidence of which is seen by the good deeds we perform. When we receive salvation our desires change. The born again man wants to perform deeds "...in keeping with repentance." It doesn't mean he never sins, however the new desires born in him propel him to exalt the Lord with his life. 

R.C. Sproul explains it like this: 

"We are covered in an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is not our own, but under that covering we are still inclined to break the law of God. Justification declares us righteous, it does not make us sinless. 

We are granted citizenship in God’s kingdom based only on the righteousness of Christ, but good works are not an optional part of the Christian life. In fact, believers must do good, not to secure justification but to evidence their justification."

There is great freedom found in Christ. We do not live under a heavy burden with regards to living a godly life. As new born believers we do not live godly lives in order to receive favour with God, rather we live godly lives out of gratitude and praise to God because we have already received favour with Him. 

This is why we read in Galatians 5:1: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

I explained this as best I could to David. He did listen and appeared to get what I was saying, although it seemed that he was more concerned with earning favour with God, instead of humbly receiving the grace that God offers. He left with a tract and a New Testament. Do pray for him. 

Together with others on the team, I also spoke with two young men who had grown up Catholic. They appeared quite nominal and were very open to hear the gospel. As we shared with them it definitely appeared that the light came on. They really seemed excited to understand and know why the Son of God lived as a man and why He died on a cross for the sin of the world. 

~ Jesus lived a sinless, perfect life, in order to be the perfection we can't be, and then He died on a cross to pay the penalty for the sins we have committed. As a result of what Jesus has done, when a man repents and trusts in Him, God treats that man as if he lived Christ's life, and He treats Christ as if He lived that man's life. 

Amazing. 

It was a blessed day indeed. Do pray for all those who heard the gospel. 

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The temperature was cool, as the team met beforehand for prayer together. This evening, we had a very decent sized team ready to speak to people about Jesus. After reading Romans 10, concerning how “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ”, and that “people cannot hear without someone preaching”, the team moved over to Queen St Mall to begin our outreach.

Luke was keen to kick off the preaching for tonight, and so once the free Bibles table had been set up, he stood up on the soapbox and begin to preach.  Luke is a new-ish open air preacher, and he did well this evening in presenting the gospel. It is good to see him grow in confidence and zeal for open air preaching. He did not have any hecklers and after about 20 minutes he concluded his message calling for people to repent and believe the gospel.

After this, Blake stood up to preach and started off by preaching about the parable of the Prodigal son. By this time, a bunch of guys from the Brisbane Atheists (really, agnostics) group had arrived and started debating with Blake. They discussed issues such as evolution and whether it is true. Blake argued that it isn’t because of the extreme lack of evidence.

He then preached about the coming judgement and that the fact that we’ll all stand before the creator God one day to give an account of our lives. This then lead to him preaching about sin, and about the only way of forgiveness of sins, by faith in Jesus Christ – his death and resurrection. He preached probably over an hour, answering all the various questions people had.

After this, Josiah and then Alex faithfully preached the gospel, calling all who were listening to repent and trust in Christ alone for their salvation. One of the people listening to Alex asked the question, “How can God send people to Hell forever for a finite crime?” Alex responded by saying that it is up to God the judge to define the punishment, and he has defined it thusly.

But he also mentioned that it’s not as though those who will be sent to Hell, will instantly stop sinning. It’s likely they will keep on sinning, and therefore keeping extending their sentence there. Alex then pointed out that because the punishment for sin is so severe, it really shows how important it is to have your sins forgiven.

Meanwhile, Luke and a few other team members reported to me that this evening they had been having some great witnessing encounters with people. Tonight quite a number of Bibles were given out to all those who were interested including a bunch of teenagers. This group of teenagers had been hanging around for the whole time we were there, at first being really immature in the things they were saying and doing, but a number of the team were able to witness to them throughout the evening, and it appeared that a lot of them were having a change of heart. They wanted a Bible and said they were going to start reading it. Please pray that God will draw them unto Himself and grant them repentance and faith.

To God be the glory for another great night!

 

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There was a chill in the air today as we prepared to witness in Canberra, but surprisingly there were still quite a few people out and about in Garema Place. The team met at 2pm for a time of prayer, and it was great to see some new people come and join us on the street. I was particularly happy to have Chris from Goulburn Baptist Church come out and join us. He is young and very keen to share the Gospel, given some time and training I think he’ll do very well. 

After about thirty minutes in prayer we split up and began to engage in evangelism. A few of us headed down the centre of Garmea Place and there we set up to begin our open air preaching. Ben was the first man up for the day. Within minutes of him beginning to preach some youth began to gather to mock the Gospel. But as with all things God was in this, and he used those young people to help draw a crowd. The group of youth sat down and listened as Ben preached. Some scorned and mocked, but others seem to be paying attention. In this situation I am not concerned if people mock the Gospel for I don’t know what is happening in their heart, while they may be putting on a “mocking face” their heart may truly be convicted. 

Ben preached for about thirty minutes, then it was my turn. Some of the youth stayed around and listened. One young man from the group professed himself to be an atheist, so I began to ask him questions as to why he was denying God’s existence. The young man had no answers, he simply said he didn’t believe, but didn’t know why he didn’t believe. 

After speaking to him I continued to preach, and I spoke on why people hate the Gospel. I shared how the Bible declares we love our sin and hate the light, and it’s for that reason we reject Jesus. As I was explaining this I heard a woman begin to yell out at me. It was the same woman from last week who screamed at me. As with last week I couldn’t understand much of what she said. She ranted and raved about this being a free country so people shouldn’t have to have a preacher stand and preach. I tried pointing out that because this is a free country that I would stand and preach, but she wasn’t having a bar of it. 

She then walked in front of me and started to yell out, “HE HAS A GUN!” At first I thought she was confused about the Bible I was holding in my hand, but then she continued to yell that I had a gun and was going to start shooting people. I pointed out I had a Bible, and that was more powerful than any gun, but still she yelled out “HE HAS A GUN!” 

While these kind of hecklers are frustrating when you are trying to preach, I’ve found that God still uses them, and as this lady ranted a crowd began to build. Now all I needed was an opening to share the Gospel. Soon enough the lady stopped yelling and with that I began to talk about the Gospel to all those who would listen. Most people in the crowd stayed in order to see if the lady would start yelling again, but as long as they were there I made sure they’d hear the good news about Jesus Christ. 

During this time I was able to engage with a young lady named Carly, who believed herself to be not bad enough for hell, but not good enough for Heaven. We spoke for a bit about sin, and how we all need the Saviour, then as I got to the good news she turned and left. Fortunately one of the team members saw this and he was able to give her a tract and share the good news with her. 

I preached for about thirty minutes, and I had to deal with my heckling lady a few more times during my open air. After I finished preaching Ben got up to preach again. 

While he was preaching I had a chance to talk to an atheist whom I had spoken to a few months earlier. This time he was calm and wasn’t yelling at me. I asked him why the change, and he said his mentor had taught him not to yell at Christians. To me it sounded very much like an atheist discipleship movement. Here you had an atheist, who is being mentored (discipled) by another atheist, who is training him in the art of ‘nothingness’. (Tell me, how is atheism not a religion?)

We chatted for a bit, but the conversation wasn’t going anywhere. We spoke about how we both wished that atheists and Christians were informed about what they believe and why they believe it, and then we began to talk about comic books (as the local comic bookshop was having a free give away). At the end of the conversation we parted on good terms, and we both said we’d chat again next time we see each other. Please pray for him. 

Ben preached for the rest of the day, while the rest of the team handed out tracts and had one to one conversations. 

Overall it was a good day, the Gospel was proclaimed and Jesus was exalted!

Soli Deo Gloria! 

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