Operation 513 - "God is Love and Man is Good!"

[Willo]

Saturday, 27 September 2008

Tonight, I was really excited about the prospect of being bale to go into Brisbane city and make Christ known. The more I think about the great news of the gospel, the more I long to tell people of Jesus Christ, while this mindset may result in many people mocking or scorning, I really couldn?t care less. Those who mock (some of them being readers) can go on and keep mocking, but I will keep telling you of the love of Christ, and how He can forgive all your sins, if you would repent and trust in Him.

This morning was spent at the new evangelist mentoring program that Graham Sercombe has started, this mentor program that has started appears to be a very good thing, as it will result in more people who have the gift of an evangelist being trained and equipped for the work of the ministry. As I left this mornings meeting I was very encouraged to share my faith, it is always good to have likeminded brothers and sisters to share our evangelistic passion with.

We had a good number of people come out onto the streets of Brisbane this evening with the whole intention of making Christ known. It is such an honour that I get to serve alongside these people who are far more gifted and I. It is a real encouragement to see my Christian family out there telling people that Christ can forgive them because of the cross.

The first preacher up for the night was Andre, he started off by talking about the economy and how it is going down the drain. From there he swung into the gospel, and pointed to those who would stop and listen, that even though they had sinned against God, and even though they deserve the wrath of God, Christ Jesus would forgive them if they would repent and trust in Him.

Right after Andre finished preaching, Ralph jumped up and once again began to expound on the free gift of salvation that is only found in Christ Jesus. During this time I was able to grab a couple of guys and have a conversation with them. By far one the best ways to get a one to one is to simply hang around with an open air preacher. As, when they preach you can talk to those who go to walk away, and often times they are ready to discuss what they just heard.

The night was going fairly well, people were taking gospel tracts, and many one to ones were occurring. By now the mall had become a bit more busy, and as Kevin got up to preach, some hecklers moved in for some close heckling.

A man named Anthony came in and began to open fire on Kevin, about coveting an x-box game. From there this man went on rant after rant after rant. He spoke about how people should care for the poor, and how mankind in naturally good. He then went on to talk about how God is Love, therefore we should all live the way we want to. The problem was that this man was a professing Christian. Kevin tried to deal with him, but Anthony wouldn?t let Kev get a word in. As the man ranted the crowd grew, and as it grew more people got tracts and go the chance to hear the gospel.

Kevin tagged me in, so I now had the ?fun? of trying to deal with Anthony, initially it looked like we had him under control, when he agreed to let me speak for one minute, and then he would speak for one minute. So we got Alex the Agnostic to time us. Things ran fair smoothly except Anthony interrupted me while I was speaking. But, then things change when it was his turn to speak, he spoke for one minute, for two minutes, and every time I told him times up, he would simply yell ?SHUT UP!?

During this time he kept saying that God is love, and everyone is good and kind. Then just to prove the point some random guy walked up and kicked over our flip chart (very loving of him).

When, I finally got to speak again, I was able to talk about the depravity of man. This really upset Antony as he didn?t believe himself to be a sinner, nor was anyone else in the world. The more I spoke about sin, the more upset he became, the more I spoke about God?s judgment the more hostile he grew. Anthony started to yell at me, asking why I would say such things, and my reply was because I love him, and those listening that I would tell them the truth.

The back and forth with Antony went back and forth, eventually he left hurling abuse (again showing how caring he was). I then tagged Kevin back in. Kev finished the night off by preaching the gospel once again.

Overall it was a good night, and many people got to hear of salvation in Christ Jesus.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Full report with pictures: http://www.operation513.com

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Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php