Evangelism action has now moved to a new address; Tell Aussies. All posts and comments have been transfered there.

I Hope you enjoy the changes to a more chatty style of blog that discusses the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially as it relates to the Australian context. Also catch me on twitter if you want to:

Yours in Christ,
Daniel.

Extract from chapter: How to win souls for Christ:

We win some souls to Christ by acting as witnesses. We stand up and testify for the Lord Jesus Christ concerning certain truths. Now, I have never had the great privilege of being bamboozled by a barrister. I have sometimes wondered what I should do if I were put into the witness-box to be examined and cross-examined. I think I should simply stand up, and tell the truth as far as I knew it, and should not make an attempt to display my wit, or my language, or my judgment. If I simply gave straightforward answers to his questions, I should beat any lawyer under heaven. But the difficulty is, that so often when a witness is put into the box, he is more conscious of himself than of what he has to say; therefore, he is soon worried, teased, and bored, and, by losing his temper, he fails to be a good witness for the cause. Now, you men in the open-air are often bamboozled; the devil’s barristers are sure to come to you, he has a great number of them constantly retained in his service. The one thing you have to do is to bear witness to the truth. If you enquire in your own mind, “How shall I answer this man cleverly, so as to get a victory over him?” you will not be wise. A witty answer is often a very proper thing; at the same time, a gracious answer is better. Try to say to yourself: “It does not, after all, matter whether that man proves me to be a fool or not, for I know that already I am content to be thought a fool for Christ’s sake, and not to care about my reputation. I have to bear witness to what I know, and by the help of God I will do so right boldly. If the interrupter questions me about other things, I shall tell him that I do not come to bear witness about other matters, but this one thing I do. To one point I will speak, and to no other.”

Brethren, the witnessing man, then, must himself be saved, and he should be sure of it. I do not know whether you doubt your own salvation. Perhaps I should recommend you to preach even when that is the case; since, if you are not saved yourself, you yet wish others to be. You do not doubt that you once enjoyed full assurance; and now, if you have sorrowfully to confess, “Alas ! I do not feel the full power of the gospel on my own heart,” you can truly add, “Yet I know that it is true, for I have seen it save others, and I know that no other power can save me.” Perhaps even that faltering testimony, so truly honest, might bring a tear into your opponent’s eye, and make him feel sympathy for you. “I preached,” said John Bunyan, “sometimes without hope, like a man in chains to men in chains, and when I heard my own fetters rattle, yet I told others that there was deliverance for them, and I bade them look to the great Deliverer.” I would not have stopped Mr. Bunyan in preaching so. At the same time, it is a great thing to be able to declare from your own personal experience that the Lord hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Those who hear our witness say, “Are you sure of it?” Sure of it? I am as sure of it as I am sure that I am a living man. They call this dogmatism. Never mind about that. A man ought to know what he is preaching about, or else let him sit down. If I had any doubt about the matters I preach from this pulpit, I should be ashamed to remain the pastor of this church; but I preach what I do know, and testify what I have seen. If I am mistaken, I am heartily and intensely mistaken; and I risk my soul and all its eternal interests upon the truth of what I preach. If the gospel which I preach does not save me, I shall never be saved, for what I proclaim to others is my own personal ground of trust. I have no private lifeboat; the ark to which I invite others holds myself and all that I have.

A good witness ought himself to know all that he is going to say; he should feel himself at home in his subject. He is brought up as a witness, say, in a certain case of robbery; he knows what he saw, and has to make a declaration of that only. They begin to question him about a picture in the house, or the colour of a dress which was hanging in the wardrobe. He answers, “You are going beyond my record; I can only witness to that which I saw.” What we do know, and what we do not know, would make two very large books, and we may safely ask to be let alone as to the second volume.

Brother, say what you know, and sit down. But be calm and composed while speaking of that with which you have personal acquaintance. You will never properly indulge your emotions in preaching, so as to feel at home with the people, until you are at home with your subject. When you know what you are at, you will have your mind free for earnestness. Unless you open-air preachers know the gospel from beginning to end, and know where you are in preaching it, you cannot preach with due emotion; but when you feel at home with your doctrine, stand up and be as bold, and earnest, and importunate as you please. Face the people feeling that you are going to tell them something worth hearing, about which you are quite sure, which to you is your very life. There are honest hearts in every outdoor assembly, and every indoor assembly, too, that only want to hear honest beliefs, and they will accept them, and be led to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
 

But you are not only witnesses, you are pleaders for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in a pleader, much depends upon the man. It seems as if the sign and token of Christianity in some preachers was not a tongue of fire, but a block of ice. You would not like to have a barrister stand up and plead your cause in a cool, deliberate way, never showing the slightest care about whether you were found guilty of murder or acquitted. How could you endure his indifference when you yourself were likely to be hanged? Oh, no! you wish to silence such a false advocate. So, when a man has to speak for Christ, if he is not in earnest, let him go to bed. You smile; but is it not better that he should go to bed than send a whole congregation to sleep without their going to bed? Yes, we must be in downright earnest. If we are to prevail with men, we must love them. There is a genuine love to men that some have, and there is a genuine dislike to men that others have. I know gentlemen, whom I esteem in a way, who seem to think that the working-classes are a shockingly bad lot, to be kept in check, and governed with vigour. With such views, they will never convert the working-men. To win men, you must feel: “I am one of them. If they are a sad lot, I am one of them; if they are lost sinners, I am one of them; if they need a Saviour, I am one of them.” To the very chief of sinners you should preach with this text before you, “Such were some of you.” Grace alone makes us to differ, and that grace we preach. Genuine love to God and fervent love to man make up the great qualification for a pleader.

Zechariah 13:2 “And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. “

How easily good things can become idols. We may find ourselves loving our idols for years. They may become so precious to us that we find it hard to live without them. They are our saviors from whatever our hell is. Perhaps they save us from such hells as boredom, anxiety, isolation, poverty, loneliness, etc.

On that day our idols will not only be destroyed, but actually removed from the memory of all people. “On that day” is not a certain time; perhaps it was soon after it was prophesied, perhaps it is at the return of the Lord, perhaps is is now or perhaps it is all three.

I have experienced a removing of idols in my life. The Lord has removed desire and love for idols that I have once cherished and he has granted repentance to me, in his mercy. Do you have good things that you love. Are they saving you from a pseudo hell? Call out to the Lord for his grace to you today. See the vanity in idolatry: how meaningless to invest your treasure in that which will be forever forgotten.

2 Corinthians 4

⁴The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

 ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

 God doesn’t use beautiful flasks to house His fragrance.
He has chosen to put the treasure of His fragrance in clay pots.
He uses earthen vessels, not the fine china. He takes simple clay pots and fills them with His glory. Fragile and flawed, cracked and leaky clay pots are His choice vessels.

He uses clay pots so He alone can get the glory.

Most of the time these old pots have to be broken before they emit the sweet fragrance of His grace. God does it through the pressures that come in our lives.

The apostle Paul writes: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (4:8-10, KJV).

The NASB reads, “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also maybe manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:8-11).

God’s power is perfected in our weaknesses. When we die, He lives. When we lose, He wins. When we are weak, He is strong. When we are dependent, He is powerful. When we are tempted, He is triumphant.  

(excerpt from www.abideinchrist.com )

I find your material not only offensive, but not at all, that is the message you are purporting to bring, in the spirit of christianity. For example, I was walking through the Murray St Mall recently, when a pleasant enough women handed me a small piece of paper – your message – stating that I (1). have sinned (2) will spend eternity (because of my sin) in hell, and(3).conveniently enough, if I accept certain conditions and adjustments I may be fortunate enough to be forgiven (for what I do not know?) by some omnipotent entity who you are, apparently, on very familiar terms with.
Now I would like to respond, does any sane person truly believe (1). if some all-knowing etc entity was in fact able to remove all my supposed sin, that he may have, in the first instance, thus created a people, in his own image nonetheless (mind boggling stuff again, but more on this later), that were a little nicer, so they did not in fact require their sins to admonished?
Good point say I. Your material, which was handed to me in a public place, I find analogous to pornography. That is, I would not want my children to read it or to try and interpret it’s message. The implications resemble a horror movie (rated R or X) and as such should not be on public display.
Thus I find your actions reprehensible, irresponsible and worse yet, the conclusions one can draw from such material, may cause physical harm – in this world – which is the only world anyone has every spoken of with any authoritative and first hand experential knowledge.

Please respond, as I am interested in debating this topic further.
So, as all matters concerning human interests, which to your mind are the most pressing, please do (respond and debate) through the site so it (the debate) is in the public domain, so others who may not yet be fully committed to to your religious ideology, have an opportunity in which they can hear other, and as equally coherent, views expressed.

This should not be an issue, since if one is convinced in their belief, then there will be little I could say or do to change it. However, if they are not yet totally convinced, then we have equal opportunity to convince them one way or the other; that is , to convince them otherwise.

Kind Regards
Bradley

Bradley I am sorry that you are offended by the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ. I want all people everywhere to receive Jesus as their King and Saviour, but I also know from scripture that this is not going to happen. I am sad, but not surprised, when someone finds the Gospel offensive.

The bible teaches that we all are rebels against God from birth. We are dead in our sins against a Holy God. We desperatly need God to have grace and mercy towards us and to shine His light into our blind condition. It is impossible for us to get right with God through our own effort – we need to be saved.

In your first paragraph you intimated that you have an appreciation of Christianity. What do you think the Christian message should be?