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Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 21 April, 2007 [/b]

Another Saturday night rolled around, and another night having the immense privilege of being able to declare the gospel to a world that is dead in sin.

I had to pick up, David, Anna, and Tanya so as I did my rounds we had to stop and get some fuel, so Dave went in to pay and give the woman a tract, which she gladly took. I personally was excited about witnessing, and really couldn’t wait to share the gospel.

When we arrived in the city we had a time of prayer, and then read through Psalm 119 as a team. Then after a quick time of fellowship we went to the Queen street mall.
Josh Mitchell was the first man up to preach, he started to declare the Word of God, and he had a couple of people come and stand up close next to him. They didn’t seem to bother him he just kept on preaching. Nearly right away he had a person declaring that they were ‘Good enough to get to heaven’. So Josh opened up the Word of God to show that there is none good, and that our good works mean nothing to God.

He is developing really well as a preacher, his skill of handling hecklers is also growing. It is great to sit back and watch how God is raising up more open air preachers to declare His Word in the darkest areas.

Towards the end of the preaching, Josh had a bloke in a wheel chair come up and heckle him. Josh finished preaching then sat down and spoke to the man for quite some time.

During this time Dave was locked in a one to one with a man who had yelled at Josh, he was explaining the full gospel, and little did we know that for the next three hours Dave would continue to work with the man.

At around 10:15pm I got up to preach, I started off with the text from Revelation 20:11-15 - God’s Righteous Judgement. The lead in was talking about how Australians don’t like to be judged, nor do they like being told what to do, from there I swung it to the day in which God would judge them for their very thought life.

There was one young bloke named Adam that kept walking past, every time he would scream abuse about Christ Jesus. I held my tongue for long enough, so I called him back and asked him to express his opinion. Adam seemed shocked, from there I was able to engage with him about the gospel. He seemed fairly open til his friend started to stir it up. But before he left he got a tract, and heard the full gospel.

By this stage a group of five young males stopped and were having a laugh and in some ways were mocking. So I started to quiz them on what they thought happened when they die. They didn’t seem to know, so I took them through the ten commandments to see if they are good compared to a holy God. Of course they all failed, but one of them looked concerned about his eternity. So I got to share the good news of Christ Jesus to the young man named Matt.

Before I could finish this young woman all dressed in black came running up yelling that we are all divine. She was a proponent of the new “Secret” cult that is fast being spread by Oprah. The basic teaching of the “Secret” stems back to the devilish lie of “You can be as God!”

She then started to scream that it was wrong to tell people what to do. So I let her scream on for a few moments, as she was drawing a large crowd. Then I asked her, “You said its wrong to tell people what to do, so am I wrong for what I am doing?” So I went after her on hypocrisy, because she says “Don’t tell people what to do, yet she was doing that very thing!”

The woman then yelled about how she is god for herself, so I asked her to make a pack of Tim Tams (Biscuits) that would never run out, she quick refused that, because the Christian God has never done that. So I asked her to make a rock, again she refused and someone from the crowd yelled out that the God of the Bible hasn’t done that either. So I pointed out that we live on a big rock called Earth. That seemed to stop any comments from him.

But this woman kept yelling that she was a god, so I preached from the Bible that there is but one God! She then said something about no absolutes, so I asked if there is moral absolutes. Her reply was ‘NO!’ The crowd appeared to be on her side at this stage, and more she yelled the more the crowd grew. So I asked her the question that few people will answer, I asked: “Is Paedophilia every right?” Her reply stunned me, since she claimed to be a mother, she called out “It is right to the person doing it!” At that stage I saw read, so I opened up rebuking her stiffly for her depravity and her sinfulness in justifying the wicked. It was at that stage I noticed this big aboriginal woman who was built like a tank walk to the front of the crowd. My first thought was she is going after me, but she turned to the woman who had now revealed herself as a witch, and then in one swift movement punched the witch.

One of the hecklers jumped in between the two and tried to break it up. The aboriginal woman was yelling “I am a Christian and my dad is a pastor!” I was able to grab the woman’s attention and as she turned to me I rebuked her causing the name of Christ to be blasphemed among the heathen. Then I told her that Christ said “Love your enemies! Not punch them out!”. She quickly left, and the witch returned. The witch was mad and she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. So I preached for a few more minutes and then wrapped it up with a call to repentance.

The witch came up to me afterwards to talk, she apologised for causing any problems. She was a completely different person, at this stage she could hardly walk, so we helped her with the bags she was carrying. She explained to me how she attended a Uniting Church and fully believed that witchcraft and Christianity was compatible. That wasn’t surprising since she attends an apostate church that ordains sodomites. She then started to talk about how her spirit guides dwell in her spin. She said her back started to hurt when I was preaching, and that her spirit guides were angry.
I told her that they weren’t that they were not her friends, and that those guides will drag her to hell. She said they were her friends and that they could co exist with the Bible. I told her that I loved her, and didn’t want to see her go to hell, but she had to be warned that the Bible condemned witchcraft as a sin, and that she need to repent. As soon as I commented on witchcraft the same witch from heckling was back, she changed completely and took off. But before she changed she had taken a tract. Please keep her in prayer.

After that we just witnessed one to one, and handed out tracts. But my heart was broken, to see a young lady who was a nice person being so deceived by professing Christian churches. The more I see this the more I realise the church is in a very sick state, but on the other hand it makes me more determined to preach the gospel so that God might get the Glory that is fit unto His name!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/4/23 7:15Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 28 April, 2007 [/b]

It was a cooler night with a nice westerly breeze blowing, and to compound that there was also a light drizzle of rain. As I drove into the city I was thinking to myself that this will be a quiet night, and because of the rain there probably won’t be any preaching.

We met together under the shelter of a building in King George Square, and from there we had a time of prayer and bible reading. During our team bible reading this young woman approached and said that she was a Buddhist but would like to listen in on the Bible being read. We happily let her listen, and afterwards she had a lot of questions. We were able to give her a gospel of John and an in-depth tract, then Glenda got to witness to her one to one. She said that she would come back again next week, and that she wanted to learn more. So please keep her in prayer.

At 9pm we headed up to our normal preaching spot and began to set up, it was still raining at this stage, but God in His Sovereignty stopped the rain for the period of the preaching!

Andrew Hsu was the first man up and he started to expound the scripture. Not long into it he had a good heckler come along, which God used to build a good size crowd. But this crowd was different to the crowds we have been having for the past few weeks. They were quiet and listened, and there was no threats of violence. Which made for a nice change. The man tried to argue evolution and that he didn’t believe in God. But Andrew kept brining it back to the point that our beliefs do not change the reality of us standing before God on judgment day.

Not long after this he wrapped it up, and then the one to ones started. Some of those one to ones would extend for a couple of hours as people had some great questions and wanted to know more about God. It is really amazing to watch, people who normally rush through life in a hurry stop when it comes to the gospel, and they will even ignore going off to have a good time with their mates to sit and listen to a Christian talk about the Living God!

Then it came time for myself to preach, my text for the night: Psalm 9:17 - The Wicked Shall be turned into Hell! Before I could even finish my scripture reading, I had one young bloke who was standing still listening, so I engaged him and asked him a few questions. He was a bit nervous about talking, but his friend was more than happy to try and mock the preacher.

But it was good to see this young guy hear the gospel, and even understand it. But before I could give him grace he left. It was around this time a bunch of mouthy teenagers showed up and they wanted to make a big show. I ignored most of them but there was one young guy that I aimed at. He was 16 and out on the streets at the middle of the night, so I quizzed him on what happens when someone dies. He didn’t know but he hoped that there was a heaven and that he would go there.

So I explained the full gospel to him, and he admitted that he was going to hell, and then as the grace message was delivered his friends tried to drag him away, but he wouldn’t go. Then to my right a young woman jumped up on a park bench and started to scream “SUPPORT GAY RIGHTS! SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE!” this made the crowd erupt in cheers. She then got down looking very pleased with herself, and she watched me for a reply. The reply she got wasn’t one that she expected, I said “I support gay marriage! I am all for gay people marrying, in fact I have no problem with a gay man marrying a gay woman. But however same sex marriage is a big one that I would not support.” The crowd again cheered, and I went back to dealing with the young man who wanted to know more of the gospel

As I explained the gospel to him, and told him that he needs to repent he seemed to go deep into thought about it. Then his friends started to encourage him to announce that he would spit in the face of Christ. So that is what he did, he told all present that he would rather spit on the face of Jesus.
His mates wanted to leave then, but I wouldn’t let him go. He was not going until he had a full understanding of how short life is. So I explained to him death, and how one day we will all die and face God. I explained hell to him, and you could see he was a bit shaken. From that point on he ignored his friends but stood and listened. He then took a tract saying that he would think about it.

A decent size crowd had built by this stage, so I explained how because of our sin we have an angry God above us, a guilty conscience within us, and a yawning hell beneath us. Then explained the mercy of God in saving us if we would humbly come to Him in repentance.

Then it was time for my last heckler of the night. He was a recent release from the violent offender prison system. He started to attack the Christian message, and said that no one wants to hear it. So I explained it to him in a court room setting which he understood. But he didn’t like the fact that Christ died for him, and that he would rather spend his life doing whatever.

During his heckle one of our regular blokes who isn’t a Christian but just comes to listen, walked up to the heckler and told him to get some respect for the preaching. Well the heckler didn’t like that, and wanted to fight. Of course the other bloke was more than willing. Except since the bloke who was defending us was an ex army Sergeant, I didn’t know how to stop him from killing the heckler, so I addressed him by his rank and gave him some verbal orders.

To my surprise he did them without thinking, he stood down, did an about turn and then quick marched away from the situation. He then halted and stood at easy. I then wrapped up the preaching, but the heckler wanted to keep going and went up the sergeant and started to challenge him. The sergeant wanted to smack the bloke, but again I gave an order of him to control himself. Which he complied with. I am thankful that the army drills their people to take commands.

From there we continued to witness to the early hours of the morning, with people coming back who heard the preaching hours before who had questions.

Praise God for a great evening!

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson



[b] Saturday, 5 May, 2007 [/b]

As I drove into the city tonight, the thought crossed my mind that it would be a nice quiet night. Which I freely confess would have suited me well since I was extremely tired from working on college assignments.

We met up with other members of the team around 7:30pm in the King George Square, and after a time of prayer, and then reading some selected Psalms we prepared to go up to the mall. It was around this time Andrew Hsu said it would be a quiet night, which I really hoped for, even after all this time of doing street ministry I still expect quiet nights, when I should know better that there is never really a quiet night when we are locked in combat.

At 9pm we set up for the open air, since Josh Mitchell was in town we decided to let him go first, since he very rarely gets to the opportunity to preach in Brisbane. As he was preparing to get up to preach him and I had a quick moment of singing praise to our all conquering God! As we finished singing “There is a Redeemer” Josh jumped up to preach, but it was at this point a strange thing was happening, a crowd was starting to form and nothing was going on. So right from the get go Josh Mitchell had a crowd. The first bloke he called out wasn’t to keen on being spoken to, but after a ribbing from his mates he decided to talk.

During this time three of his hecklers peeled off from the crowd and came up to me to ask questions. They were the classic, ‘Where did God come from?’ and ‘What about evolution?’, while these guys were fully intending to disprove Christianity they were also humble and open to being wrong. One thing I really enjoy about street ministry is being able to answer people’s questions in regards to the Bible. Since so many of them would never darken the door of a church we have to go out to where they are and hoist up the Cross of Christ in the public meeting arenas. And the scripture is true, that God does draw men unto Himself, and we see that each week. Nothing more precious than seeing a enemy of God coming to the knowledge that there is a merciful God out there who loves them and is prepared to grant them pardon if they humble come to Him. While we may not always see people repent on the street, we can rest in the promise that God will not loose any that He brings unto Himself.

While all that was going Josh had a heckler who was a professing Atheist, but after a bit of reasoning he openly said that he had been converted to agnosticism. He was open and took a couple of tracts before he left, please pray that the man will come unto the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

After about an hour of preaching Josh stood down, so far it had been a nice and quiet night. God had brought crowds but they were fairly tame and polite. After Josh Mitchell, Kevin jumped up to have a preach, tell you what he is coming along great as a preacher. He had more hecklers than Josh did, but he dealt really well with them.

About thirty minutes into Kevin’s preaching, I started to feel like things were about to get really hostile, so I started to marshal the troops into position. Hsuy was locked in an engagement with two young guys intent on arguing, and I noticed that some of the more rowdy hecklers were circling. So as I pulled guys from the team into position to deal with those who were stirring up.

I then noticed that one of the hecklers that was going at Hsuy had broken off and had now got very close to Tanya and was engaging her. So I moved over to be fire support if she needed it. I was only standing there for a few minutes when the other bloke that Andrew had been dealing with came and started to engage me on how he didn’t like the gospel. He kept pushing with quite some force his belief that we were wrong and that there are many paths to God. His mate was doing the same thing to Tanya, so I thought it was about time to kill this off before we get locked in a massive debate with two guys that were keen to fight.

So I started to quote the scripture to the bloke I was locked with, and kept calling him to repentance, he didn’t like that, and started to become more and more hostile. It was at this point that they swapped over, and the guy I was dealing with went to Tanya, and the bloke Tanya had came to me. Again they were pushing the same argument as each other, and I noticed that Tanya wasn’t mucking around but slamming this guy with the Sword of the Spirit.

The bloke I had started to poke me and say that he respected all beliefs but not ours, and started arguing about how Christians are closed minded. So again I pulled back to arguing from the Word of God. He had enough and left, and then the bloke Tanya was dealing with backed off as well when his mate withdrew.

Andrew then called me and asked me to come back to behind the preacher since things were getting heated. So I pulled back and it was true what he said, so I put Josh Mitchell and Andrew Hsu on stand by to open air if the need arises. Kevin was still holding his own at this stage, but his voice was starting to get weaker, so we tag and I took over.

One of the hecklers claimed to have a double degree in philosophy, and said she was very knowledgeable and through her knowledge she knew there was no God. So as I quizzed her on how much she knew, she actually admitted that she had no knowledge whatsoever, yet was convinced that we were wrong. She then jumped up on the seat next to me and started to yell about how we as Christians wanted to go back to the pre-reformation days. The crowd cheered in support of her, so she started a history lesson on what the protestant reformation was really about. But sadly she had no idea of what she was talking about, so I used that error of hers to point out that the Reformation had the battle cry of “Grace Alone” from there I went after works based salvation. The woman kept yelling for awhile, and then left. But a few more hecklers had appeared to take her place.

A bunch of four lesbians came and they had some really good questions, and I was happy to answer them, and they all took tracts and did many of the crowd. But one thing that these lesbian hecklers brought up was the corruption of apostates like Benny Hinn, and Hillsong Church, and how they are only after your money, and preach that you can be rich. It was at this point I had to slam the heresy of prosperity, and point out that the Bible said they were false teachers only wanting to make a profit out of them (2 Peter 2:3). Then I offered an apology to all in the crowd who had been insulted by the charlatans of the prosperity cult that are money hungry. That seemed to swing a lot of the crowd on side.

Then another heckler started yelling out about Roman Catholicism, I stressed to him and the crowd present that I loved the catholic people, but I oppose the doctrines of Rome, and believe based on scripture that the Roman Catholic church was a non-Christian church.

I then wrapped up the preaching and invited people to come and talk if they had questions. A fair few of the crowd came forward to talk some more, some just for general chit chat, but others had theological questions.

I thought that was it, but God had other plans. Three young Seventh Day Adventists girls stopped to talk some more and wanted to know why we didn’t preach about keeping the Sabbath, so as Andrew dealt with one of them, myself and a couple of the others addressed the other two. The conversation ranged that crossed a variety of topics, from the doctrine of predestination to should Christians eat pork. Everything we said we showed them from the Bible, since that is the only authority we have.

But praise God for an awesome night, with many hearing the Gospel of Christ preached!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria![/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/5/7 9:42Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 13 May, 2007 [/b]

The night looked bleak as the dark clouds laden with rain approached from the west, as I drove into the city I remember thinking that tonight was going to be a great night as God moves through the preaching of His Word, and Sovereignly drawing men unto Himself.

I was the first team member to arrive in King George Square, I wasn’t sitting there long when Andrew and Desma arrived. Then not long after that other members of the team started to arrive. We spent time in prayer seeking the face of God and thanking Him for the mercy which He showed towards us in giving us the glorious gospel. After praying we read through the last couple of chapters of the book of Revelation in which we saw the scripture paint the picture of all the conquering King.

Then as 9pm rolled around we headed up to our normal preaching spot, Andrew Hsu was the first preacher up for the night, and not to long into his preaching a bunch of islander females stopped and started to get vocal. Like most islanders that we encounter on the streets they were from the Latter Day Saints, these Mormon girls didn’t know their own doctrine to well. Hsuy tried to deal with them but the Mormons wanted to debate ‘Ricky Lake’ style, in which they cheered and jeered the preacher.

Eventually one of them made their way behind the preacher where I happened to be standing guarding our bags. So I called her over and started to ask her about her faith. She told me that she was a very good Mormon and believed that it was the only true church. She seemed a little surprised when she found out that I knew a bit about Mormonism. I have found when dealing with Mormons that it is very hard to witness to them because they have been brain washed into believe the lie of works based righteousness. So I asked her how is one saved. Her reply was that it was by grace and works, which is exactly what the book of Mormon says in 2 Nephi 25:23. So I turned my Bible over to Ephesians 2:8-9 and showed her the words that pointed out that we are saved by grace through faith, and not of works. This stunned her, so she fell back onto the whole “Our church uses a different bible” argument, I asked what Bible the LDS use, she said “King James”, so I turned my Bible over and showed her the spine that said “KJV - King James Version”.

From there I went on to show her Isaiah 64:6 and then asked, “If we are saved by good deeds, why then did Christ die?” She had no answer, but then the group of six Mormons approached to join in the argument. Which was good for the preacher since it freed him up to continue preaching the gospel.

One girl who was clearly the leader of the pack started to get really mouthy to me, and stated that they are the true church, and then asked if I believed that. I replied that I did not believe that, since through my study I have found the Mormon church and its writings to go against scripture on many points. The girls all said that never once does the book of Mormon contradict the Bible, so I asked “Where was Jesus born?” They all said in one accord “Bethlehem!” They all acted like that was an easy question til I pointed out that in Alma 7:9-10 it states that Jesus was born in Jerusalem. They didn’t believe me, so I challenged them to go home and look up the Book of Mormon for themselves.

Then I told them that before the reprint of the Book of Mormon it said that those with black skin were cursed by God. This angered them since only one of them was white. They tried to make out that I was a racist, but I kept coming back to that is what the Book of Mormon and also the ‘prophets’ of Mormonism taught.

One of the girls demanded my email address so she could email me to prove me wrong, I gave it to her, and of course knew that she would not email me. Which is typical with the cults, once they are challenged they run away. But before they left they all got tracts which contain the biblical message of salvation.

Hsuy finished preaching not long after this, and I noticed that one of the new guys was locked in conversation with one of our regular old blokes who is nothing but a time waster, and every week he comes to argue with someone. So I walked across to give him a bit of back up. The old bloke tonight was arguing that Jesus was not God, we showed him the scripture that said in fact that Jesus is God. But he wouldn’t believe it, so we withdrew but one of the guys couldn’t let go and ended up talking to him for the next three hours! (A lesson not to get bogged down with those who only wish to argue.)

After this it was my turn to preach, so I started of on “What is the purpose of life, and do you have purpose?” based from Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. From there I had a heckler named Joe who was drunk and not matter what you said thought he was right and God was wrong. But Joe served a great purpose, because he brought a young man named Joel into the crowd. When Joe finished making a song and a dance, Joel started to heckle. Initially he was just trying to make fun of God, but as the conversation in the open air went along you could see his whole demeanour change. He went from a man sure of himself to a man who knew and understood that he was looking down the barrel of eternity.

Joel was a good heckler who asked questions but then let me answer, I was able to go through the Law of God with him and then when he openly stated that he would go to hell, I was able to administer grace. I painted the picture for him of a man standing on death row, yet at the last moment before execution a stranger took his place. Joel grasped the analogy and knew that it was a picture of what Christ had done.

Then as I wrapped up talking to him about the grace and mercy of God, another heckler opened fire and yelled out “Read Matthew 6:1-6!” So I read it out loud for all those in the crowd to hear, when I had finished he again yelled “See! Do things in secret not out here in the street!” He was quite pleased with himself at that stage, so I pointed out that it said not to do alms or pray like the hypocrites in the streets. Then I asked him if I was blowing a trumpet and praying? He said that I wasn’t and then he admitted that the text wasn’t talking about preaching. He eventually left, and I thought Joel must have left during my confrontation with this man, but to my surprise Joel was still standing there listening to every word.

I wrapped up by encouraging all those present to grab their bibles and read the scriptures for themselves, and most of all don’t look to man, but rather look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of the Faith.

As I stepped down Joel came up to me and said “Mate, when I stopped I wanted to ridicule you and mock Christianity. But you have stopped me by preaching that book. I grew up in a Christian home, and I still reject it, but the Bible you preach has shook me up. Now this is hard to say for me, but I really want to thank you for doing that, and also let you know I respect what you guys do. Keep on preaching…”

That was a major encouragement to me, to hear someone not praise me, but point to the Bible and state that it was the Living Word of God that stopped them in their tracks.

After Joel left a young woman approached and asked if she could have a Bible, we gave her one and Hsuy got to witness to her one to one. From what I saw she was under heavy conviction of sin. While she was being witnessed to, I got to speak to her two friends, they were scared of hell, so I again took them to the cross of Christ and pointed them to a loving Saviour.

Please keep all those who heard the gospel tonight in prayer…

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/5/14 6:29Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 19 May, 2007 [/b]

Had a nice drive into the city tonight, and on the way in I got to listen to the Way of the Master Radio, and the episode that was playing was about Presuppositional apologetics, now while I have done a little bit of reading on that form of apologetics listening to Todd Friel really helped place some things in the right order. When I got to King George Square I met up with a few of the guys and a little later we started the team prayer meeting. Then we spent time reading the scripture, the reading for the night was John 17. What a great passage of scripture looking at the last prayer of Jesus Christ when He prayed for those who would believe in Him down through the ages. It is such a source of comfort when you realise that Christ prayed for us even though we live 2000 years after His death and resurrection.

Then at 9pm we headed up to our normal preaching spot and tonight we set up something new, tonight for the first time we set up a “Free Bible” table, this table had a bunch of free New Testaments upon it, and we also had it manned all night. Before we even finished setting up this elderly lady approached and took a Bible and a tract. That was the trend for the rest of the night, people came to get a free Bible and they also then got witnessed to by those who were manning the table. By the end of the night quite a few Bibles went out. It has been a real blessing to find a source that is selling Bible cheaper than some of the tracts we use.

As for the preaching, Josh Mitchell was the first man up. He preached a strong message from Luke 12, and then a few hecklers began to appear and start to quiz him. One of the hecklers even identified himself as a homosexual and was bragging about things he claimed to have done.

Josh preached for about an hour and while he was doing the team was operating in a one to one and tract role. The crowd continued to build as Josh declared the everlasting gospel. Then after a time his voice started to give way, so he tagged me in for a preach.

Personally I prefer preaching to a crowd from scratch, but tonight a large angry crowd was already assembled so I started off by answering questions. One woman yelled out that the Bible was full of mistakes, but when challenged she ran away, and then more and more hecklers began to open up. The open air debate then had to keep going back to sin and judgement. It always seemed to present itself, that when a question came up so did the message of the cross.

Then a man broke free from the crowd and approached me yelling curses at Jesus Christ, the man was wearing a Star of David and was apart of Judaism. He hated Christians, and he despised anything that Christians stood for. He declared that the Messiah was still coming and that Jesus only practiced black magic. So I took him few just a couple of the Messianic prophecy, and pointed out that they cannot be fulfilled today, since the conditions have already passed. Then I built that at the time of Christ the time was fulfilled.
He said his main argument against Christianity is that they don’t help anyone. He then cited a account of when he was on the train and he saw this person have a seizure. The man then went on to say that all the Christians ignored this person. I asked how did he know there were even Christians on the train, his answer was one of “They wore crosses”. I tried to point out that wearing a cross doesn’t make one a Christian, but he would have none of it. But then God brought to memory something that I saw earlier in the night.

While we were walking to the Queen street mall, we had to walk through a large pack of Raelians, they basically believe we come from alien clones. But as I walked past I noticed that they all wore the Star of David. So when I was trying to get through to this Jewish man, I asked him about aliens, and then about what he thought about people that believed we came from aliens. His response was predictable, he said “They are crazy!” So I replied by saying “Well those people must all be Jews”. He didn’t like that, so I told him that they must be based on them wearing the Star of David. It was then that it clicked for him, that by wearing something doesn’t make one a Christian.

The hecklers continued on for some time, and I did my best to answer their questions, and then I wrapped it up. After I stepped down this man dressed all in black came up to speak to me. He was a very humble man and very open to the things of God. He asked a few questions about Christianity in relation to other religions, and from there I got to share the gospel with him.

By the time all this had finished it was time to head home, the night had flown by at a rapid pace, and in that time many got the gospel of Christ. Please continue to pray for them.

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson - Brisbane Team

http://www.xanga.com/hallelujah_joshm - Josh Mitchell; Gold Coast Team


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/5/21 7:24Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Wednesday, 23 May, 2007 [/b]

A light westerly breeze was blowing as I made my way to the combined youth and young adults meeting at my church, as the temperature dropped we had all gathered to watch one of the nations biggest rugby league matches - Queensland vs. New South Wales, in the State of Origin.

When I arrived it was good to see that I was not the only New South Wales supporter in a room full of Queenslanders, but still we were outnumbered. The night started with Tim Downes sharing a mission spot and informing all those present about how he is being sent to Malawi next year as a full time missionary. As Tim was speaking I noticed three young men enter the back of the church, one of them I knew and was certain that he was solid in his faith. But the other two guys I didn’t know.

As Tim spoke, I kept being drawn back to these two guys at the back of the church, and as I watched them, and saw how they were acting I knew they weren’t Christians. At this point of time the first thing that crossed my mind was “You have some tracts, go talk to them.” But of course at that point of time my old familiar foe appeared, and instantly I started to feel scared about sharing my faith with these two men. Then as I sat there thinking about my fears, then came the reasoning, “Well, you are here to watch a rugby league match, and plus if God has predestined them, then they will be saved, you need a break just sit back and relax.” So that is exactly what I decided to do.

Shortly after Tim finished speaking the match came on, and as I was watching I kept being drawn back to these two young men down the back of the church, and within I knew that I had to share the gospel with them. The more I thought about, the more I tried to reason myself out of it. Yet the feeling of compulsion grew til it felt as if I would burst if I didn’t share.

I kept pushing the thought if sharing the gospel back, and tried to concentrate on watching my team play in the match but I found that the match didn’t interest me, and all I could think of was going back there and telling these two blokes about Christ. I said a quick prayer and asked God to help me, and give me the courage to share the gospel.

At the half time break, I made a bee line to them and started a conversation, it turned out that these two guys were from a fairly rough background, one was running in a gang, and the other had just got out of the gangs. As I talked to them they started to open up and share about where they had come from in New Zealand and how they actually got to Australia.

By then one of them named Ben wanted to go outside for a cigarette so I went out with him, all the time praying that God would open the door for me sharing the gospel. Then as I spoke to Ben and Steve and opportunity presented itself, and as I was about to share with them, a young man from the youth interrupted! For the rest of the half time break I didn’t get a chance to share with them, but rather they spoke about the things they had seen while in gang fights. As the second half started we were still outside talking, and both of the guys wanted to keep on chatting instead of going back to watch the match.

Finally we all went back inside, and the gospel still hadn’t been shared. This time I was the one down the back, and as I stood there I was praying that God would give me a chance to present the whole gospel to them before we all left for the night.

I was not interested in any aspect of the match that was being played, and even though my team was being beaten, I couldn’t care less all I wanted to do was witness to these two young men, who had only came to the youth to see the football match.

The match ended so everyone quickly filed out of the building to avoid cleaning up the mess that had been created, and as Ben and Steve left I quickly followed them out the back of the church. Again they lit up cigarettes, and had a quick puff before leaving. It was then that Steve asked if I could drive them home since they didn’t want to walk in the cold. I though to myself “YES! Here is the chance!” So I quickly agreed to driving them home.

Then as they finished off their smoke an opportunity presented itself, since the topic of the death came up and how much of it they had seen in the life of a gang member. Even though there were youth from the church hanging around causing distractions I asked; “What do you think happens when some dies?” They both paused and looked at each other then said “We aren’t sure”, Steve went on to say that he believed in heaven and a hell. Ben just nodded his head in agreement.

The next question I posed to them was “So where will you go if tonight you died?” They both looked at the ground and then back at me, and said “I am not sure, but I am hoping I will go up, since good people go to heaven, and I am not that bad”.

From there I was able to take them through the law of God, and show that compared to an infinitely Holy God, we as human beings are not good, but rather we are corrupt and full of sin. They both then admitted that they would go to hell, and that scared them a lot. So I pushed it a bit further and asked them “If I was driving you home to tonight, and we got T boned by a truck as we crossed an intersection, does it concern you that you will end up in hell?” They both nodded, and were now paying full attention, so from their I explained the cross of Christ to them, and how if we humbly come to God in repentance He will save us and grant us eternal life.

At the end of sharing I gave both of these young men a tract each, I reached into my pocket to find that I only had a couple of Chick tracts left. So I gave them to Ben and Steve. As Steve looked at it he said “I have seen this comic before, I can’t remember much but all I remember is the angel at the end saying “His name does not appear Lord!” and then seeing a person thrown into hell.” That surprised me, and I thought to myself it is truly amazing that God’s Word has planted seeds in his heart that are now coming to the surface.

I asked them if they had Bibles, they both said they did, so I encouraged them to go home and grab their Bibles and read them. Then Steve did something that shocked me, he took off his hat and asked “Can I pray right now?” I was stunned, so I said “Go for it!”

Steve prayed, and while it wasn’t a prayer of repentance, it was heart felt. He prayed and thanked God for giving them another chance to hear the gospel, he then thanked God for sending me to go and share with them, so that they might know where they stand before Him.

It was such a humbling experience to hear Steve pray like that, and to be perfectly honest I was really convicted for being scared and wanting to not share the gospel, it really got me thinking about how we should always be on the ready to share our faith, and no matter what we feel like we should still present the Glorious Gospel.

After Steve finished praying, I went and grabbed the youth pastor and informed him of what had happened, so he came out and swapped contact details with Ben and Steve.

They both said that they will come to church on Sunday, and that they wanted to learn more, so if you can please keep these two men in your prayers, that they might come to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

It was then time to leave so as I drove them home that is what they were talking about, the gospel was the topic of conversation among those who were not saved, which I found to be of great encouragement. First one to drop off was Ben, and as he left he assured us that he will see us on Sunday at church.

Then as we crossed the intersection leading to Steve’s house we saw a truck coming, and Steve started talking again about what if we die in a crash, and then paused to think about where he was going. When we got him home he said that he had butterflies in his stomach and that he was really nervous about what had been presented that night, since it has given him a lot to think about.

Then after I had dropped everyone home I was alone in the car with just God and myself, and I couldn’t help but stop and praise Him for being faithful, even though I didn’t want to share Christ. Tonight was a learning curve for me, even though I evangelise on a weekly basis, I still suffer with fear and I guess I always will. But the Lord has promised to be with His people no matter what. So if God be for us, who can be against us?

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/5/24 22:48Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 27 May, 2007 [/b]

I had a nice and early start this morning, since I had to be down to Beenleigh Baptist by 7:50am, for it was the day of the Way of the Master Evangelism One Day Training Course. John Legg from Way of the Master Australia, had flown up from Melbourne to conduct the training, and we were expecting around 60 people to attend the event.

The numbers we expected showed up, and the vast majority of them had done no previous evangelism training, so it was great to see all these new people learn how to share their faith in a simple but effective way.

At around 4:30pm the training day finished, so I rushed home to get ready for the night of evangelism in Brisbane city. I arrived at King George Square at 7:30pm and was greeted by three of the other team members who had arrived early. We had a quick time of fellowship then came time for team prayer, and Bible reading.

At around 9pm we set up in the Queen street mall, and Andrew Hsu was the first preacher up for the night. With a team strength of about 20 people, and not too many people walking the mall, I thought we were in for a nice quiet night. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Andrew started off by preaching “God Loves You and Has a Wonderful Plan for you life” but then he expounded what he meant, and pointed to how our wonderful plan is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever. Things seemed fairly quiet while Andrew was preaching, he had a couple of hecklers but nothing to much. Then all of a sudden I noticed one of the male hecklers who happened to be a homosexual turn and try to smash our video camera. Desma was filming so she grabbed the camera to save it, and as a result this heckler grabbed her and slammed her against a big pole. Desma did her best to defend herself which resulted in her punching the man who was a lot bigger than her. But by this stage both Jeremy and myself had arrived on the scene and we began to physical restrain this heckler. The hecklers mind was on destroying the camera, and he wasn’t going to let it go, but somehow we got him away from the camera and we moved him on up the mall. His homosexual partner then started to abuse us and curse us, but we pointed out that legally they were in the wrong, and if they wished to push it any further we would be more than happy to call upon the Queensland Police to assist. They both walked off cursing.

This shook Desma up a fair bit but she stayed on her post and continued to film the preaching.

Andrew finished a short time later, so I quickly went to organise another preacher. This time it fell to John Legg as visiting speaker, but he passed up on the opportunity so Josh Mitchell got to have a go. He started in preaching the full counsel of God and a not to bad crowd gathered. A couple started to hurl abuse but he held his own against them, then a couple of Irish Roman Catholics came in and started to abuse the preacher, and even said they could do it since they were the ‘original Christians’, Josh turned and stated that the Roman Catholic Church was not a Christian church for it went against the Holy Bible. This caused a gasp to come from the crowd, and also the Irishmen, Josh turned and went back to another heckler, and didn’t think anymore of it.

I was able to circle behind the Irishmen and start a conversation with them, they were all raging drunk but they left with tracts, and wanted to shake our hands.

Shortly after this I noticed another heckler moving in close to Josh and he began to make fists, and he adopted the fighting stance, so I moved myself into position to protect the preacher if a fight did indeed erupt. Every time this guy moved in closer to Josh a big islander would step in a push the heckler back, this annoyed the heckler but he was smart enough not to mess with the big bloke.

That same heckler then moved on and started to make threats to another member of the team, so we circled about keeping an eye on the situation.

At around 11:15pm, Josh tagged me in since he had to get his wife and kids home, so I picked up where he left off with the same crowd and hecklers that he had. The first gentleman I spoke to was named Jerry, and he was very open to the gospel, but as I shared with him an American started to interrupt and declare that we were wrong and that we were making too many assumptions. I asked him to be a decent bloke and wait his turn but he wouldn’t have a bar of it. So I turned to him after asking Jerry if it was all right, and asked the American what he didn’t like. The man declared himself to be a god, and then went on to state that we are all god in some way. After challenging him he tried to change topic, and said “In Christianity, if I go off and do right, then I go to heaven, but if I do bad then it is hell”. I informed him that he had a faulty understanding of what Christianity is, and then asked to explain it to him. He said he wanted to know, so I went back to Genesis, and began at creation to explain how everything was good til sin entered the world. From there I pointed out how because of sin we became dead in sin (Eph. 2:1) and as dead men we don’t have any choice but to decompose more and more into sin. He said he understood, but he didn’t believe it because he was god. At this point I turned to him and said; “You are the same as Lucifer, for you to say ‘I will ascend into the Heavens, and I will be as God! But God cast Lucifer down for his outright pride and rebellion, and God to will one day cast you down. Lucifer fell and became Satan, and one day the nations will gather and look upon him and say ‘Is this the one who made the nations tremble? How you have fallen oh Lucifer!” When I finished saying this a man who was standing next to the American ripped off his hat and started to scream, his face became contorted and you could see pure hate in his eyes. I believed this man was manifesting a demon, so I turned and stated that “Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and that Satan was defeated at the cross!” No sooner had I finished saying this and the man started to run at me and scream in some demonic tongue. The only thing to do was to answer with scripture, so I said “Sir, the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse you from all sin”. The man grabbed his hair yelled “The Blood, The Blood!” and then disappeared up the mall.

This seemed to shake up the American for he was fairly angry after that, he was so mad that he walked up and slammed a lit cigarette into my face which burnt, he then left.

Another heckler soon came and took his place. This time it was a old man with a walking stick who claimed to be a Christian but didn’t believe in hell. As I spoke to him he began to curse and swear, so I pointed out that the Bible says that we should let corrupt communication flow from our lips. He again began to blaspheme, it was then that I said to him that he was an impostor and not a Christian, for he denied God, and denied the Bible. The old man began to yell and abuse, and started to get really nasty, but I had to keep answering with scripture.

It was nearing midnight at this stage, so I wrapped it up so that we might keep within our council permit restrictions, but announced that if anyone had questions that they could come and talk to me.

As soon as I stepped down the one to ones started, just like a well oiled machine the team just started to talk to those who had gathered to listen to the preaching, these one to ones continued for about another hour.

1am was nearing when this drunk man approached Dan and I to try and guess our star signs, but Dan was quick to engage him in a one to one. As it turned out this man was a son of Christian missionaries, and had even done a stint as a missionary himself, yet here he was out on the streets of Brisbane city drunk and on his way to a strip club. Dan kept bringing the man back to the scriptures and seemed to be making a little ground, but then this man’s drunk Irish friend approached and announced that no one could sin with their eyes, so I said, “But Jesus said “Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery in their heart.” No sooner had the last word left my lips when this man turned and punched me in the chest. It was a good solid punch and it really hurt, he then said “What do you say now?” All I could say was “You need to repent and trust in Jesus.” His friend then dragged him away.

Tonight by far was the most violent night I have ever seen towards those who are witnessing. There was a lot of hatred and hostility towards those who were sharing the gospel, yet even in that darkness God was working on the hearts of those who heard. One woman approached us and she said that for the past few weeks she has been heckling and abusing us, but she has been feeling really bad about it, and asked that we forgive her. This led to a chance to share the gospel with her yet again. Also about 15 New Testaments were handed out to those who were interested in learning more.

Please keep us in prayer as we seek to proclaim the gospel in Brisbane.

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/5/28 7:04Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 2 June 2007 [/b]

A cold night with a light rain, that was the conditions in which we went out into the streets of Brisbane city to share the glorious gospel of grace.

Tonight we only had a small crew, but God knew what He was doing and enabled us to fill all the roles which normally take many more people to do. The night was very quiet, and the mall only had a few people walking within it. But the gospel is to be proclaimed to the ones and twos, not just the masses. So it was with that in mind that we set up for the night.

Andrew Hsu was the first preacher up, and as he began to speak this old man who decided to sit just down from us turned on his radio really loud as to drown out the preacher. Andrew seemed to ignore it, but for us who were listening it was very hard to hear him preach. So Jeremy and I began to pray and ask God to some how stop the music, no sooner than we had said “Amen”, the man reached down and started to fiddle with the radio because the frequency began to drop out. This sent the elderly man searching for another station to turn on, but he couldn’t seem to find any. Finally he got onto a weak station that was playing ‘soft’ music.
Andrew kept on preaching throughout this time, and while he was preaching some people came back to the Bible table which Jeremy and I were manning, so this opened up and one to one conversation.

Then a heckler came up to Hsuy and yelled “I am homophobic!” After that he came around the back to me and was quickly corrected by his mate to say “I am a homosexual”. This man was looking for a debate over how God views the sin of sodomy. So I started in on the conversation by simply asking what does he think will happen on the day he dies. The man paused and thought about it for a few moments, and then triumphantly said; “I will go to heaven, since I am a decent bloke!” This was a golden opportunity to open up on the good test to see if he really was a ‘decent bloke’.

After speaking with him for some time, he admitted that he was on the road to hell, but that it didn’t bother him all that much since he was young and in no way would die yet. So I told him the story about the many young Australians that were killed while at a nightclub in Bali a few years ago. That made his mate sit up and pay attention, but he wasn’t overly concerned. Although they all promised to think about it more, and then they all took tracts. I had a sneaking suspicion that the man wasn’t really a homosexual and this was confirmed when he proceeded to hit on a female heckler.

It wasn’t long after this that Andrew finished preaching, and then we quickly broke off into handing out tracts and one to one witnessing. It was really noticeably that we were down on numbers since we had to keep filling the gaps were people normally stood to hand out tracts. But it was by God’s grace that He enabled the six of us to complete the task at hand.

At 10:30pm, it was time for me to preach, so I started off by talking about how all Australians have a stalker that is behind them, and that the stalker would one day claim each person as their own. From there I launched into how we are all stalked by death, and will one day give an account of our lives to the Holy God who sees our innermost thoughts. It was clearly quiet for normally about this far in I would have a heckler yelling at me, but tonight nothing was happening. Then Paul arrived! Paul was a middle aged man with no teeth and who was raging drunk, when he arrived he proceeded to give me a mouthful of some ‘unknown tongue’, he then climbed up next to me to hug me and also yell in my ear.

This really helped out on a quiet night for it grew a crowd, in which more hecklers were hiding. One man was a really good heckler and I was able to share with him about his sin, and about the righteous standard of God. But before I could get to grace this young woman entered in and began to abuse. She was one of those hecklers who were not reasonable, all she did was yell and scream. But when challenged she couldn’t back up her view points, so she quickly then began to attack other points. She asked questions like “Is the Roman Catholic Church Christian?” To which I replied that it wasn’t for they denied Holy Scripture. She then moved on to another question, but then a few minutes later asked the same question about Romanism. By the end of the night she asked the same question about the Papists ten times. And it was at that point other hecklers were becoming annoyed at her, and wanted her to leave.

Andrew came in and was able to engage her in a one to one. Then some of the other hecklers began to ask some really good questions like; “Where did evil come from?” “Why did God allow Adam and Eve to sin?” “Do we have free will?” “What about other religions?” “Doesn’t Evolution disprove the Bible?”

I endeavoured to answer their questions, and kept bringing it back to sin and repentance, these hecklers were respectful and even got angered when someone was rude to me as I was preaching. In the end they all took tracts, and walked away thanking us for doing what we do.

It was about midnight when I stepped down, and then a few people from the crowd came across to talk more about the preaching and also to ask some other questions about God.

We finally got packed up and were able to leave just after 1am, overall even though it was quiet God still got His message out there!

[b] Sunday, 3 June 2007 [/b]

Tonight was a special night for the Operation 513 evangelism team, for we had been invited to go onto a local secular radio station during their religious broadcast, to discuss the street ministry.

The object of the night was to encourage the saints in the work of evangelism, and also to equip believers in any way that we could. The interview began at 8:30pm and was scheduled to go for about 30 minutes. The radio hosts said that they were encouraged and they exhorted the listeners get out and do something for the Kingdom of God. They also asked us for our evangelism training packs so that they could spread it around the local pastors!

Then after the interview we stopped off to get something to eat, and as I was about to begin my meal, I heard Andrew call out for me to come over to the counter. So I got up and I saw a young man named Tim who we had witnessed to a few months previous at Easter time. This was the young man who we had interviewed for Way of the Master Radio and while we were recording he repented. To our surprise Tim remembered us and came out from the kitchen to say “G’day” and have a quick chat. It was really encouraging for us to see this young man after a few months to see that he remember us and to hear that he was going on in his faith. It was the perfect end to a great night!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/6/4 9:58Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 9 June, 2007 [/b]

The day started off bad! I had to get up nice and early in the cold, so I could make my way to Brisbane city so that we could do some phone fishing for Way of the Master Radio. The idea of phone fishing was great, but trying to get to the city really put the brakes on my excitement. For starters the train was late, so I had to stand out in the cold wind while waiting for the train, then we were all informed that the train lines were closed for repairs so we would have to change from train to bus, thus adding an extra thirty minutes to the travel time. But these little diversions allowed me to hand out a few more tracts than I normally would on the train, so it had an upside.

I arrived in the city at 11:10am, and then I got the call from the Way of the Master Radio in the USA. Trevor and I quickly grabbed a young man for Ray Comfort and Todd Friel to chat to. This young man was 17 years old and he was your typical young Aussie bloke, he didn’t take life to seriously, and throughout the interview he didn’t take spiritual matters that seriously either. Before they all left we were able to give tracts to them all, and then before we knew it we had another person to interview. This time it was a Emo bloke named Paris. He openly said that he disliked Christians, so it looked like Ray was going to have an interesting phone conversation.

By the end Paris thanked us for putting him on the radio, and then he and his mates took tracts.

After this I had to rush home and begin to get ready for the outreach that night. I was running a bit late as I picked everyone up for our weekly street meetings in the Queen Street Mall. But everyone was in good spirits, and we were all looking forward to yet another awesome night of sharing the gospel.

We had two new men join the team tonight, and it was great to see others who have never done street evangelism before get excited at the prospect of sharing their faith on the street. As a team we read through the book of Titus and then we made our way to the mall to begin preaching.

Josh Mitchell was the first man up for the night, although I didn’t get to hear his preaching since two young men came past and asked if they could have a free Bible. We gladly gave both them a Bible and then I proceeded to witness to them. They were both Catholic and when pressed about their sins they faulted a bit, and then quickly said that they would have to go to the priest and confess, otherwise they would end up in hell. This is something we hear on a weekly basis, there are so many people who believe that by confessing their sins to a priest that they are then good to go, but nothing could be further from the truth.

So I asked them; “If I was to hit one of you, and then later on a I felt bad for what I did, should I go apologise to you, or apologise to someone who wasn’t there?” They both answered that I should apologise to the one that I hit. From there I asked them why then wouldn’t they confess to God since after all when we sin we are basically hitting Him.

They both nodded in agreement as I explained it to them, then I asked them to get out the Bibles that we had just given them. Then I showed them in their Bibles the passage from 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Then I asked, “So based on that verse, who should we confess to?” It was then as if a light went on, and they realised and acknowledged that they didn’t need a priest, but rather the Scripture was clear that they need to confess to God. One young man in particular seemed to be right on the edge of repenting, and I truly believe that he would indeed bow the knee and confess Christ Jesus as Lord.

After this, I handed out a few tracts and then saw a mate that I hadn’t seen for some time so I quickly walked over to have a yarn to him while Josh was still preaching. Not long after this Josh Mitchell wrapped up his sermon, and then everyone broke into one to one witnessing.

I had one young man who asked about predestination and if God has a plan for everyone’s life. I answered him from the Scripture, and showed him the verses that talk about us being sinners before a Holy God, and how it is only by Him saving us, that we can indeed be born again.

The man stated that he was a Christian, but the more I quizzed him the more it became apparent that the man was a false convert, since he admitted to getting drunk all time, and even swearing uncontrollably. So again I opened up the Scripture to show him that because of his sin he was not saved, and needed to repent. He then quickly tried to change the topic back to predestination. But I wasn’t prepared to go down that path, and informed him that the doctrine of election was the least of his worries, but rather his main concern should be ‘where will I spend eternity?’

The man had no desire to talk about salvation so I thanked him for his time, and prepared to preach. The text I preached from was Revelation 20:11-15 - sermon title: “Australians don’t like to be judged”.

As I spoke about how we judge others, yet we don’t like being judged ourselves, I reminded those listening that one day they will face the judge that has seen their inner most thoughts. It was around this time the hecklers started, although tonight the hecklers were fairly weak to begin with. They would say something, and then literally run away.

I began to wonder if indeed I would get any decent hecklers tonight, when a man from the back of the crowd started to call out abuse, and as he screamed he started to shout things like “God is dead!” The crowd cheered him on as he made those statements, so I asked “When did God die?” That made him pause, and he never answered that question, but it was then that I noticed that the man had satanic emblems emblazed all over the place.

I thought this would be a good topic to ask him about, so I asked about the emblems and what he believes about Satanism. The man professed to be a hardcore Satanist, and that really played to the crowds anti God attitude. As the crowd cheered him on the man began to get more bolder and started to claim that logically he could disprove the Bible, and that he knew hell was not real. Still the crowd roared in support of the man, he then jumped up on the seat next to me and began to preach Satanism to the gathered crowd.

It was then as if I had become the heckler, and he the preacher. So I started to quiz him about certain things in the Bible. He said he respected my belief but said that I was brain washed. To which I agreed and stated that my mind had been washed by the Word of God.

The Satanist stood his ground as I explained from the Bible about what hell is really like, and who would indeed end up there. He also remained quiet when I spoke about how Christ had come to destroy the works of the devil, and how one day the nations will look upon the devil and ask “Is this the one that made the nations tremble?” Although when I started to preach about how then that Satan would be cast into the lake of fire, he began to yell and scream. So after I finished reading the passage about Satan’s judgment, I then flipped my Bible across to Philippians 2 and read aloud how at the name of Jesus Christ every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord for the Glory of God the Father!

The Satanist then opened up a barrage of filthy language, and then screamed that he was sick of this, and that he could prove the Bible to be full of lies. So I handed him a Bible and asked him to prove it. He had a confident look as he said “easy!” He then grabbed the Bible held it up for the whole crowd to see, and yelled “WHO BELIEVES THIS BOOK!” To my surprise, and also to his, the whole crowd put their hand up to say they believed in the Bible! This was the same crowd who earlier was cheering him on and cursing God, were now openly saying they believed the Bible to be true.

The Satanist then went on a rant for a few minutes, but then I pulled him up and pointed out that he hadn’t actually proved any lies yet. So again he started to shout and yell about the Bible being full of errors. At this time it was 11:50pm and our permit would run out within a few minutes, so I thanked him for his opinion, and then turned to the crowd, and asked them, “Who thinks he has proven the Bible to be false?” Not one single person raised their hand or nodded their head. Then I asked “Who thinks he has failed to disprove the Bible?” To this everyone put their hand up.

When the Satanist saw this he looked angry, and also shocked. So I thought it would be wise to give him a way out. I turned to him and said “I am sure that you are a very smart man, but you were caught off guard tonight, so you weren’t ready to disprove the Bible, so here is what I will do. Each week I am here, so I will give you a Bible and you can go away and read it, and then prepare you arguments against it.” He agreed, shook my hand and took the Bible and a tract.

I quickly wrapped up the open air, since our permit only had a few seconds remaining, and then the one ones began with those who were in the crowd. I had this one young man come up to me who was a former Jehovah Witness who stated that he was now confused since he didn’t know what to believe. I was able to minister to him from the Word of God, and as we spoke he seemed to grasp the Biblical message of repentance, as we parted ways he said that he was going home to check it out more.

Praise God for an awesome night in which He showed His Glory!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/6/11 7:16Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 16 June, 2007 [/b]

Tonight I was in pain, after going bush walking with the young adults from my church, I had someone injured myself during the walk and ended up with a sprained ankle, plus some other muscle injury…

So I didn’t feel like doing much tonight as we come out on the streets to declare the gospel of grace. We met as a team at the normal time, and it was good to see a new face among the group. The young man that had joined us we had met the week prior, and he was encouraged by the notion of street evangelism, so he decided that he would come out to witness for the Glory of God.

As a team we prayed for a time, and then we sat down to read the first four chapters of John’s gospel. After this we had a few minutes of fellowship before we made our way up into the Queen Street Mall.

Since it is winter the mall was fairly quiet, so we didn’t expect a very big night, but we have found in the past that when it is quiet normally the worse hecklers appear. Tim Neale was the first man up to preach for the night, and for someone who doesn’t preach very often he did a great job. He soon had a heckler who believed himself to be a good person, but when confronted with the Law to bring the knowledge of sin, he started to justify his lifestyle. The heckler tried to argue his way out of it by stating that he didn’t believe in the Bible, but Tim wasn’t going to let him off that easily. Tim started to talk about how our belief in no way changes the reality of the situation, and then Tim pulled out a great presupposition that stunned the heckler. The heckler had called, “I don’t believe it!” To which Tim replied, “God’s Word is True, and it says it!” The man didn’t argue that line of thought much more.

A few hecklers then started in on the whole evolutionary issue, at this time Tim tagged Andrew Hsu in to finish off the sermon. Like myself, Andrew too was not feeling all the best, but despite his illness he did a great job in preaching the gospel to a bunch of hecklers.

As Hsuy finished preaching the team broke off into one to one witnessing, and this saw many of the hecklers get witnessed to on a personal basis. And as I assess what happened that night, I am convinced that after any open air there needs to be a session of one to one to the crowd that was gathered. For many a time the person listening to the open air may think that the preacher is talking about someone else, and that it doesn’t worry them, but when the personal witnessing occurs it brings it right home that the preacher was indeed addressing them.
It then was time for Kevin to get up and open air preach, I placed myself behind him in case he needed me to back him up, but I wasn’t needed. Kev opened up and did a great job, and for the next hour he preached the everlasting gospel. One interesting thing about the time Kevin was preaching, was the fact that he got heckled by three people from his home church! This amazed me, but even more impressive was that Kevin didn’t give them any slack for going to his church, but rather he spoke to them as he would any other person. During the preaching one girl from Kevin’s church just stood and laughed, and even mocked the preacher. But her boyfriend seemed a bit more concerned about his soul.

They eventually left, and Kevin continued with his preaching, but then within ten minutes they were back, and this time the girl that was mocking was in tears. She came up to myself and Dan, then she said to us that she was a backslidden Christian, and that she was in rebellion against God. Now this was a shock to Dan and I, since a few minutes earlier she was mocking, but now God had brought conviction upon her. Dan and I were able to pray with her, and encourage her to get on her knees before God and cry out for mercy.

After awhile Kevin finished preaching, and tagged me straight in. I started off by preaching about how today we Creation that bears witness to a Creator, and that by the general revelation of God, we are without excuse. Within moments a heckler that had screamed at Kevin came back and this time decided to scream at me. He was an atheist and wanted to argue against God, but when faced with the proof of God he wouldn’t believe it. The man became very angry and it resulted in his mates dragging him away as he yelled at me. But before they left both him, and his mates took Bibles. So pray that these atheists will come unto repentance.

The rest of the night was fairly slow, I got to talk to a Hindu and a Muslim while I was preaching, both of them were fairly open and it was good to be able to share the full gospel with them. It is really encouraging to see the amount of people walking away with Bibles. God is really starting to do something in Brisbane city, and I truly believe it is only a matter of time before the fruit of repentance comes into season.

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/6/18 8:41Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 23 June, 2007 [/b]

There was a light drizzle of rain falling as we made our way into Brisbane city for what appeared to be a nice quiet night of witnessing. When we parked the car we soon realised that there wasn’t very many people in town. So we quickly had to make a decision on if we were going to preach or just do one to ones. After a bit of discussion we decided that the preacher would preach under an umbrella while the rest of the team handed out tracts and witnessed on a one to one basis.

We had our normal time of prayer, and corporate team Bible reading, and from there we went to the mall to set up for the night. Straight away it was clear that we had far to many team members for the small undercover area in which we were witnessing, so we decided to send out three of the guys to do a tract run up and down the mall. So the three guys took off handing out tracts to everyone they passed.

Josh Mitchell was the first preacher up for the night, and he did a good job in the adverse conditions. While he was preaching two Brisbane City Council officials approached us and informed us that we are no longer allowed to film the preaching with a video camera on a tripod. So we quickly took the camera off and continued to film free hand. Then the same two council workers went up to the guys handing out tracts on the tract run, and stated that they couldn’t do that outside of the designated areas. So it looked like it was fast becoming one of those nights were everything was beginning to go wrong.

Josh preached for near on an hour, and after he had finished the team continued in the one to ones and also tracting people as they walked past. It then fell to me to get up and preach. But before we started the next preacher a decision was made to send a four man team down to the nightclub district and get them to witness down there. We later found out that even the nightclub area was deserted due to the weather.

So I started in on my preaching, and tonight I knew that there would be no crowds, and no hecklers. So I just kept plugging away at the gospel, and building the case on how Christ is the only way unto salvation. I had been preaching for about fifteen minutes when a young man stopped and he asked a couple of questions. So I began to quiz him on what he thinks happens when someone dies. The young bloke had the typical answers, and even believed that he would go to heaven. I began to probe his conscience by using the ten commandments, and he soon admitted to not being a good person.

It was also around this time, that a thought crossed my mind that it was very quiet in the mall, and how peaceful it was… And then the most violent heckler we have ever seen decided to have a go at the preaching…

The man started in by asking questions about if I was a homosexual, I replied that I wasn’t and that I was talking to another person so he would have to wait a few moments before I answer anymore of his questions. Well the man didn’t like that, so he looked around and then yelled “I am going to smack your head in!” I looked at him and stated that if he did do that I would continue to preach the gospel. The man continued to make threatening motions towards me, when an old man decided enough was enough, and he put himself between me and the heckler. The old man told the heckler that he should get some respect, and not threaten a preacher. This made the heckler openly declare that there is no Jesus, and that he would also punch the head in of the old man.

The old man then decided to head off to get the police, the heckler turned back to me with an evil look in his eyes, so I quickly informed him that everything was being filmed and if he did get violent the police will have the footage. The heckler just laughed and said that he was going to smack my teeth out. So I kept preaching, thinking that this man was looking for a fight. Also moving in behind me was Andrew Hsu, and Jeremy. Both of them had positioned themselves in a place where they could react if it got violent.

The heckler turned and got really abusive, so I looked at him and preached the gospel. As I preached and used the name of Jesus he became increasingly angry. Then I saw him drop his shoulder and swing at me. Since I saw it coming I was able to block the punch that was aimed at my head. Andrew had then moved to position himself between myself and the heckler. The heckler turned and threw a right hook straight into Andrew’s ear. This left Andrew stunned, now it was time for Jeremy to come rushing in to protect Andrew.

As Jeremy came in he was able to get the heckler away from the preaching, but the heckler decided to fight on. He continued to throw punches and then started to wrestle Jeremy to the ground. The crowd which had now built, looked at the fight, and then back at me. So I decided to keep on preaching. By now Jeremy had broke off from the heckler and the man was fast returning towards me. This time he threw a punch at my stomach, while I was not able to block the full force of it, I was able to slow it down so it didn’t hurt. The heckler then grabbed me by the jacket and pulled me off the box I was preaching on. The man started to drag me, so I grabbed his arm in a effort to get him off me. Then heckler then decided to get more physical, but I wasn’t about to let him get a grip on me in a position where I could not block a punch. Some how in the scuffle the man’s shirt got ripped, but that didn’t slow him down.

The friends of the original young man I was talking to came running across to assist, but the violent heckler didn’t like that. The boys that were assisting would have been around 15, as they approached the heckler turned on them, and punched one of them. So now we had to jump in between this fight to save the original heckler from beating up a bunch of bystanders that came to our aide.

By God’s Grace we were able to separate the two sides, and then the heckler decided to turn again and take out more fury on me. But by this stage many people had called the police, and the original old man had returned. So the violent heckler turned to the old man and started to threaten him. I was able to position myself between the two of them, and tried to reason with the violent heckler. But of course a man in that state is beyond reason.

Then the police arrived, and they quickly grabbed the violent heckler and placed him in handcuffs. By the time it was finished there were 16 police officers, and three police cars in attendance. The violent heckler continued to yell and make threats. But the police quickly searched him, and placed him in the back of a police vehicle. All the time while the man was being arrested he was yelling out that the he was only being arrested for not believing in Jesus.

The police took our statements and wanted us to press charges, but we all refused stating that God showed us mercy, so we also will show mercy. We were then able to share the gospel with some of the police who attended. The man was arrested on disturbing the peace, and being a public nuisance. So he spent the night in lock up. After that we just continued to one to one, and I thought the night had spun out it last bit of excitement, but again I was wrong.

Andrew had developed a swollen ear from where he was hit, and then he began to complain about his eyesight not being able to focus on objects that were near to him. So I checked him out and saw that he showed all the signs of concussion. It was then decided that it was best for him to go to the hospital to be checked out for any damage.

At 2:30am, Andrew was released from the emergency ward suffering only concussion from the blow.

Praise God for His faithfulness in protecting us, and allowing us to share the gospel for His Glory!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.xanga.com/Josh_Williamson


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2007/6/25 6:16Profile





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