Beginnings

So why start a new blog?

I toyed with the idea of starting a Christian blog for awhile now. Then I had to think of its purpose, target audience, etc. After much deliberating, procrastinating and other external factors, I have decided to make this an evangelism blog targeted at Christians. Note that I said 'evangelism', not 'evangelistic' meaning its a discussion about evangelism not a blog that's meant to reach out to non-Christians (evangelistic).

What do I plan to achieve with this blog?

1. Accountability for myself: My fire and passion for evangelism goes through peaks and troughs. I do not yet have a consistent fire like some great men (Billy Graham, Reinhard Bonkke, John Wesley). Now that people out there know what I'm doing with my time, whether or not I am evangelising, I can be accountable for my time and hopefully force myself to put evangelism a lot higher on my priority list.

2. Encouragement for others: I hope that my readers would also be stirred, get off their bums and start preaching the Word to their own circle of friends.

3. Discussion and learning: I hope to learn from visitors to the blog and hope that what I know can also benefit others. It can also become an avenue for other people to share their stories and struggles. Together, through brainstorming, more ideas will be generated and more people will be excited about evangelism!

4. Prayer support: When we know what each of us is going through we can pray for each other.

5. Church: I did propose to my church leadership during a meeting that an evangelistic blog is a tool for evangelism. So hopefully I will see more people coming to my local church, HOPE Frankston.

The Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20)
¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Acts 1: ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

I guess our job is pretty straightforward.

1. Make disciples of all nations. Probably starting with our own. Well personally I'm in Australia so I'm working in a mission field some what (not my home country which is Malaysia)

2. Teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us. Wow, that's hard. I'm not even obeying everything myself.

3. Be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. That's what we're called to do, witness, not convert! Holy Spirit converts! Always! Its just like telling people that the Maccas (McDonalds) soft serve vanilla ice cream (cone) rocks! That's all we can do. At the end of the day people would have to go there and buy it themselves. They have to make their own decision.

And with the ends of the earth thing, its good to dream big but you work on your end and I work on my end, then we'll talk.



My aim is also that other people will write and contribute to this blog. I'm not 100% sure what the best way of doing this is. Maybe I'll ask Kien.

Lastly, with the blog's name, we are all called to be soldiers of the Lord's army. The question we have to ask ourselves is what kind of soldier are we? The Lord will hold us accountable for the life we live on this earth. How much of our life have we used to impact others and bring them into the kingdom? We are kingdom soldiers! Are you gonna be a soldier that spends most of his/her time in the barracks (church) or be out in the field fighting for souls?

The irony is we spend a lot more time in the field than the barracks, just that we're not spending it fighting for souls.

Let me end with a favourite childhood song of mine...

I'm in the Lord's Army


I may never march in the infantry,
Ride with the calvary,
Shoot the artillery,
I may never fly over the enemy,
But I'm in the Lord's army

I'm in the Lord's army
Yes sir
I'm in the Lord's army
Yes sir