SALVATION IS HERE

Salvation is here
Salvation is here and He lives in me
Salvation is here
Salvation that died just to set me free
Salvation is here
Salvation is here and He lives in me
Salvation is here

Its true!!! Its true!!! God is gracious! We have seen the first salvation of the year in Frankston!
How wondrous, how glorious it is to witness a person moving from darkness to light! It is the work of the Holy Spirit, a miracle. For only God can change a person's heart. No amount of persuasion of ours would work without God's hand.

It was one of those things where everything fell into place perfectly, so perfectly that it could only have been orchestrated by God. All I did was to be obedient in witnessing!
I had planned to go with Hannah to witness to her friend after church on Sunday. Problem was, my friend Jo Ann also planned to come visit me and I was also meant to go have dinner with David and his friend. I'm like... agh.. overcommitting yet again.
But David had already met his friend without me on Saturday night. Then, Jo Ann stalled too long and decided not to come. So my whole evening was free.

FLASHBACK: April 09' HOPE Oceania Convention. I decided to be serious about my witness in Frankston. I told the Lord I would fast (or abstain) from my favourite snack, chocolate especially chocolate bars i.e. Snickers, Picnic, Time Out until I see the first salvation in Frankston. So everytime I saw chocolate, I was reminded of my desperate need to witness (because not being able to eat chocolate is no fun at all! haha..).

After witnessing, I waited for a sign from the person to confirm to me that the person was ready to accept Jesus. The person said some things which confirmed it to me. I explained what accepting Jesus meant using the EE points (1. Repent 2. Believe in Jesus, his death and resurrection 3. Accept Jesus as saviour 4. Accept Jesus as Lord) then I lead the person in the sinner's prayer.

After that, the person offered me chocolate and I was about to reject it but as I held it in my hand it dawned upon me that my fast was over! It was the Lord's way of telling me good job, son. Here, have some chocolate.

As I rejoiced on the way home, the enormity of what I had just done started to sink in. The Lord had used me (and Hannah of course!) for His glory! To turn a sinner to salvation! There was no greater thing you could do on this planet! There is no greater joy!*

I was feeling downright low, no I was crushed the day before because of my job situation. But the Lord was gracious. The Lord reminded me once again of my purpose in life! I do not live to be the best marketer around! I live for Jesus! I live to share the gospel of grace! I started jumping around my room like a monkey praising God (thank God I was home alone) and shouting at the top of my voice. I knew I had to shower so I continued praising God there. I kept singing Salvation is Here and Shout Unto God by Hillsong United. You know how when God touches people, they usually weep. Now that happens to me too, sometimes because of the guilt of my sin (Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret 2 Corinthians 7:10) sometimes because of intense stress but how God usually touches me is by infusing me with an incredible sense of joy that manifests itself in "holy laughter" or "laughing in the spirit". You know how people usually break down during slow, worshipful songs? There I was being a monkey in the shower singing Shout Unto God (A real fist pumping song)... and ZAP! I broke down... laughing!





As wounds which mar the chosen one, bring many sons to glory!





*To be politically correct, the only greater thing you could do is accept Jesus yourself and the joy of your own salvation should be the greatest joy.

Evangelism Explosion

When I was 19, I did my first and only evangelism course so far called Evangelism Explosion. Although I don't use this method all the time or even the complete method, (in fact I use it very little now) it was an excellent training course for me to give me a framework for evangelism and training me to talk to strangers about God.

This being the internet age, I just found out you can actually access the full EE Gospel Presentation online for free!!! Whee!!! EE Learning Cards

Healing & Campus Evax

At lifegroup we just wrapped up the book of James. A favourite of mine. Lots of key scriptures in there including...

James 5:
14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

One of my favourite passages, it talks about the power of prayer in healing. It has worked for me before. God has actually used me to bring about healing in a way that to me is amazing. A minor miracle. I have prayed for people with limps and they no longer limp after prayer.

So it was really interesting what happened yesterday. I was on the way to buy food for LG (KFC Wicked Wings! The bomb!) when I met an acquaintance of mine who was on crutches. She was a Muslim girl. Now I haven't actually done much evangelizing to Muslims before but I boldly asked if I could pray for her. I told her God had healed people before through my prayers. She allowed me to and I prayed.


Nothing tangible happened. She still walked with a limp and she wasn't healed.


Amazingly, I wasn't discouraged. Previously, I would always be discouraged when people weren't healed. But this time I wasn't. I knew in my heart that I had obeyed and that was enough! I knew this in theory ages ago but to actually experience it was novel.

Later that night Kelv and I prayed for Jake who had back and knee injuries. Despite our wholehearted prayers there was no change.

Twice in a day eh? It matters not. The Lord is sovereign. He heals when He wills. All we are called to do is pray. And I will keep on doing that even though I see no fruit till the day He calls me home.

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Campus Evax (Evangelism) is something that has been dead and buried in HOPE Melbourne. While the campus evax scene has been thriving in Brisbane, universities under HOPE Melbourne have not been 'campus evax-ed' to for ages.

So we started again this week, merely handing out fliers for a CCM (Campus Christian Movement) event. I wasn't there. It was a team led by the capable Hannah! Incredibly, first time in ages doing campus evax and God brought fruit out of our labour! A new guy (Christian) came to the meeting! Let's hope he stays and that he joins HOPE Frankston as well.

Witnessing in the Workplace: Ginseng Boss Part 2

The glory of God! At work! Today! Hallelujah!!!

God moved at work today! Guess what?

Ginseng boss is/might be interested in coming to church!!! And he might bring a posse!
HOLY COW! All this from one conversation? God is moving! He is powerful!

Basically he's interested because his sister is a churchgoer who has not been going to church recently. That's how he described her. Don't ask me. So he was interested in my church because its in Frankston, near the workplace.

Boss: Stephen, what time was your church service again?

Stephen: About 10am and I finish at 1pm. Do you need me to come in on Sunday?

Boss: Naah. Nothing like that. Just that Alice here works on a Sunday. And she is interested in going to church. So I was thinking since your church is nearby she might be able to go there.

Stephen: Cool. What about you?

Boss: Well, I have to open the restaurant at 12.

Stephen: Oh, that's cool. Service ends at quarter to (12). (Although it doesn't usually cause we fail to end on time).

Boss: Oh alright.

Stephen: So you can come if you want.

Boss: Well, the only reason I would come to church would be to accompany my sister who is a churchgoer.

Stephen: So she doesn't go to church now?

Boss: Not recently because of her work schedule. But she wants to go badly. She is a strong believer. Can I get your church address?

Stephen: I don't have it on me now. I'll bring it tomorrow.


HOW AWESOME?!?!?!? Lots of prayer needed. Basically one of the questions he asked was.. lots of people go there yea? I'm like... not really, we're a small church. SO I REALLY HOPE that he won't mind going to a small church and the CONVENIENCE will OVERPOWER the smallness. I also told him we're heavily Asian so that might be a good thing!

LORD, please work here! I did my best! The rest is up to you! Well, I should still pray fervently. Not exactly a strength of mine. But I should improve.

I actually have a major interview tomorrow. Ahh! God, go there before me and may your favour rest on me. Amen.

O Praise Him!

So you think you can worship? Naah.. Its not a new reality TV show. God forbid. Recently, I have been very inspired by a video of this guy singing David Crowder's 'O Praise Him'. Thanks to Phil who has been showing this video at church every week for over a month. Its truly inspirational. If we love Jesus so much, why doesn't our worship overflow everyday in this manner (look at guy in video)? Do we only express our worship fervently at a Hillsong concert? What about everyday in our bedrooms? What about on the streets like that dude? Respect!

Witnessing in the Workplace: Ginseng Boss

There are many Christians out there who don't evangelize because they think its too hard or that God can't use them. Well, the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few so I'm quite sure God wants to use every Christian cause there's a lack of Christians working in the field. Evangelism isn't rocket science. Furthermore, evangelism isn't just sharing the full gospel message... BAM... Holy Spirit moves... people realize they are sinners... tears... full on CONVERSION! Obviously that is the desired outcome. But that doesn't happen all the time. In fact it doesn't even happen often. Many an evangelist will tell you that. Pastor Bill Hybels is very candid about his evangelism and many times he doesn't even go into the gospel presentation (Bill Hybels - Walk Across The Room). Personally, it has only ever happened to me ONCE! Amazingly that was when I was just starting to evangelize and was a nervous wreck with no composure. Which goes to show that any conversion that happens is God's doing and not ours! That is a story for another post but really, I feel I am a lot better at evangelizing now but that wonderful, glorious scenario has not occurred ever since.

Let me tell you, I have only (knowingly) brought 3 people to Christ, but I only prayed the sinner's prayer with the first guy. Does that mean I didn't bring those other people to Christ? No. I would say I played a significant part in those 2 other people's conversion. However, each conversion that happens is the work of the Holy Spirit and God uses MANY people to bring about a single salvation. I personally believe that there can be dozens or hundreds of people that God uses to bring one single soul to salvation. So even though you don't see it now, what you sow into a person's life can reap salvation later on! I can say this because I have seen it happen in friends I have evangelized to! It can be done! There's evidence from my life to back me up!

Anyways, I just wanna praise God for a divine opportunity that he gave me to share with my boss at work. Hopefully this will shatter some misconceptions about what evangelism is all about. I personally believe that the basic building block of evangelism is to just get people to think about God and eternity.

I work at this restaurant in Frankston called Ginseng. Wes from church told me that he was going to bring his lovely wife Julia to Ginseng for her birthday dinner. I asked for permission and my boss kindly allowed me to spend a few minutes talking to them at dinner in the middle of work! The restaurant was almost empty so he could afford to let me do that. The boss' cousin talked to me asking me about them and I told him that they were friends from church. He then told me that he and the boss used to go to church when they were kids.

As I was collecting my pay I started talking to the boss about the restaurant business. I told him that my housemates and I talked to Wes about Ginseng and he decided to come for the Peking duck. Boss man was grateful and continued talking. I could sense that he was interested in talking to me and not just making polite conversation. Armed with the knowledge that he was a former churchgoer I brought up the topic of church and God. I found out that his sister and many of his friends are strong Christians but he didn't think that church was essential for him anymore. He thinks (like many others) that all you have to do in life is be good to people. I brought up eternity and the conversation was progressing. Then we both got calls on our mobiles. After that a bunch of boss man's friends showed up and I knew the evangelism time for today was up. I said my goodbyes and praised God in my heart for giving me the opportunity to share about Him. I was glad that I obeyed His promptings without any hesitation. Hopefully this will be a springboard to more evangelism opportunities and that boss man might be saved!

See, not too hard isn't it? Plus, God can indirectly use other people as well to create openings! If Wes hadn't come yesterday night I would not have had the opportunity to talk about church and God! Wes was unknowingly used by God to create an avenue for me to share about God! How glorious is our GOD! The whole earth praise Him!

The Man Piper and WOTM

Hi all,

I just thought I'd put up some resources as well, as in stuff I use personally.

1. John Piper Sermons















John Piper is the man! He is the bomb! Writer of Desiring God, one of the most influential and eye opening books I've read (excluding the Bible of course). He helped me understand a lot about God through that book and I have become a fan of his teachings ever since. You can get all his sermons on his website http://desiringgod.org for free! Also, you should buy his books but that will cost you some money.

Here's a link to the section on evangelism: CLICK ME

2. Ray Comfort's 'Way Of The Master' Method


















Ray Comfort's WOTM (Way Of The Master) is seemingly popular in America. I have seen people doing street preaching in Frankston who use this method and although I doubted the street preacher's theology at the start, but I decided to be obedient and 'test everything but hold on to what is good' (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and after buying and reading the book, I am convinced that Ray Comfort's theology is sound. Reading the many testimonies from his book and site, there are numerous pastors and Christians who opposed his methods first but after searching the Scriptures have agreed with him.

His method is highly controversial and confrontational in direct opposition to the modern evangelism methods we are accustomed to (Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion). He even goes to say that these methods are counter productive. For that he has predictably been branded an arrogant snob. I don't think he is though but neither will I label other evangelism methods as the work of evil.

I can't exactly explain everything in one post. You have to check it out yourself.

CLICK ME

Till next time, run the race, keep the faith.

Here I Go Again

This is one of the best songs regarding evangelism (mind you there aren't many). It accurately depicts the doubts and uncertainty going through a Christian's mind as he/she struggles with evangelism.


Casting Crowns - Here I Go Again

Father, hear my prayer
I need the perfect words
Words that he will hear
And know they're straight from You
I don't know what to say
I only know it hurts
To see my only friend slowly fade away

Chorus:
So maybe this time
I'll speak the words of life
With Your fire in my eyes
But that old familiar fear
is tearin' at my words
What am I so afraid of?
'Cause here I go again
Talkin' 'bout the rain
And mullin' over things
that won't live past today
And as I dance around the truth
Time is not his friend
This might be my last chance
to tell him that You love Him

But here I go again
Here I go again

Lord, You love him so
You gave Your only Son
If he will just believe
He will never die
But how then will he know
What he has never heard?
Lord he has never seen mirrored in my life

Chorus:

But here I go again
Here I go, here I go

Chorus:

This might be my last chance
To tell him that You love him
This might be my last chance
To tell him that You love him

You love him, You love him
What am I so afraid
What am I so afraid
What am I so afraid of?
How then will he know
What he has never heard?

Weekly Update 060709: Tract Mission and Jakey makes a Power Play

For those of you who know me, I've been working at a telemarketing company, Telesynergy owned and operated by Indians. I'm not exactly the best at it and have contemplated quitting it for ages. Will probably do so in the near future but that's not the point. The point is I was convicted that I can't leave my workplace without having reached out to some people. I can't just talk about evangelism and not do it. I'd be a crummy hypocrite, the type Jesus hates. From my conversations with several nice and intelligent Indians, I singled out two gentlemen.

1. Sanjay - Incredible gentleman. He gets scolded by the boss numerous times but still carries on cheerfully. In the end the fruitlessness took its toll and he left the job. We had a few conversations about God. Sanjay is a religious man, surprisingly not an out and out Hindu. He is (unknowingly) a subscriber to pluralism, believing in "all gods".

2. Anhkit. An Australian born Indian although he has Iranian or Persian blood or something like that. He has expressed an interest in Christianity. Very loud, boisterous and friendly.

I have acquired the contact numbers for both gentlemen. So I can reach them without having to go to work there. My mission: to give them a tract each. I will acquire their address and send them a tract together with a letter and see how they respond. Maybe I can invite them to church but they do live miles and miles away.

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A powerful mate of mine, Jake sent me a very exciting and encouraging text a few days back. He said from conversations with a mutual friend of ours, said friend is close to salvation! I don't know the details yet. Gonna find out soon! Not sure if I should reveal the person's identity yet. Have to ask Jakey.


Till next time,
Sayonara!

In Christ,
Step

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