“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:7-8 (Jesus speaking to his disciples).

Our heavenly Father reports to no one. No one is above him, everyone is subject to him. He sets things in place to happen at certain times, and they will. On the afternoon of Tuesday the 4th, I was with Charles, one of my action group guys; we were talking to students about God. The first person we met was a Taiwanese guy named Roy. It turns out that Roy was not a student at all, but simply visiting New Zealand. I asked Roy how long he was in our country for. He said, “One month”. I asked when he would travel back. He said “Tonight”! As we shared with Roy, it became obvious that he was very open to the gospel. A lot of the things we talked about he already knew to be true; the existence of God, our sinful nature, etc. Even though he’d never been to church, God had been working in his heart.

Charles and I were able to explain to Roy who Jesus was, and when we got to the part about making a decision to accept Christ, Roy told us that was what he wanted to do. We were able to lead Roy in a short prayer right there, as he opened his heart to Jesus! Neither Roy, Charles or myself knew that the final hours of Roy’s time in New Zealand would be so life-changing. But there is one who did! God fixed this to be the time that Roy would come to know him, by his own authority. And just as Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his disciples to help them be witnesses, Charles and I also had that same help!

I’m now waiting to hear back from Roy in Taiwan. Please pray that either myself or someone else he comes in contact with (he said he didn’t know any other Christians) can help him find people to encourage and walk with him on his new journey. Pray that as a young believer, he’ll be protected from Satan’s tricks to try and lead him astray. Praise God for the work he has done in Roy’s life!

It’s no secret that I think evangelism is a good thing! I’ve been thinking about the message that was given at church on Sunday by our new vicar, Iain. He raised some good points that I think are worth discussion.

Iain is currently walking through a series on the book UnChristian; it talks about how non-Christians perceive Christians today.

Iain started off by saying (and this is my paraphrase) that he hopes his life will be one that reflects Christ’s. We should aim to have our lives reflect his. This reminded me of some things that Roger Hershey spoke of at our student conference earlier in the year. One of Roger’s sons, Brett, died a few years ago, and at his funeral, one of his friends said something to the effect of “I’m not a Christian yet, but if there’s one thing to be said about Brett, it’s that he wanted everyone to know the Jesus Christ that he knew.” I hope that this will be true of my life!

Iain talked about how there are a range of different perspectives that people have about Christians/Christianity, from those who are closed off to it, to those who are cautiously open. However, according to research in UnChristian, 70% of those 16-30 years old think Christians are too focused on conversion, and don’t genuinely care about them.

This is certainly a provocative statement, but to be honest, I’m not really surprised by it. When I talk to people on campus, I hear stories of how Christians have tried to force the gospel on people, or bad experiences people have had with Christians in their lives. Often, a person has heard how their friends perceive Christians, and their perception becomes a reality to them (Iain mentioned this as well).

I do think that we need to be intentional about sharing our faith. So how do we do that when non-Christians perceive us in this way?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers about how to solve this problem, but I do have a few ideas:

• Be prepared to have a conversation when you talk about spiritual things with someone. Having a conversation means it’s a two-way event, and that involves listening. I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet in any way here, but I’ve had people say to me “Thanks for taking the time to listen to what I had to say when you shared with me.” I hope that this is something I can always do.
• It’s OK if you have a spiritual conversation with someone, and don’t get to share the entire gospel. Whether you’re using a tract of some sort with a stranger, sharing your testimony with a friend, or talking to a group of people, it’s good to get them sharing their thoughts. If the person you’re talking to walks away from the conversation with a positive experience, then the door is potentially open for another conversation in future. Not everyone is ready to receive Christ the first time you meet them.
• Be prepared to say sorry. If you talk to someone and they’ve had a bad experience in the past with a Christian (or even think they have), then I believe it’s OK to say “I’m sorry for your past experience, and any pain we as Christians have caused you.” The fact that it wasn’t your personal fault doesn’t really matter to them at this point.
• I really like what Bill Bright said about sharing the gospel. “Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and leaving the results up to God.” I know for some of you this is like preaching to the choir, but when you leave the results up to God, you don’t have to worry about converting someone, because you know that you can’t! I honestly believe that if we were all able to live this out all the time, then non-Christians wouldn’t have many of the perceptions which they have about us now.

Iain challenged us to look for a “Truly prophetic imagination to see and express the alternative reality we seek to live by.” For me, this means I need to rely on God’s Spirit to help me live in a way that honours him, especially when it comes to non-Christians, as the way I live represents Christ to them.

What are your thoughts or experiences on this?

Many students ponder answers to life’s big questions, although they wouldn’t necessarily admit it. The Big Ask is the name of a video series that we’re going to be using in the second semester to create discussion on some of these questions. Things like “Where’s God in all the suffering we see?” is an example of an issue that’s tackled by the three interviewed in the videos – Rob Bell, Lee Strobel and Philip Yancey (they’re interviewed by New Zealand’s own Rob Harley).

Our course is going to be run over several weeks, and like the Alpha course that you may be familiar with, this is a great place for students to bring their non-Christian friends along to, where they can feel safe to ask questions. Starting on the 6th of August, we’ll be running this each week with a light meal, showing the video, and then breaking off into discussion groups. The point is not to “give all the answers” to those who attend. Rather, we’ll pull back a bit on this front; through the relationships that we establish, we can answer questions in a more personal setting.

While we will be doing a big advertising campaign on campus, we’d like our students to bring along their non-Christian friends. Pray that they’ll be prompted by the Holy Spirit about those who they can ask to come along with them.

There’s a promo video available online for The Big Ask.

I recently read Keith’s post about Causing Things to Happen, in which I was reminded about how God prompts us to pray for things that he wills to happen.

Last week, in our final week of campus for the year, I found myself with a spare hour to kill. Being that it was the last week on campus, I was pretty tired, and the last thing I wanted to do at that point was to go and do a “questionnaire about attitudes and beliefs” with someone (an approach we use on campus to get into spiritual conversations with people).

Still, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me that this is something I was meant to do. So I said, “God, I don’t want to do this right now, but since I feel it’s your will, please lead me to someone to talk to who’s ready to accept you.”

Sometimes when you start talking to someone, you just know that they’re ready to accept Christ. I started talking to a guy called Sefita, and the answers he gave to some of the questions I asked told me where he was at. I asked, “What do you think someone has to do to become a Christian?”, to which he said to me “You need to make a decision to accept Jesus into your heart.” He told me that he’d never done that though. I then asked “How would you rate your interest to know God in a personal way, out of 10?” He said “10″. We then talked through the Knowing God Personally Booklet, and when we got to the part about inviting Christ into your life, he invited Christ in!

Because of who God is, we can celebrate another brother coming into God’s kingdom! I’m grateful that God chose to use me in the way that he did!