Last Day of Internship and the Righteousness from God that Depends on Faith

Today was my last day of work. I understand that many people dream of their last day of work, but not me. Well, at least not for this job. I will miss full-time evangelism. Though this summer came with difficulty, God granted grace upon grace to keep me going and looking to Him for help. He is faithful.

So, how did I spend my last day? Well, I spent much time working on preparing the curriculum for our summer kids series (Exploring Egypt to Sinai: 4 P’s that Point You to Christ!). I am hoping to have it ready as a pdf document that can be accessed for free on the Grace Fellowship Church website. Hopefully it will be ready soon and hopefully it will be a blessing to others. I had a long meeting with a Muslim man today. This was our second meeting. Both meetings have lasted at least three hours! Thank the Lord that Tim Horton’s does not have a maximum time limit!

Luis (from the Spanish Church) came out with me again. This time we read in Acts 4 and 18 before praying and hitting the bus stops in Rexdale. I will share one little recap (or snippet) of an encouraging little conversation we had this morning.

The Righteousness from God that Depends on Faith

Luis and I approached a man handing him a coin with the 10 commandments on it. He thought it was neat. We explained that we are from the GFC and how we were out spreading the Gospel. He told us that he is a Christian.

Before long I asked the man, “If you were to die today, do you believe that God would accept you or reject you?” He told me, “That is tough to answer. I mean, we all have sinned and sin cannot be in God’s presence; so we have to repent. But, I have sinned today, if not in my actions then in my thoughts. But I need to repent. You see, that is a tough question. I don’t know.”

I replied by telling him of the importance of the question. He agreed. Then I said, “We can know whether or not God will accept us. Jesus spoke on these very things when he came. I mean - I know. I know that God will accept me.” He said, ”How do you know?” I said, “Because my faith is in Jesus – let me show you a passage.” I went to Philippians 3.7-9. I opened it up and held it before him reading it aloud. Interestingly, he pulled out his pen and underlined everything that I read (while I was reading it). He seemed genuinely interested.

After our public Scripture reading (I love that!), I said, “People refer to an alien as something that comes from outer space, that is, from outside the world. In this passage, Paul speaks of alien righteousness. This is a righteousness that we do not work for. This is the righteousness that I have received because of my faith in Christ. I did not work for it. Now, this is the righteousness that I have which makes me acceptable for Judgment and to God.”

He seemed intrigued. He goes to a Church, but this all seemed like new news to him. Then he said to me, “How can you know if you have faith?” I said, ”That’s a great question.” I flipped to 1st John and told him, “This letter, 1st John, was written primarily to answer that question.” I put my Gospel tract in that part of the NT (which I had given to him) so that he could easily access 1st John.

The bus came and I told him that my contact info is on the NT I gave him. He was thankful and told me that he was going to call me. We will see. Praise the Lord for answering our prayers. Luis and I really prayed for open doors. Accordingly, the Lord opened doors. He is faithful. (Prayer is absolutely essential in evangelism because God is absolutely essential in evangelism).

Philippians 3.9 is one of the clearest verses on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers. Those who are truly saved ”do not have a righteousness of [their] own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” May the Lord grant him faith in Christ that he may receive righteousness from God. How else can we be rightly clothed for Judgment Day?

I think it is fitting to end my internship on the note of Philippians 3.9. Chew on this my friend . . . and savour the flavour! The Gospel of justification by faith alone and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness – this is the Gospel that melts the heart with love and causes the mouth to open and even speak! May the Lord help us in our evangelism as he has in giving us his righteousness.

This Blog

This blog will likely continue into the fall, but I will have to think and pray more about this – please let me know of any ideas you have to make this blog more of a blessing to Christ’s church. To those of you who have been faithfully praying for me and encouraging me: Thank you so much for your interest, love and support. I really felt prayed for and I am thankful to God for you. Sincerely, thank you so much – you co-laboured with me and helped in the spread of the Gospel. Rejoice my friend, rejoice! God did great things this summer – lots of planting! Lots and lots of planting. Oh that we might see a harvest in Canada in our lifetime . . . and if not in ours – oh that it may be in the next! The Lord may do it. Glory is due His Name.

A Great Friday Morning with Luis: The Gospel Goes Forth

I was a blessed man this morning. I was delighted to have fellowship in the Gospel of Christ with my dear brother Luis.  Originally from Columbia, he is a member of Church Iglesia Bautista Castellana (Keele and Dundas). He is currently working four days a week and has Fridays off (so we could go out!). A relatively new Christian, he wanted me to go out with him to help him learn about street evangelism (not that I have all the answers . . . but, he is humble enough to learn from even me). His church has recently started an English ministry (basically a young English congregation within a Spanish church) and really wants this ministry (church) to faithfully spread the Gospel in the church neighbourhood. He passionately wants the Lord to save all kinds of peoples and to bring them into his fold to live for His glory. He wants to lead by example and set the tone, not only for a Gospel loving and Gospel believing church, but ALSO, for a Gospel spreading church (meaning orally speaking the Gospel to people). As the Word increased in Acts, may it increase in the Keele-Dundas region!

Rejection

We had great fellowship over the Word (2 Cor 2.12-6.13) and in prayer. Eventually, we hit the streets. We went to the corner and tried talking to a young man. But, he did not want to talk with us. He told us that he was a thief and that as God forgave that man on the cross, so he was forgiven. He told us that as long as you are sincerely sorry for the bad you have done, and ask God for forgiveness, you are forgiven. I wanted to reason with him and tell him what the Bible says about these things, but he wanted none of it.

Handing out a French Tract

We moved on and hit the bus stops at Keele and Dundas. We met a man who was French and did not speak English – I think he was a tourist in Toronto. Thank you to Nick Hill – I had a 2 Ways to Live tract in French. I was able to give him one. He was very thankful for it.

I Guess this is Why We are Not to Talk about Religion and Politics

We walked down Dundas and met a lady having a smoke outside of her workplace. We approached her giving her a penny with the 10 commandments. She gave it back, but we had a good little talk. She said she was Anglican but had not been to church in years.

I asked her about death, “What do you believe will happen to you?” She said, “I’ll go into the ground and that’s it.” I told her that God has spoken on what happens at death. I told her how Jesus came and taught very clearly on heaven and hell.

Referring to Matthew 25 I told her, “The righteous will go into eternal life but the unrighteous into everlasting punishment.” She responded, “We”ll very few people are righteous; basically your telling me that 95 % of the people are going downstairs?” I said, “Actually, no one is righteous.” She replied, “No, there are some good people, not many, but there are some.” I said, “Well, here, let me read to you a few verses from the Bible about this.” With a smile, she said, “Oh my goodness, I haven’t read the Bible in years.” I said, “Well, this will be good for you – it is just a couple of sentences – I will read from Romans 3:10.”

I read Romans 3:10-12. She was listening with curious attentiveness.  In response to the Word of God in 3.12a, she said, “people aren’t worthless.” I said, “Well, you are right, but you are must understand what the Scriptures say about man elsewhere. In other portions of the Bible we learn that man is precious, for he is created in the image of God.” She said, “So there are contradictions.” I said, “No, there are what are called apparent contradictions.” In the spirit of ‘that’s enough for me,’ she replied, “Oh, the differences and disagreements – I guess this is why we are not to talk about religion and politics. I better go back into work.”

I said, “I have one thing for you to consider before you go, please just think about this one thing: People could gossip about you and say different things, but if I want to know the truth, I will come to you. I can find out the truth. You can find out the truth about the way of life and how to be made acceptable to God for Judgment Day. Jesus came and spoke about these things. Do you have a Bible?” She said, “yes.” I continued, “I encourage you to read a Gospel, John is a good one to read. You can find out what Jesus said about these things. You do not know me. You just met me – what if I was lying to you. You need to read Jesus and find out for yourself. But thank you for taking the time to let us speak with you. Thank you.” “Your welcome” she replied. That was it. May the Lord work in her heart – may He cause her to care about her soul and may He breathe life into her.

An Elderly Muslim Man

Later on we met another man out on the street. He was sitting on the ledge of a huge flower pot. He was an elderly Muslim who was friendly to Christians. He had strong and impassioned opinions about many things, some that I fully agree with . . . others that I do not (for they were contrary to Scripture). We talked for a very very long time – it was a great chat (more listening on my side, but that is great . . . listening is very important). We were able to share some Scripture with him (Mark 14.60-64, for he does not think Jesus is the Son of God or equal with God; and Ephesians 2.8-9, for he thought salvation is by works). Furthermore, we were able to clearly explain the Gospel to him – our sin and guilt, the substitutionary life and death on our behalf and his resurrection! He told us to come back and see him again (right there – where he works). May the Lord cause His Word to stay in his heart and work in conjunction with the Spirit to make him born again.

A message for those who read this post:

What a great Friday morning! If you read this post, first I say, “thank you.” Now I say this: “Believe the Gospel afresh today and in due time Preach it!” May the Lord help you. If you are a Christian, remember this: you do not justify yourself in your evangelism (nor are you less acceptable due to faithlessness in evangelism). The Father accepts you. Your standing with God has been sealed by the work of Christ, and by God’s grace, your corresponding faith in Christ. Thus, in light of that FREE GOSPEL what great reason to spread it!!!!! What a Gospel! Behold your God! What Glory! What a Gospel! What good reason do we have to be silent? Lord help us.