“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death,

the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” Deut. 30:19

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Well I hope your spring was great and you are looking forward to summer when life is sweet.  Unless you live in Moab, UT where life is heat.  We just came back from there, having run out the door after school ended to beat the heat and take advantage of some flyer miles tickets given to us by some close friends and neighbors.  It gets to about 113 degrees in Arches National Park by July, but was still in the 70’s when we went.  We then drove to Colorado to visit a former College of DuPage student and her husband and see some other peeps we love.

Some of what we viewed looked like the pictures that I saw at C.O.D. this year when I attended a lecture on Pluto.  About a year ago, the probe “New Horizons” flew by Pluto and the pictures were very diverse and supported creationism by one account in this Institute of Creation Research article http://www.icr.org/article/9317

“New Horizons images revealed interesting geological features on Pluto. Mountains as large as the Rockies stretch across its surface, but they’re made of water-ice instead of rock. The spacecraft also captured cliffs and enormous canyons, what appear to be frozen lakes of nitrogen, and even evidence of past volcanic activity. This geology indicates that the surface was once active with motion driven by internal heat. Apparently, Pluto was warmer when the Lord first created it. Such geology cannot be billions of years old. Otherwise, countless impacts over billions of years would have obliterated such terrain.”

The most interesting thing I heard at the lecture was that every single scientific article on the surface of Pluto written before New Horizons flew over proved to be wrong.  Every single one.  I thought about that, reading the implausible naturalistic explanations for the arches we looked at and the vast canyons of Canyonlands National Park we also viewed.  It seems that the explanations for the typography we see are pretty much “had to be there” stuff.  Noah and his peeps had the only shot to see some things form. Other things may have been shaped only later as ice melted on the poles. Who knows?

There are just so many things that are hard to understand, though we understand a bit better than Biblical Writers.  I thought of these verses while watching a long snake slither down along the trail we hiked on Grand Wash Trail through a canyon:

“There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand:

the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a maiden.” Proverbs 30:18&19

To this I would add, “the way of the Holy Spirit to redeem the human heart”.

After going through the Gospel with just over 475 students this past school year, it is still a miracle each time one turns and humbles themselves to ask forgiveness in a silent prayer, having believed the words of a stranger quoting the Word of God.  Most of these claimed to be Christians once the Gospel was explained to them, and many of those wrongly had just moments before gotten through telling me they’d go to Heaven because, in some sense, they were good.  But 112 prayed to receive Christ. Three prayed after I left them, (Gio, Adam and Jimmy) who told me when I saw them later.  The rest prayed while I sat beside them.  I hope you were able to read some of their stories this past school year by email or on our website, www.thethirdwatch.org.  We are so very grateful for your prayers and financial help this year.  We hope that in Heaven, some of them will thank you for helping to initiate their life in Christ through Third Watch.

Here is a list of those who came in. (An * means they committed to Christ but did not pray.)

Jessie, Sam, Jamanti*, Sam*, Reno, Kellie, Anton, Omar, Alyssa, Megan, Kirk, Irvin, Jake*, Louie, Hezekiah, Joey, Vasyl, Justis, Jazmin, Brooke, Rod, Ben, Keith, Brian, Joi, Joy, Jake, Rene, Matt, Chris*, Brandon*, Walter, Chani, Hany*, Alassandro, Cindy, Julian, Thandi, Megan, Kendall, Abraham, Mike, John, Gio, Ramy, Veronica, Jimmy, Dawn*, Daniel, Violet, Eric*, Jalen, Haley, Adrianna, Josh, Sam, Stephanie, London, Saul, Adrin, Sean, Kiana, Emelina, Brandi, Alexandra*, Kristy, DiAngelo, Bri, Liz, Will, Erika, Tristan, Dan, Heyley, Brionna, Lexi, Tate*, Sean, Nick*, Megan, Aaron, Vanessa, Chris, Sabrina, Nick, Tony, Alexander, John, William, Darian, Alex, Leo, Tim, Robin, Myles, Hannah, Neel, Bri, Kris, Jarius, Leah, Mardilyn*, Kiana*, Tim,  Kyle, Demetrous, Blessing, Shelby, Jose, Tiara, Abby, Jake, Chloe, Los, Patrick, Evelyn, Jeremy, Greg, Phallen, Nikki*, John, Jake, Jonathon, Dom*, Fernando, Mark and Adam

May your summer be blessed with peace & rest in Him.

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed.  I had a good day on campus planting some seeds and encouraging some believers. Tim prayed with me to receive Christ.  He was sitting on the set of chairs outside the cafeteria, killing some time.  He had on an NBA  Champions hat (he later said his Grandma had sent it to him), jeans, cross-trainer shoes and a Robert Morris College sweatshirt.  Tall, long legged guy.  He kind of looked like the classic American with a day’s growth of beard on him.  When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “I know I wanna help people.  The reason I’m going into Psychology is I wanna be a therapist to try to help people.”  He had gone to Church when he was younger, but his relationship with his father had broken down for some reason, (it seems like he left them).  He went to a nondenominational church before that.  I’m not sure how much he knew of the Gospel, but he listened politely as I explained how his sins were paid for and Christ’s righteousness imputed to him. I asked and he wanted to be forgiven and have God live inside him.  I also asked him if he believed Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead. He thought for a second and said he did. So I asked him if he would want to trust in that to be forgiven and he said, “Yeah I would.”  I walked him through the prayer and said he could pray it quietly in his heart. He checked to make sure he needn’t pray out loud and prayed silently.  So that was great.  I gave him a Bible because he didn’t think he had one.  He said he liked the NBA, so I gave him a copy of Playing with Purpose.  I had explained how Curry (one of the best shooters in the NBA right now) took thousand of shots to get that way, but that Christianity was first asking God to transform us on the inside and then living that way on the outside. Not rehearsal but transformation.  I also gave him a book to help him investigate the Bible called Bible Basics and a Bible study.  I effectively left him with a handful of books and a Bible study, telling him I’d pray for him.  He seemed to be something of a dad at times to his 2 younger brothers so I told him I’d pray for him about that and headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a moment. I got some seeds planted too and God blessed.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a great day walking with the Lord.  It is pretty brisk outside here but the sun is shining.  I had an excellent day doing ministry. Two students prayed with me to receive Christ, Jarius and Leah. And two other girls, Mardilyn and Kiana, listened to me go through the Gospel with them and committed to trusting in Jesus to pay for their sins and be forgiven. They had believed Jesus was God and died for sins, but had been hoping their good works would be enough to get them into Heaven.

Jarius was standing leaning against a table, looking out the doors in the PE building waiting for a ride.  He’s an African-American guy,  was wearing a hoodie with the hood up over his head, had some sparse growth of beard he was trying to get going. Average looking guy, full lips, fair complexion.  I asked, “Ya wanna do a student survey for a Bible study on campus? What ya think about God and stuff?”  “I’ve heard about that,” he said a bit dismissively.  I said, “Yeah. Ya wanna answer the multi-million dollar question?”  “Ok,” he replied. So I asked, “You’re walkin’ down the road and you get hit by a bus. Ya stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’  What would you say?”  Jarius said he was a christian and his dad was a pastor of a church “Just down the road” from here.  He said “You keep the ten commandments and do good to other people.”  “So you would say you go to Heaven by being good?” I asked.  He qualified it a bit more with the same thing and I made sure he knew he was appealing to his own moral goodness to go to Heaven, asking him a couple more times.  Suggesting he was not exactly right I asked, “Do you want to know what the Bible says about it?” “You can tell me what the Bible say,” he replied.  So I took out a booklet and began walking him through the Gospel, explaining the merit of Christ, His payment for his sins on the Cross and saying, “So you don’t go to Heaven because you are good. You go to Heaven because Jesus was good.  You should do good things to please God, and God wants you to do them so you don’t destroy yourself, because He loves you.” I gave him some examples of how sin might destroy him.  I said, “It is good you are trying to do good things. Most guys around here are not even trying. But that does not get you to Heaven.” I explained the power of God living inside him to live the Christian life and giving him joy.  He’d seemed kind of melancholy, might have had a hard day.  He said he wanted to be forgiven with God living inside him when I asked, and decided to pray to receive Christ and did.  His ride came and he talked them off on the phone, gaining a few minutes. I explained the work of the Holy Spirit in him and gave him The Bible Promise Book and a Bible study, quickly telling him Jesus had walked on water to tell us He was God according to Job.  Just before he ran for the car and I grabbed his shoulder and said, “Feel the Joy man!” and he smiled finally at that and was out the door.

Leah was sitting, waiting for a ride outside the cafeteria.  She was African-American, sounded suburban.  She had a plaid coat on, zipped up to the top and black pants and boots, gray plastic-rimmed glasses and braces on her teeth. Her straightened hair made a lined row of bangs in a curl on her forehead.  She was nice.  I asked her what she might say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven.  “Well I would say that, I don’t know it’s… I’ve always been there to help people… I’ve always tried my hardest.  I’ve always been there for people in need, not 100% pure but I tried my hardest.”  She had gone to church some with her mom, at least in the past, who went to Bill Winston Ministries, which I had never heard of.  She thought she had a 50/50 chance to go to Heaven.  I began to go through the Gospel and asked her what was the big thing Jesus had done to take away her sin.  She struggled a bit and said, “I forgot.”  But I could tell it was all news to her as I talked about the Cross and the righteousness of Christ [imputed] to her credit.  I asked her if she would like to be forgiven, with God living inside her and she said, “I would like to be forgiven with God living inside me,” while shaking her head.  So I walked her through a prayer and asked her if it was the desire of her heart and she said “Yes” nodding her head again. I told her she, “could pray it right now like I’m not even here. God reads your thoughts.”  And she did.  I gave her a Bible, since she did not have one of her own, The Bible Promise Book and a Bible study. I explained the life in Christ by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, Him creating His fruit in Her.  I told her I would be praying for her each night for the next year and she was happy to hear that.  As I got up to go she reached out to shake my hand and said, “Thank you Bob. It was a pleasure to talk with you.”  “It was a pleasure to talk with you too,” I replied. “God bless you.”  “God bless you too,” she said, “Thank you.”

I went into the Cafeteria then, finding no willing participants, and by the time I came out two Filipino girls had sat down in the same set of chairs where Leah had been.  I walked past them as they were kind of talking, and then thought I should go back. They seemed hesitant to do a survey with me so I offered them booklets to read on their own.  They accepted them and I began to explain the Gospel to them.  Mardilyn had kind of cute, scrunched up face and Kiana had a wider, round face with almond eyes.  Both wore their hair long, just past their shoulders. They had their coats on and I assume were waiting for rides.  I started giving them illustrations and they were drawn in and listened to some verses. They admitted though they knew Jesus was God and died for sins and rose from the dead, they thought that they would go to Heaven because they were good enough.  I said, “Do you want to trust in what He did on the Cross to take away your sins?” They both said they wanted to trust in Jesus’ work on the Cross to save them.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to them then and encouraged them to pray the prayer I showed them, walking them through it, and to tell God they wanted to trust in Him as they had said to me.  They were visibly happy then.  I gave them each a copy of The Case for Easter to read and left them trusting in the Lord.

Earlier I had a great talk with a Polish girl, Alex. She did not know who to believe was God, though she’d grown up Catholic.  The bottom half of her dark brown hair was tinted sandy blonde and she had a piercing in her lip. She had cute sharp features, wearing kind of workout clothes.  She took the Student Edition of The Case for Christ and a Bible study.  So I’ll pray for her to come in.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a good day and were blessed in the Lord.  I had a good day on campus and a girl, Kris, prayed with me to receive Christ.  It was after my class and I was pretty worn out after talking with peeps for another hour, encouraging some Christians and giving them assurance of salvation by faith.  I was headed down the hall of the science building to go out, as I still had to finish a bit of a Bible study and had been at school for 5 hours without a break. I was spent and almost walked past her to go home and write. Talking to her perked me right up though.   Kris was sitting on a bench looking at her phone and I had kind of walked right into her, cutting across a hallway when the elevator was out of service and I had to stay on the ground floor.  So I knew I was supposed to ask her.  She said she’d do a survey for the Bible study group.  She wanted to help recovering drug addicts.  She had a colorful bow-tie tattoo at her throat (I think part of something larger) poking up out of the top of her t-shirt and another plaid shirt she wore the shirt tails out of over tights she had on.  Her black lace-up boots had the toes covered in metal studs.  She had chin-length short brown hair with highlights and black round-rimmed glasses.  Tiny stars were tattooed on her right temple, sweeping up onto the edge of her forehead, and she had larger colored stars tattooed on several of her fingers.  She was cute and really.  She said she had relatives who were “really religious” Catholics, her aunt was a nun.  She’d bought her own Bible a couple years back to understand what she read better.  It seemed like she meant she’d gotten a easier English version than what relatives had supplied.  She was fun to talk to. She agreed with the Gospel, though she did not remember how sin was taken away.  When I started talking about the Cross after a couple minutes she said, “Oh I remember now!”  She would give short little phrases of  agreement or affirmation as I read a verse and explained things.  After I went through the Gospel with her I offered her forgiveness by faith and she wanted to be forgiven.  I walked her through the prayer and helped her see she had really not been trusting in what Christ had done for her on the Cross.  She couldn’t have been trusting in what she had  forgotten even the basic facts of, but I felt like I should help her understand more even after walking her through the prayer.  In asking her then, she said believed Jesus was God, had died for her sins and risen from the dead, saying she “was raised to believe that” (though she’d said she went to church only if there was a baptism or a wedding) but asked,  “Isn’t everyone a child of God?”  I explained that some people did not want to be God’s child and were not.  And reading again for her John  1:12, I explained again this was something God gave those who believe in Him and trusted in what He had done for them.  I explained that other religions were not offering Heaven to people and many who practiced them did not want to be in Heaven with God anymore than she wanted to spend eternity in a box with her ex-boyfriend.  “I definitely don’t want to spend eternity in a box with my ex-boyfriend.” she replied.  That was funny, but I was somehow too tired to see that at the time. “Some people hate God,” I replied.  She understood and decided to pray to be forgiven, having God live inside her.  And she silently did.  I explained the life of the Holy Spirit in her and gave her a leather-bound copy of a Book of Bible Promises I had gotten at an estate sale on the weekend. She really liked that.  I also gave her a Bible study on the Deity of Christ and explained one miracle to her and she liked that a lot, too.  Fortunately I got her email as I want to send her some stuff.  She thanked me a couple times and said, “It was a pleasure to meet you.”  I told her it was a pleasure to meet her too and it really was.

I had walked around for a couple hours before class without having very many good conversations, except with Muhammad from Pakistan, right before my class on Islam at school interestingly enough.  He was 20 with a short beard except on his chin where it pointed out.  He had real faded light blue jeans on and classic black rimmed glasses and a funky cap on.  We talked for a long time about the differences between Islam and Christianity as I went through the Gospel.  He recommended a guy for me to watch on YouTube and I told him to check out Dr. Michael Heiser on the Two powers of Judaism there.  He took the pamphlet on ‘Jesus in the Quran’ from me and The Bible Promise Book, which I thought might get him to read a few verses.  His dad had worked his way up from being dirt poor to finally getting to the US, leaving a job as a higher-up in the Education department there. He came here to do menial jobs for the sake of his kids education, now in his late 60’s.  Great story.  Muhammad was very committed to keeping himself pure and thought he did not want an arraigned marriage and saw many Muslims dating “against the rules of our religion”.  He thought he did not want to be with a girl who had even kissed anyone else, and we talked about that.  Good seeds of kindness planted I hope (but then maybe he thought the same).  He pointed out that the way he understood it, he might go to Hell. But because he was a Muslim, eventually God would release him after he had kind of done his time (not really paid for) for his sins.  At one point he played a 2 minute YouTube for me, holding it up to my ear pressing it against my face (odd, but nice of him to help me. I think he might have thought it was not loud enough).  The YouTube was critiques of Christianity by a guy who said some correct things. I agreed with some of them and gave some insight on others.  We talked about the impact of culture.  Great talk.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God really blessed.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a blessed day and saw God’s favor, not that it is always seen though we know we have it.  I had a shortened day today as I had a class on Islam for a couple hours and then a Chiropractic appointment to get some of my headaches fixed, looks promising.  But Bri prayed to receive Christ.  She is the 3rd girl named Bri or Brionna to come to Christ this year and all of them African American students.  They don’t look at all alike though, so that’s where the similarity ends.

Bri was laying out flat on her stomach, looking at her computer screen with her phone up against the divider to the work out area of the PE building. The school took a couple of tables out of the lounge and she and another guy ten feet away were on the floor.  Bri had straight black hair, pulled back in a wide black hair band, running shoes on and a grey fleece jacket and leggings.  She said she’d do a survey for our Bible study group.  She had pretty almond shaped eyes.  I asked her what she would say to God if he asked her why He should let her into Heaven. She said, “‘Cause I don’t feel like I should go to hell.  I’ve been planning to go to Heaven my whole life. It’d be weird to get to the end and be like, ‘What!'”  She thought she had an 80% chance to go to Heaven.  She seriously listened to the Gospel as I walked her through it, and knew Christ had died to take away her sins. She wanted to be forgiven.  So I asked her why, to see if she’d been trusting in what Christ had done for her or her own goodness and God’s presumed mercy.  “That I’m good enough.” she replied.  I offered her a prayer where she could trust in Christ and she decided to pray to receive Him and she did silently.  I explained to her the power and work of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life.  She took The Bible Promise Book from me and a Bible study on the deity of Christ. She said she might email me, so maybe I will hear from her to send her more things to think about.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God blessed.  I have a couple paint jobs to end the week but I’ll be back at it Monday.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and sisters in Christ,

I hope you were blessed today and guided by the Lord.  I had a good day today hanging for an hour of discipleship with one of the peeps and Neel prayed to receive Christ.  Strangely there is not much to tell about Neel’s conversation with me since he didn’t have time to answer any questions.  I saw him sitting on the sunken steps of the Science building lounge, dressed in jeans and a hoodie with a pale blue athletic team shirt of some kind partly hidden by his jacket.  He looked to belong to some Mediterranean people group in background, if I had to guess, olive skinned. Good looking guy.  He said he attended a Baptist church. He had a day’s growth of heavy beard and his hair combed back like a Ken doll does (sorry for the description but I’m pretty ignorant of haircut terminology).  I asked him to do a survey and he was up for it but said, “Well how long will it take?”  I told him about 7 minutes, but he didn’t have that long. So I offered him a booklet to read about it since the last question is “What do you think of Christianity as described in this booklet?”  I superficially began to describe Christianity to him as a blood transfusion, where God wants to transfuse His life into you and live inside you. But first He has to make you his type. He has to take away your sin.  Since Neel told me he went to a Baptist Church, I said, “So what is the thing Jesus does back in history that takes away your sin?”  He struggled briefly and I realized he did not know the Gospel.  But realizing I did not have much time, I asked him if he had 3 minutes to “understand this” and he said he did. So I quickly launched into the Gospel with him, going through bible verses.  And he listened intently with his fingers over his mouth contemplatively.  After I finished, he said he’d want to be forgiven and have God live inside him, trusting in Christ.  I asked him, as I often do, if when he asked for forgiveness if he thought he’d be forgiven for being good or because he had been trusting in what Jesus had done for him on the Cross. I restated it a couple different ways.  “It’s the second one,” he replied, and said he had been trusting that he was good and God would forgive him.  I’m glad he went on to restate it because I wasn’t sure which option he had heard as “the second one” after restating it for clarity a couple times myself.  I walked him through a prayer he could pray. “You could pray this right now if you like, and God would forgive you and begin to live inside you if you want. Just pretend I’m not here and God reads your thoughts.”  He did then pray and I had just enough time to explain to him the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. Then he was getting texted, I think, for his ride.  I gave him The Bible Promise Book and he took off.  It might have all happened in just over 5 minutes.

So that was good. I encouraged some Christians on security of eternal life based on Christ’s imputed righteousness and that was the day of conversations.

So thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance God blessed.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today, walking in the Spirit.  I had a great day on campus and Hannah prayed with me to receive Christ. Hannah was sitting in the BIC building in the second floor hall towards the east end, killing time on her phone. She has long brown hair past her shoulders and a sharp jaw line. Nice looking kid wearing jeans and a jacket. She attends a Roman Catholic Church.  I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Well, ’cause I’m like your child.  I tried to spend most of my life spreading your message.  I text my godson all the time to make sure he is going to church.”  That turned out to be her sisters little 2 year old boy.  Hannah knew the Gospel story and I thought it would turn out that she had been trusting in Christ’s death on the Cross to pay for her sins and save her.  She had been sure she would go to Heaven. I gave her the option of believing and being forgiven with God inside her or something else.  She wanted to be forgiven with God living inside her. I asked her if when things went wrong, if she thought she’d be forgiven because she had been trying to please God and He was merciful and she nodded, “Or” I continued, “have you known you would be forgiven because Jesus has died for you and you’re trusting in that? So are you trusting in Jesus or hoping in Hannah and being good.”  “I think I am more just hoping” she replied.  I told her she could begin just by asking God to forgive her based on Jesus and walked her through the prayer. She wanted to pray and did silently.  So that was great. I gave her a copy of The Case for Easter by Strobel to read and she also took The Bible Promise Book to read verses from, though everyone had a Bible in her family.  I gave her a Bible study to read as well and got her email to send her some verses and stuff.  She thanked me and I headed out.

I had two good conversations with students today who were open to the Gospel and took books from me to read.  Maria had shoulder length brown hair, pulled back in a band and glasses. Looked a bit Latina.  She was sitting up on the third floor of the BIC Building on some hall chairs.  She had gone to church as a kid and used to pray every night as a child, but was not sure what to believe anymore.  I talked to her about fulfilled prophecy and she listened very seriously to the Gospel (though she described herself as funny), but she still was unsure as I finished.  So I offered her a book, “She decided to read “The Case for Easter”.  I gave her a pamphlet from Rose Publishing on ‘100 prophecies Jesus fulfilled’ and encouraged her to pray for God to give her faith.  She felt like she had done that, so I hope talking to her was in part an answer to her prayers. I gave her a Bible study too.  “Thanks for explaining all this to me,” she said as we parted.  I told her she was welcome and I would pray for her.

Rachel had shorter reddish-brown hair just past her chin and a small, tight hoop piercing in her right nostril, pretty, wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  She was nice and friendly but said she’d thought she’d done a survey for a bible study yesterday. That would have been Sunday so I think she meant before break.  I asked her if they’d asked her the question, “You’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus. So you’re dead.  And you stand before God and He says, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?'”  She didn’t think they had asked that, so I said, “Well would you like to know how to get to Heaven?”  I thought she was going to say no, but she agreed and I launched into the Gospel with some illustrations and stuff as I ate my Kind bar.  I quoted Bible verses to her and she was interested and wanted to be forgiven, but unsure if she believed Jesus was God.  I asked her, “Well, you believe in God?” She nodded.  I said “So do you think God can do whatever He wants?” She agreed He could.  “So then He could become a man?” She nodded again.  “So if He became a man, He would tell people the truth, right?”  She thought that was true too.  “So if you knew all the truth in the political season we are in right now and could expose all the candidates’ darkest stuff, what would they do to you if you started telling everyone?  They’d probably get rid of you and kill you.”  That gave her pause and she kept listening.  So I said “What would God to next if He became a man, told people the truth and it got Him killed? Well, He is God, so He’d rise from the dead.  And that is what happened. It makes sense if you believe in God, the rest could happen.”  “It does make sense when you put it that way,” she said and seemed to enjoy the story of the Gospel.  She liked to read, so after I walked her through a prayer she could pray, I offered her a book and she took the long version of The Case for Christ and a Bible study.  A guy had sat down next to us some time along the way and said, “That’s a very interesting book.” “There ya go. That’s one endorsement” I replied. She thanked me, and as I got up to leave I told her I would pray for her. So I will be doing that, and for Maria too.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed in the Lord.  I had a god day on campus and William and John each prayed with me to receive Jesus.

William was sitting on the 2nd floor of the BIC building at the northeast corner in the hall.  The door was closed in the classroom beside him and he was charging his phone out of the wall.  He had an afro and distinctive features with a kind face.  He was a big dude, about 6’3″ I’d guess, and solidly built with what looked like Blackhawks shorts on under his jeans which were sinkin’ a bit low and over black smooth toed work boots.  He had on a Stanford hooded sweatshirt.  He said he’d answer some questions and had a Christian background. He grew up churched but had not attended in a year or so.  I asked him why God should let him into Heaven if he died and he paused and said, “That’s a good question…” finally saying “’cause I took responsibility for all my sins.”  He thought he had a 60% chance of going to Heaven. When I asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins, he knew about the Cross.  I taught him all of the Gospel and asked him if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins.  He said he would. And so, since he knew Christ died, I asked him if when he had asked for forgiveness was he was thinking, “I’m good and God is merciful.’  Or if he was trusting that “Jesus had died for him and so he knew he would be forgiven?”  “That I was good,” he said, smiling a bit.  So I offered him the prayer and talked him through it. He quietly prayed to receive Christ.  He had a Bible, so I encouraged him to begin reading in John and gave him a Bible study and The Bible Promise Book.  He gave me his email and happily thanked me, shaking my hand as I got up to go, and said, “Nice meeting you.”

John was sitting in one of the cubbyhole benches overlooking the science lounge.  He was Asian looking in appearance and had family in 4 states in the US.  He had stick straight black hair (or very dark brown) and was wearing a fleece pullover zipped at the neck and skinny jeans that met his black white laced converse canvas tennis shoes. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I’ve tried.  I don’t know.  I’m not sure.  I’ve tried to be the best I can be.”  He said as a kid he went to church, but could not remember the name.  He didn’t have any knowledge of the Gospel.  But he listened closely as I went through it with him.  In the end, I asked him if he would like to be forgiven for his sins and have God live inside him.  “I’ve only thought about it once in a very long time. But yeah, I would like to be forgiven,” he responded. Since he’d had no real church background recently at all I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God and died for your sins and rose from the dead?”  He thought for a second and said, “Yes.”  “If you’d like to trust in that to be forgiven, there’s a prayer you could pray and it’s on this next page,” I said and walked him through the prayer and offered for him to pray it. “I was just reading it with you,” he replied.  “Amen?”  I said. “Amen” he said in reply.  He did not have a Bible so I said a friend had just bought me some and gave him a Bible, The Bible Promise Book and a Bible study.  I gave him the names of several churches near him and he said apologetically that he probably would not make it to a Bible Study.  I said “No worries. I’ll see you in Heaven.”  “Yeah I’ll see you again,” he said.  “Thanks for your time,” he said sincerely.  I told him he was welcome to it.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for Evangelism today if you had a chance.  God blessed the work and it was a good day.

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed.  I had a good day on campus and Alexander prayed to receive Christ.  He was sitting in the hall of the BIC building, wearing a grey V-neck viper pull over, grey sweats cut off to make shorts and blue Adidas with white stripes on his feet.  He had short brown hair and a slight mustache.  He reminded me of Tony Stark, the character on this TV show I have only seen once or twice called “Agent Carter”.  (The actor’s name is Dominic Cooper.)

Alexander said he was raised Catholic but now went to a Christian church.  He is the second person I spoke to this year who prayed to receive Christ with this backstory.  In both cases, I think the Church they attended rang more true to them but too rarely preached the Gospel as a commitment to trusting in the blood of Christ in His sacrifice. And they simply continued to believe in their own good works.  (Will was the other student like this.)  When I asked Alexander if he died, what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven? He said, “I lived life the clean way.  I don’t know… something along those lines I would hope.  What would you say to that question?”  “Well, I’m a Christian.” I said.  I asked him the likelihood he would go to Heaven and he said, “I don’t think I would say.”  Leaving it up to God, I think he meant.  I said, “Yeah that’s ok. A lot of people would say that.”  I began to explain the Gospel to him like a blood transfusion, where you have to have blood that matches your type. We have to become God’s type because He wants to transfuse His life into us.  But there is sin in our lives.  So God takes away our sin and then we are perfect and holy inside and we match God and He can live inside us.  Alexander couldn’t remember how his sins were taken away, but seeing the Cross in the booklet I then pulled out, he said, “Oh Christ died.”  “Right,” I said, “but there is more to it than that.”  I explained the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and that we don’t go to Heaven because we are good, but because Christ was good and that he needed to trust in that.  As I finished, Alexander said he would want to be forgiven, but felt like it would have to come at the end of his life as he would sin again.  I said, “Yes, you will, but when you ask God to forgive you based on Christ’s sacrifice and righteousness, the Holy Spirit enters you and seals you.  You become a New Creation and sin cannot destroy you in the way it once could.”  He saw that God would change him and decided to pray to receive Christ. He prayed aloud, sitting next to me, crossing himself to begin and finish.  So that was great.  I asked him if he had a Bible of his own or a family Bible and he said his mom had one he could use. It was kind of worn out.  So I gave him one. He was grateful and thanked me a couple times and shook my hand as I left him.  He said he’d email me if he had any more questions.  I also gave him a Bible Study and The Bible Promise Book.

I encouraged some other Christians today and got some good work done. Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.

In Him,
Bob

To donate to our college ministry: http://www.razoo.com/story/Third-Watch-Ministries-Nfp