Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope you are having a great weekend walking with the Lord.  I had a short day on campus.  But Jacob and Keith both prayed to receive Christ.  Then Ellen and I took some of the girls out to lunch.  Two girls who have come to Christ, one awhile back, one this year and one we are praying for.

Jacob was on a couch in the PE lounge upstairs, sitting with a friend of his who was Roman Catholic and did not want to do a student survey. But Jacob did, and his friend listened in.  Jacob had gone to church when he was younger.  He had sweats on and stick straight light sandy hair, kind of an all-American looking guy.  He basically said he lived by the golden rule, though he wouldn’t have called it that.  “I’m honest with people and I treat people the way I like to be treated.”  He didn’t have any idea how God took away his sins though, and the Gospel was news to him.  But he wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Christ.  His friend took a booklet from me too and they both took Bible Studies.  Jacob took a copy of The Case for Christ to read.  His friend explained he was Catholic and knew “All this stuff” but wanted to ask me a question.  I said, “Sure what ya got?”  He basically had been through a hard time in some way he did not specify and wanted to know why God was not close to him through it.  I explained that since he had not trusted in Christ to take away his sins, God did not live inside him.  I told him a story to illustrate it..too long to tell here..and I said if God acted like He was his Father and met his need, drawing close to him and comforting him, but he was not saved he would still go to Hell when he died.  It would be unfair for God to give him this closeness and then he think things were right between him and God.  “Then when you stood before God He would say, ‘I never knew you.’ Then you might object telling God He had given you a feeling of comfort and closeness and you had felt like He was your Father.  But it turns out God was not your Father. God is withholding the closeness you want from Him so you will come to Him on His terms and will be saved.  Sometimes you may not feel God is close and it is just thoughts of Satan.  Once you trust in Christ you sometimes need to cling to the fact of that through painful circumstances.  But you have not trusted in Christ yet to forgive you for your sins so He can enter you.”  Jacob’s friend seemed to accept the explanation when I asked if that made sense.  I gave him a copy of Enjoying Your Walk with God by Steve B. Douglass that he wanted to read.

Keith was sitting in the hallway of the BIC waiting for his girlfriend to get out of class (Tara, who it turned out I had gone through the Gospel with before).  He was going to a good church and had come to it from Roman Catholicism.  We talked about a bunch of things and the specific words he used descriptively seemed very “Christian”.  He is African American, had stone washed jeans on, said, “I’m trying to bring them back” and a Bulls cap (though it turned out he was not much of an NBA fan).  He had a jacket on too.  We hit it off pretty well and as I went through the Gospel, explaining God wanted to live inside Him with His Holy Spirit but could not because of his sin (Rom. 6:23), I said, “So sin kills ya and God gives you life.  God can’t be in the same place as sin, so he takes away your sin so He can live inside.  Kinda like a blood transfusion.  I have A+ blood, so if you have A+ blood and you give me a blood transfusion I’m great.  But if you have B- blood I’m dead.  God wants to transfuse His life into you, but first he has to make you His type.  So he takes away your sin.  Then you are perfect and holy inside and He can live inside you.”  But Keith did not know how God took away his sin, so I taught him the Gospel and pointed out he had been trusting in his good works to save him.  He’d said he hoped his “rights would outweigh his wrongs,” and he hoped in God’s favor through that.  He was convicted and trusted in Christ.  When he prayed he took longer than anyone has, reading it through and reading then each section and closing his eyes and praying it.  I think possibly in his own words.  His countenance had changed when he was finished and he was extremely sober.  He took a copy of More Than a Carpenter from me to read and a bible study.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit in him too.  Tara came then and I greeted her as she remembered me and gave her a quick hug.  Then I hugged Keith too and said I would see him in Heaven and ran to lunch.  He had real joy.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism on Friday if you had a chance.  God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope you found Joy today walking with Christ.  I had a really interesting day as I bumped into Kiara who prayed to receive Christ in the fall, in the shade on the grass stairs outside the MAC arts building one sunny day last September.  She had told me her name rhymes with her twin sister’s name Tiera (like the crown).  So today, walking through the science building, she happened to be sitting with her fraternal twin sister.  It took me a minute to recognize her as she had cut her long hair to shoulder length.  But it had also been several months.  She recognized me right away and got her sister to do a student survey with me, I’m sure wanting her to hear the Gospel.  Tiera is African American, had black glasses and her hair pulled up into curls above her head.  She felt like she trusted in God, but when I asked her how God took away her sin, she could not tell me.  So I went through the Gospel with her as Kiara occupied herself with her phone.  She said she would want to be forgiven and I helped her think through and understand what truly trusting in Christ meant, though she had gone to church and thought of herself as someone following God.  She prayed to receive Christ, quietly in her heart, and I gave her a Bible Study and asked her if she would like a book.  She chose the same book her sister had, the Student Edition of The Case for Faith, which her sister thought was great.  I asked her if she would like a different one, saying she could read Kiara’s, but Tiera wanted her own.  I talked to them a bit about their lives as twins and having to share a lot of stuff.  It was great to know they both had understood the Gospel and could encourage each other in faith.  I told them I would pray for them and left them chatting.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Well, I hope you made it through the day and could rest in the Spirit.  I had a headache all day and basically had a brain fog, having slept poorly.  But in spite of that God was faithful.  I had some good conversations and Sheljo prayed with me to receive Christ.  His family is Roman Catholic from India, kind of interesting.  He had a really short haircut and was wearing a gray wool coat with a hood, jeans and work boots.  But they were the shinny hipster kind now popular, unlaced with the jeans bunched up at the open boot top, not the blue collar beat up kind.  We were in the large science building lounge . He didn’t have much to say and looked around alot as I spoke with him, kind of distracting given we were in a basically empty lounge later in the afternoon.  But I could tell he continued to listen so I just kept rolling.  He had large eyes.  I was just trusting God to come across to him, my head was weary and I did not feel very capable of putting my best foot forward.  He said he wanted to serve God with His life and seemed like a nice guy.  After I had gone through the Gospel with him he said he would want to be forgiven when I asked.  I asked him if he had ever asked God to forgive him based on what Jesus had done on the Cross.  “Well, I have gone to confession,” he said.  I explained to him the priest could tell him he was forgiven like an insurance agent can tell you you are covered for car insurance.  But when you damage your car the agent does not pay, the company pays.  “The priest is just acting as God’s agent, telling you God forgives you.  And he can only do that because Jesus died for you.”  He’d actually already said, when I asked him what he’d say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven, “I feel sorry for what I did.”  I walked him through the prayer and asked him if he’d like to pray it and he said, “I did as you read it.”  So I said “Amen?”  And he said, “Amen”.  He was interested in a book and really brightened up when I offered him the book on the testimonies of Christians in the NBA, Playing with Purpose.  I guess it’s nice to have something you think will be fun to read, but as we looked at the book together he really seemed to think it was great that some of these players were Christians.  People like to think someone they admire for a talent like a sport also lives with the same view they do.  I gave him a Bible study to read and he was grateful.   We shook hands and I told him I would see him in Heaven.  He had a bit of an accent and there is a pretty huge cultural gap between us, and my head had a knot of pain by my eye.  But God still used me to speak to him, which was kind of Him to do.  And I was grateful.

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

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus, though no one trusted Christ today.  I Bumped into several students I had seen pray to receive Jesus earlier.  One guy was Robert, an African American, short, with a rough top afro I found sitting in the Cafeteria.  He had not prayed with me to receive Christ last fall but had said he would later.  So I asked him if he had and he said he did two days after we talked.  I had been praying for him since last fall, so I was glad to hear he had trusted Christ in response to preaching to him then.  He is studying to become an airline pilot.  His mom is a flight attendant.  Two of his friends had prayed with me then, Matt and Dustin. I hope the other guy with them, Caleb, who also said he would later prayed, did as well and I’ll find out one day.

I chatted up Jade (who prayed to receive Christ Jan 15th) and got her email again and sent her stuff tonight.  I’d had her address wrong.  Leo, who came to Christ last year, and I spent about a half hour talking.  I gave him some advice and taught him about walking in the Spirit.  And two girls today said they believed but would pray later.  Vanesha, a pretty black girl with shiny silver Ugg boots and jeans and a fleece on, sitting in the science building and Madline, a thin, tall, cute, white kid, artsy.  She had brown hair and long bangs she twisted as we talked, easy laugh, wore all black shirts tights and a skirt.  So I don’t know if they will receive Jesus but I am hopeful, particularly for Madline who seemed likely and I talked through a lot of things with.  I gave them both Bible Studies to read where I explain Jesus claims to be God.  Maline said, “This is cool.”  So I will be praying for them to come.

So thanks for your prayers today for the ministry and for evangelism if you had a chance.  I am hopeful it was fruitful for those I encountered.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Hope ya had a good day walkin’ with Jesus.  I had a great day talkin’ to some peeps and Christian, a good lookin’ black guy with a slight under bite and an easy way about him, prayed to receive Christ.  He was wearing skinny jeans and gray old-school styled sneakers with gray laces.  He had an inch and a half afro and his cap turned around backward.  He said he’d been looking to get back into church lately and had tried a few the last couple months.  When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “Because I believe.  Isn’t that what most people would say?”  I said, “Actually most people would say, ‘because I’ve been good.’  “The problem is you can’t be good enough.  Just like the problem with saying you believe is ‘what do you believe?'”  He grinned and said, “Yeah.”  I began to go through the Gospel with him and he agreed with every little point.  I actually assumed he was a Christian and knew the Gospel, but when I was finished and he said he’d want to be forgiven.  I said, “Well then the question is:  Have you been trusting in what Jesus did for you on the Cross or just in your own moral goodness, that you were a good person and God was Good, and hoping you’d go to Heaven?”  (He had said, as we began talking, he thought he had a 50% chance of going to Heaven).  At first he said he thought a little of both.  That would put him in the category of many peeps that go to church and meeting me was just a reminder of what he needed to be trusting in, but as we talked more he finally said he had really just been hoping he was good enough to go to Heaven.  So I showed him a prayer he could silently pray and he decided to do it.  I gave him the Student Edition of The Case for Faith and a Bible Study to read and explained the Holy Spirit to him.  Then he said he couldn’t come to Bible study when we had it, as they lifted for football.  He was a pretty big dude, half again of me.  But he said, “Is there a time we could get together and just study the Bible?”  I said sure and if he wanted he could give me a time.  I’d send him a Bible study if he gave me an email address and we could set up a time.  So we’ll see if that works out.  I gave him a Bible study and taught him some things about the Holy Spirit and growing in Christ and we shook hands and I headed out.

I bumped into a couple of my peeps that I pray for then, (in a corner lounge where they often sit.)  Bee, who trusted Christ praying with me 3 years ago, and Victoria who I had gone through the Gospel with last week.  So I asked her if she’d prayed and she said yes that she had “talked to God about it last night.”  So that is great.  She told me her mom used to put her shoes under her bed so when she went to get them in the morning she would be on her knees and remember to pray.  So if her mom has been praying for her that will help her walk.

So please pray for Christian and Victoria (who received Jesus on time release from when I spoke to her).  I took Bee and Namra (a muslim Indian girl I know) and Victoria out to a late afternoon lunch then (they are all BFF) and we talked about a lot of stuff for about an hour and a half at a Thai place in Wheaton.  So I will try to get Victoria a Bible and pray for her even more.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I hope you had a good day walking with the Lord.  I had a great day on campus as I got to go through the Gospel with two students I had been praying for and Maria prayed to receive Christ.  She has long brown hair, kind of teased-out looking (bit of a bad hair day maybe) and an oval face, nice looking girl.  Maria is Roman Catholic in background and was sitting in a 1st floor lounge in the BIC building.  She said she had already done a survey for a Christian Bible study group.  Campus Crusade, now called Cru, does spiritual interest surveys with students and never tells them the Gospel.  They had a table up like us at the Activity Fair and so I have encountered quite a few students who say they have already done a survey.  With Maria I tried to work around it and asked her what she would say if God asked her why He should let her into Heaven.  She appealed to her good works, so I went through the Gospel with her and she wanted to be forgiven and trust in Christ’s work.  I told her she could pray silently and she said “lets pray together.”  So I prayed it with her, she read really fast.  I gave her a bible study and More than a Carpenter to read and she had to run to class.  But I did get to explain the work of the Holy Spirit in her and give her a remembrance view of the Mass as Jesus said when he first celebrated the last supper.  I told her I would be praying for her.

I had a good conversation with Delvon, a nice looking black guy with an afro, wearing sweats and sitting on the floor in front of the entrance to the art building tunnel.  After I had gone through the Gospel with him he said, “Well, you’ve opened the door. Let me think about this.”  I asked him to email me if he decided to pray.  He seemed interested, but I have said that to a lot of guys, promising to pray for them if they would.  But only one ever has.  I usually end up praying for them anyway if they seem on the cusp of giving their life to Christ.  So I’ll be praying for him, hoping Satan will not steal the seed.  Also, I got to go through the Gospel with Victoria and Mike, who Ellen and I pray for and I see often at school.  Victoria has a couple of Christian friends, so that gives me hope.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  It was a good day.

In Him,

Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope you are being blessed this weekend with the nearness of God.  We are finally de-christmas-decorating the living room. We’re a bit behind from doing other projects that seemed more taxing.  But hey if no one is coming over it doesn’t matter if Christmas is a bit longer.  So I chopped up the tree and burned it today and stowed the decorations in the garage attic.  Yesterday was a good day at school and I went through the Gospel with 8 people.  Best of all, Eric prayed to receive Christ.

Eric was the first guy I talked to.  He’s African American, had a couple inch afro, a bit of facial hair and a hoodie pulled up over his head with bright orange and red printing I couldn’t quite make out.  He was sitting with a friend, Isaac, who was not interested completely.  But he tuned in here and there and I left him with a booklet, as he was primarily on the phone and only barely eavesdropped.  But Eric tuned in and after I’d asked him some questions I asked him if he’d like to know how to get to Heaven.  He said he would, so I walked him through the Gospel.  He hadn’t gone to church consistently but went here and there.  He thought of himself as loyal and thought he would go to Heaven, “‘Cause I was always loyal to the people who were loyal to me.”  His answer brought to mind the verse in Luke 6:33 “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” But after I explained that he could not earn his salvation and it was a gift of God through faith, he said he wanted to be forgiven and prayed to receive Christ.  Isaac, who knew his name was in the Bible but hadn’t known who the patriarch Isaac was, finally began to pay attention again.  I then gave him the booklet to look through as Eric prayed.  They both took Bible Studies from me and the book More Than A Carpenter to read.

So that was the best part of the day.  Thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism on Friday if you had a chance.  May you be blessed this weekend as you walk with Him.
Love in Christ,
Bob Bollow

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope you had a great day walking with Jesus.  I parked my truck facing the sunshine and was grateful the cab was above freezing when I got back to it.  And Jade prayed to receive Christ on campus.  She is an African-American girl, cute kid, long wavy hair and pink boots that looked like UGGs.  She had on a black fleece and yoga pants with a Nike swoosh on the hip.

She was sitting on the second floor of the PE building doing pretty much nothing and didn’t really want to do a student survey.  It seemed like she was just being lazy though, so I asked her, “Do you know how to go to Heaven?”  She hesitated and so I asked, “Do you wanna answer just one question?”  She said ok so I told her my name and got hers and I asked her, “Say you are walking down the road and you get hit by a bus so your are dead. And you stand before God and He asks, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ What would you say?”  She thought for a second and said, “Because I deserve it.”  I explained, “That is not what the Bible says.  Do you want to know what it says?”  She said she did and I started talking her through the Gospel, telling her stories and stuff to help to illustrate it.  She had no idea how God took away her sins.  I talked about Jesus imputed righteousness to her, explaining it was like credit in a class given to give her an A, though she was getting a zero.  “So you don’t go to Heaven because you are good but because Jesus is good,” I explained.  I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins and she said she did.  So I asked her if she believed Jesus was God and had died for her sins and rose from the dead.  She said yes, so I walked her through the prayer asking her if this was what she wanted and she said yes.  I said she could pray it in her head like I wasn’t there and I sat down where I had been kneeling next to her on the floor.  She turned to me and asked, “So I say it out loud?”  I said ” No, God can read your thoughts.  You can pray it in your head.”  So I watched as she prayed and she got a big smile on her face handing the booklet back to me.  I talked her through the work of the Holy Spirit ,giving her Gal. 5:22,23 to read, telling her she could keep the booklet.  I gave her a Bible study and explained some of it to her.  I got her email to send her more stuff.  She took More Than a Carpenter from me to read too, so that was good.  She goes to a church regularly.  She thanked me and I told her I would pray for her.

I had a couple other good conversations with students today, one who was searching for God.  Jon had a hard time believing. A self described Mexican, speaking of his family; “We are Mexicans and my mother is very religious.  She really loves God.”  He had done some drugs and had some strange spiritual experiences and felt God was telling him to stop.  I agreed and warned him about it, talking to him about things the Bible said about the spiritual world.  “This is blowing my mine right now,” he said.  He had been looking for a sign from God to give him faith.  I explained the Gospel to him and that faith was a gift from God and he should pray and ask for it.  He agreed to that and was going to begin reading the Bible.  I suggested that my finding and talking to him was probably the sign he was looking for and he seemed to agree to that.  He was very interested to learn the Gospel and I gave him The Case for A Creator.  We had a great talk.  I also went through the Gospel with Robin, a guy raised in a Unitarian background.  His family used the church for social reasons he said.  I gave him The Case for Christ and he seemed really interested to read it. Both seemed grateful to talk

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

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 went well walking with the Lord by His Spirit.  I had a good day on campus and 3 guys; Jorge, Remik and Conrad, each prayed to receive Christ as Savior.  Jorge was sitting in the hallway in the BIC building not up to much.  He was Latino, had a light growth of beard and brown hair, black pants and a Bulls Sweatshirt on.  Nice guy.  He went regularly to a Catholic church southwest of campus.  When I asked him why the God should let him into Heaven he said, “I have done no wrong.”  Then he hesitated and continued “Nothing major.  I’ve make mistakes.  Nothing too bad.”  But he still did not think he was very likely to go to Heaven.  He gave it 30%.  He explained that he had some friends who were Jehovah’s Witnesses and they had made him feel like they were better people than him.  I pointed out they did not believe Jesus was God and he nodded.  I went through the Gospel with him, explaining we don’t go to Heaven because we are good but because Jesus was good and by His merit we are saved.  He understood Jesus had died for him and said he wanted to be forgiven, trusting in that and prayed to receive Christ.  I was praying for him as we talked in the hope he would receive the forgiveness of God through Christ so the Holy Spirit would be in him to resist his self-righteous friends.  I gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ where He claims to be God in the Bible, explaining that because Jesus is God, His blood is worth an infinite amount.  Because Jorge had a Bulls sweatshirt on I gave him a copy of Playing with Purpose that tells some of the testimonies of some of the great players in the NBA.  I got his e-mail and he said he would look forward to getting a Bible study emailed to him.

I went upstairs and as I walked past a busy lounge with some vending machines in it, I made eye contact with Remik, sitting at the end of a line of couch chairs.  He had a White Sox winter cap on and was chilling with two friends, one of whom was Conrad.  They jumped in a bit on the questionnaire and then trailed off to their own conversation but eves-dropped on the Gospel as I told stories to Remik.  Conrad had a beard.  Both he and Remik had brown hair and jeans on and I think they went to Church together, as later Remik had said he felt the presence of God at his Polish Language Church when an African Bishop spoke in English with a translator into Polish and Conrad acted like he had heard the speaker as well.  I explained that everyone has a relationship with God and can feel His presence because He is their creator, but not everyone is IN a relationship with God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit living in them.  This was after I had gone through the Gospel and a couple others fell into listening in, but all had left by the end.  I asked them if they wanted to be forgiven, asking Remik if he had ever asked God to forgive him truly trusting in Jesus work on the Cross.  He said, “No I don’t think I have ever done that,” and decided to pray to receive Jesus.  I’d asked Conrad his name, including him in one of the stories and so I asked him if he wanted to pray as well and he said he did.  I gave him the booklet and he prayed each phrase slowly, closing his eyes then looking again to read the next.  So that was great.  Neither wanted a book, saying they had no time to read, but I gave them each a Bible study.  I encouraged them to remember at Church that Jesus had died for them and be happy knowing they were forgiven.

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

In Him,
Bob Bollow

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

Hi bob,  Thank you for sending me more to read!  I also checked out the third watch website and I think it’s great what you’re doing for students like me.  I read the story about the wooden people and I thought it was a great example of what you explained to me about God and how we are the ones to allow Him into our lives and that He will be there, loving us, because He made us.  One day, I hope to have the confidence that Lulia has though.  I will try to come on Wednesday if I am not working. Thank you,  Jordin

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Above is an email note I got from Jordin in response to a story and a Bible Study I sent her after she had prayed to receive Christ at College of DuPage.  You can hear the story I sent her here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15QuHygLwFU

I don’t often hear back from students who pray with me.  I bump into many at school and chat them up.  But being an evangelist for our calling proves to have only a few we disciple and hang out with, though most are already going to church.  The real life of ministry we have practically has turned out to be much like Phillip the Evangelist in Acts 8.  In verse 39 it reads, “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.”  The Holy Spirit leads me to many who would know Him, but I do not have the pleasure of teaching them much after going through the Gospel and explaining to them about the Holy Spirit’s work in their life thereafter.  I feel a bit snatched away at times, though nothing quite like the Star Trek experience Phillip had in Acts 8.  Since doing Evangelism for a while beginning in 2002, I have realized God would not be asking me to disciple the majority of those I preached to who received Christ.  And I could not.  But God, through His Holy Spirit, is able to keep them, having entered them if they have genuinely believed on Jesus’ work on the Cross to save them.  I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to one girl, Sabrina, this year that did not believe.  She said her problem with Christianity was the sacrifice of Christ for her sins.  She thought the details of Christ’s horrible sacrifice seemed like too
much to cover her meager infractions like “being unkind to her sister.”  I explained her real problem was ontological.  “Ontology is the study of being in Philosophy,” I told her.  “Your problem is your being does not match God’s being.  It’s like Heaven is water and you do not have the gills you need to exist there.  Christ’s sacrifice can cleanse you of all sin so God could enter into you and like is says in the book of Ezekiel ‘change your heart of stone for a heart of flesh’.  The crucifixion is horrible and covers horrible crimes.  But it happened that way because Jesus said He would fall into the hands of sinful men and they would do to Him whatever they wished. [Matt. 17:12, Luke 24:7]  Lambs were not tortured to cover sin in the sacrificial system and all that was necessary for Christ to do was to die, life for a life.”  I told her God could then enter her and make her able to breathe in Heaven.  I persuaded her to take the Student Edition of The Case for Christ to read in the hope she might turn and I pray for her.

Christianity is Being, Knowing and Doing.  All of these are part of the Christian life.  But all come from God and first, before anything else, there must be a change in Being.  Only the Holy Spirit can do this, and without Him an unbeliever will not be convicted of their sin and need for a savior [John 16:8].  Are you sometimes surprised or a bit shocked by the godless behavior of other people you read about or are talked about in media?  It is possible they do not think they have done anything wrong, but your own being is changed if He lives in you, so it is different. [1Cor. 6:10,11]  Then God can begin to transform our knowing [2Cor. 3:18, Eph. 1:17,18. 3:19].  Then our knowing begins to transform our doing and visa versa.  In the following verses you can see this process.  First God transforms their being, filling them then with Knowledge, which can only happen because the Holy Spirit can now fill a life cleansed by the Grace of Christ’s blood through faith.  This spiritual wisdom and understanding comes through Paul’s prayers for them, and so I also pray each night for those who have prayed to receive Christ.  Then having this knowledge they can do what pleases God, “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”. Colossians 1:9&10 “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

Our piece of this is primarily to preach the Gospel, that God might change their being.  From there, through His power, we hope and pray they might be transformed to live the Christian life, guided by His Spirit if they have truly believed.  I talk to some through the year and there are people who attend Bible study each week at school.  I have gone through the Gospel with about 190 students this semester.  I often pray there would be more students at bible study, but I have to trust in God’s plan to preach the Gospel as Ellen and I don’t have the stamina to disciple so many.  We both continue to work part-time at other jobs to help provide for our needs and God works, as He will, in His good pleasure.

These are the students who have come to Christ this semester:

Berto, Jake, Kaichelle, Kayla,  Jose, Arielle, Dustin, Matt, Kiara, Jevante, Kiera, Rashundra, Lonie, Aleena, CJ, Burnelle, Lorn, Andrew, Daniella, Ana, Chelsea, Maria, Caitlan, Zam, Nettie, Courtney, Christian, Daniela, Kayla, Adriana, Ruby, Leesha, Paola, Cody*, Atche(H) , Sabrina, Sheridan, Mackenzie,  Dannielle, Jason, Dontate, Michael, Kialah, Ryan, Jordin, Phabian, Jeanna, Paul, Eden, Loni, Jake, Michael, Deonte, Zachary, Sandra, Angela, Alex, Sean, Allie*

We are grateful for another semester to serve the Lord with our ministry.  Thank you for your prayers and financial support.  May you be blessed this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

email: bob.thirdwatch@sbcglobal.net

In Him,      Bob & Ellen                                                                                                      website:  www.thethirdwatch.org

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