Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How’s the life over by you? Good I hope. Things went well on campus today. I didn’t manage to get into too many conversations but hey were good ones and Gaby and Quanell prayed to receive Jesus.

Gaby was just sitting in a lounge on the ground floor in the SSC. We talked for about an hour. Brown hair glasses boots, 21. She is Roman Catholic but she said typically getting everyone in the family to church on a Sunday created so much stress and bad feelings that her family just kind of gave up, since the end result was counterproductive. She wanted to travel the world and hopes to go into pediatrics and become a doctor. We talked about that and the state of the world for quite a while and then about the Gospel and taught it to her, she did not know how God worked to take away her sins. I asked her if she wanted to receive Christ. She said she wanted to be forgiven her hesitation was forgiveness for things she did. She said sometimes she did things she knew were wrong and might hesitate over them but did them anyway. She had a hard time with the idea that God would forgive deliberate sin. I Reminded her about the love of God and the severe solution for a severe problem the cross is, about God’s love for her and that Paul basically says he does the same thing, and I paraphrased Romans 7:19 “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” I said, “God knows the future it is not as if He is surprised by your sin but forgives you and has a plan to fix it. He made us out of dust after all his expectations are not that high (that we would be perfect though we would have to be to go to heaven without His work). But also you have to watch your pride; it is pride that tells us we have done something that even God would not forgive when He tells us He will.” That seemed to resonate with her. I read through the prayer for her and asked her if it was the desire of her heart she said it was and I said well if you will promise me you will pray this tonight I promise to pray for you through the end of this year and next year too. She promised. I gave her The Case for a Creator knowing what was to come in some of her science classes and a bible study on the deity of Christ.

Later in the Afternoon, maybe 2:15 or so I came upon Quanell waiting for a ride by the doors of the SRC building. He was up for doing my survey and we talked. He hoped he would be wealthy and was new in town and had just started to go to His Sister’s Church, Baptist he thought. He was trying to be good, “not to lie, be the best he could be” and seemed like a good guy. But he did not know how God took away his sins. I explained the work Jesus did to him and he tracked with me and wanted to be forgiven and have God live inside him. His ride called but he made them wait and prayed to receive Christ. I had explained the Holy Spirit to him and trusting in God’s power to live the Christian life. I quickly gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and His claims in the NT and a copy of More Than a Carpenter to read. Then got his e-mail quickly to send him stuff as he ran for his ride.

So a couple peeps came to believe on Jesus to pay for their sins and I had a good day. Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance and please pray for Quanell and Gaby to grow in faith and trust in Him.

In His love,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Hope you had a good day. I felt like the Lord used me today and answered prayer. Amara prayed to receive Christ. She is a Roman Catholic girl. She hadn’t been to church in a while — sidetracked by school but she used to teach the kids on Sunday morning. She did not know what to call it they do not call it Sunday school. But she did not know how God took away her sins and had not prayed for her sins to be forgiven based on what Jesus had done for her. She said she wanted to be forgiven. I asked her if she wanted to pray for accept God’s forgiveness and she said, ‘Well I usually pray at night.” I offered to leave her alone for a minute and she said, “No that’s ok” and decided she would like to pray. So she prayed silently to receive Jesus and I gave her a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and More than a Carpenter to read. I explained how the Holy Spirit’s power in us through the fruit of the Spirit is how we live the Christian life. As I left she was happy.

I connected with several students walking around that I had talked to before. Ashley who came to Christ in the lounge first semester was with her friend Logan. She was sitting with some friends and I did not recognize her at first but I went through the gospel again with her and so her friends Jordan, a guy and Melissa and Vanessa got to hear it and piped in with questions, I kind of feel like God made me not recognize her so they all would hear. But she let me go through it again and then said I talked to you last year so then I said, “Oh I’m so sorry, I did not recognize you right away.”

She did not mind at all and I explained a lot more of the Christian life to her and it seemed to register better that she was forgiven and why Christ’s payment on the cross was inexhaustible. I said, “Suppose we kidnap Donald Trump, we could get a lot of money but if we kidnap me not so much.” They laughed and I said Jesus is God to His life is worth an infinite amount it covers all of your sins. It is kind of like if when your mom saw you leaving home this morning she gave you a Discover Card, and you are like ‘What am I gonna’ do with this? I don’t have any money that’s why I’m going to COD’. But she says, ‘No, I found a lottery ticket on the parking lot last night and we are worth 35 million dollars after taxes, so whatever you put on this discover card I will always pay it off.’ God did the same thing with Jesus, you have a Discover Card of His blood that pays for all your sins. God is never surprised at our sins and He will always forgive when we ask and has a plan.” She couldn’t remember who she had been sitting with but I did and told her. It was actually pretty cool after I talked about how to live the Christian life and forgiveness Melissa said, I think really understanding the Christian life for the first time, “I feel so inspired right now, like God will help me.” And Jordan said, “I think this was not an accident that you came by here, I think God did this!” They all asked for the booklet I had gone through to have. I explained how they needed to pray believing in what Jesus had done. They were receptive it was great.

So Thanks for your prayers for me as I went around, I know God was with me leading and helping me.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a great day of sharing today, I hope your day was blessed as well. Sara prayed to receive Christ and I had a great conversation with two girls, Maggie and Emily, who I found sitting together in the SSC building on the ground floor where they can’t see to hassle me. 🙂 They professed not to believe in God but it turned out they were more disappointed and angry. I talked to them about the evil in the world and hoping in God to help us through it and that in Heaven He will make it right. I talked to them about the world as a big Rubik’s cube with trillions of squares on a side that God is turning to make things right but often this messes up what we want to remain the same or be better. The both said that what I said helped and was good. They had been in painful places and blamed God but stepped away from that some and were even willing to each take a copy of More Than a Carpenter from me to read and seemed encouraged. I showed them a prayer they could pray to start up again with God in faith. So I will be praying for them. I feel for them, they have been disappointed and hurt, and I can relate to that.

Sara was sitting in front of the Book store on a couch with a friend who was completely absorbed by her cell phone the entire time and said nothing after 2 minutes in, which I think was probably a good thing. Sara was nice friendly Serbian Orthodox girl and tracked pretty well with me through the gospel but didn’t have any idea how God took away her sins. I asked her after explaining the gospel if she would want to be forgiven. When she said she would I asked if she had ever asked God to forgive her sins based on what Jesus had done for her on the cross. She said (what several people have said to me in the past), ‘Well I’ve asked for forgiveness just not the whole Jesus part.” I explained to her that that is what made Christians different from other religions. I walked her through the prayer and she thought she would like to pray it right there and did silently. I explained the Holy Spirit to her in the Christian life and gave her a copy of More than a Carpenter to read and a Bible since she did not have one and a Bible study on the deity of Christ which she really seemed interested in, she was really happy when I left and I will be praying God will keep her in the faith.

I had a good conversation with Keyona a 20 something Black woman to end the day. Her first husband had been Muslim and her now boyfriend was too. It was hard to nail down where she was in her faith but she had not believed/known Jesus was God but accepted my explanation of the Trinity. I gave her a copy of the Student Edition of The Case for Christ to read and she was grateful for it so I hope it will lead her to genuine faith.

Bumped into Raphael whom I had talked to another day and given a copy of The Case for Christ, he said it was good and he had his dad reading it. He is Roman Catholic but seemed to agree with me concerning imputation when we talked. So it was good to see him into it. Trevor who prayed to receive Christ last week was in the same spot where he’d prayed with me last week and I talked with him a bit and he was reading The Case for a Creator and liking it, we had a good talk.

So today was a productive day. Thank you for praying for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, I’ll head out again tomorrow and would be grateful for your prayers then as well if you find a moment in the course of your day. Blessings on you and those you love, may God keep you in the shelter of His wings.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Well, nothing much seemed to be happening at Campus today. I went through the gospel with several peeps, a couple were Christians so that might help them share their faith some other time. No one hostile though so maybe there was one good seed planted you can’t say, sometimes you throw the seed and you just can’t tell what kind of ground it has landed on. It was windy and gray in Chicago today, kind of feels like a portent of something. Ha. Hope it is good.

Thanks for your prayers.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How was your day? Enjoy the sun a bit? I had a good day of sharing the gospel and Brian prayed with me to receive Christ as His savior. He did not seem to know how God took away his sin but given that he had attended the Christian Reform Church in Elmhurst he may have once known and forgot. He certainly was not trusting in Jesus to make him right with God. He was assuming he was good enough, and I think he was a good person. He said, “I made the best of my life, made good decisions and helped others. When there was a fork in the road I took the right path.” I mentioned the Robert Frost poem [The Road Not Taken] and he said, “Yeah like that.”

The Gospel seemed like news to him, I asked how God took away his sin and he said, “Forgiveness?”

“Well, yeah God forgives you but what is the big thing that happens to make it possible?” I asked him. And he had no guess so I said, “Well, it’s Jesus.” By the time I finished the gospel he of course recognized the story and prayed aloud to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. He said he had some atheist friends and we talked about the way the world can shift some people away from faith when something painful happened. He was a great guy. I gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and The Case for Faith so hopefully he’ll get a chance to take some of that in and grow. I gave him a card for a Church in Elmhurst that meets in the theater there so he might check it out.

The last conversation I had today was interesting. A staunchly committed Catholic guy in his 20’s who basically thought every sincerely religious person went to heaven, which actually is in keeping with Vatican II. He was a counselor, recently unemployed. I pointed out some of the ways in which other religion were a violation of conscience. He said, ‘Well that’s a Freudian term.”

I missed his point at first and said, “Well, Freud has been dismissed by most schools of psychological theory.” Then I realized he was attributing the term to Freud. “Well, the term is found in the Bible and that predates Freud by quite a bit.” He asked how many translations of the Bible there are and I said I did not know but I had about 35 back at my house on my shelf. He thought he had made his point and I said, “But the earliest are based on documents from 350 AD.” And then he was standing about to be late for an appointment. We parted amiably but it goes to show how easily knowledge is dismissed today. Even had Freud coined the term in English, and since it is in the King James Bible and Geneva Bible 1560 he did not, it seems to take one assumed fact to write off an idea for some, be it ad hominem in argument or any other number of fallacies. Now that the Movie Titanic has been re-released the internet is full of examples of Millennia’s who now for the first time realizes it is a true story. Truth it seems, historical factual and worst of all Biblical, has drained out of the bottom of our society. We are in trouble.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry if you had a chance this week or for me today. God has blessed this year and this is why.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

How was your day? Mine went pretty well. It seemed productive as one guy, Brad, came to Christ and I had some encouraging conversations with a couple Christian guys to end the day.

Brad goes to a Catholic Church and said, “I actually have been going a lot more lately.” I figured at that point, God had led me to him and he probably would pray with me to receive Jesus as his Savior. I knew his interest in Spiritual things, in as much as they were nominally Christian, was probably from the Holy Spirit calling him. Interest in Spiritual things in general, be they Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or even Jewish in past conversations has not been from God. When I asked him how God took away his sins he simply replied, “How?” But he believed the Gospel when I told him that his faith saved him and God loved him unconditionally. He prayed to receive Christ and took a copy of More Than a Carpenter to read and a Bible Study from me. I explained the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life to encourage him.

So thanks for your prayers for me and for Third Watch if you had a chance today. I’m grateful for your help with our ministry.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a good day sharing our faith with students today and Trevor and Chauncey prayed to receive Christ by faith. I also just got through the gospel with Cedra, when she ran for the bus. She’s a culinary student, Black woman, a bit older than average, in her 20’s anyway. She had a Christian background and had, “prayed for forgiveness for all her sins”. But she did not seem to understand the Gospel. She said when I went through the prayer with her, “I’ll pray this everyday.” She then literally took the booklet and stood up to run for the bus; we’d been sitting on the stairs by the door. So I’ll keep her in my prayers, but it was too fast and she ran off before I could talk her through any more of the Christian life. She attends church, however. So I’ll look for her again and keep her in my prayers.

Trevor was sitting on a couch against the glass in the hall outside the Book Store. He’s from a Methodist background. He was a kind, helpful guy and he said he hoped “My good things outweighed my bad things.” So he was kind of hoping in karma. I explained how that really didn’t work in Christianity in as much as you don’t get extra credit for being decent since you are supposed to be that way and you simply have the deficit of what you have done bad. I told him an example I often use: “Say you are driving down the road and you cut somebody off,” I said. “So you feel sketchy about that so you let the next guy in, now he feels good and you feel good, but the guy behind you, he’s still pissed.” He saw the logic and agreed with me.

After I had gone through the gospel, (he had not really known how his sins were forgiven and had not trusted in it to make him right with God before) I asked him, “So really there are two kinds of people. People who have God living inside them and have faith in what Jesus has done to make them right with God or people who have God on the outside of their life. Like if you were Islamic, Muslims believe God is a mystery and He cannot be known so they don’t believe God lives inside them.”

“I’d like to have God live inside me and I don’t think about Him enough, but I want to,” He replied. I explained how his response to God’s question: “why should I let you into heaven” was kind of like a Roche Test showing what he was trusting in and he needed to trust in what Christ had done for him on the cross now that he was older and not just a kid going to church with his parents. So I showed him the prayer explaining how he could receive God’s forgiveness for his sins trusting in the work of Christ and that he would think of God more if God lived inside him by His Holy Spirit. He prayed to receive Christ. He liked science so I gave him a copy of, The Case for a Creator to read and explained to him the importance of reading the Bible to strengthen his connection to God and how the Christian life was lived by the Holy Spirit. I also told him I would pray for him.

Chauncey is African American and goes to a Baptist Church near the city. Slender kid, cute. She hoped she had done all she could at her age to get into heaven but when I asked her how God took away her sins she guessed, “By going to Church?”

I told her then about Jesus and how He had died for her sins having lived a perfect life for her, and how the merit of His life was to her credit. And this was true if she trusted in what He had done on the cross to make her right with God. I explained a prayer to her, how she could have God live inside her and receive His forgiveness. She believed the gospel and prayed to receive Christ as her Savior and Lord. I gave her a Bible Study and a copy of More Than a Carpenter to read. I also explained the Holy Spirit to her, encouraging her to read about the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5. I got her e-mail to send her a story too.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and today if you had a chance. God blessed and we had a good time of sharing at Bible study too.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a great day today sharing the gospel with students Tuesday. Sarah committed to Christ by faith and Dandre prayed to receive Jesus trusting in Him and not his good works and effort to make him right with God. Two other students were close to the kingdom too.

Sarah is in the Newman Society which is a Catholic group and usually when someone tells me that in conversation I let it go in the realization they will be implacable. If you are a doctrinaire Romanist you are likely in my experience to reject the Bible concerning your justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ. The words Justification and Imputation rarely come out of my pie hole in going through the gospel but that is what I have taught them by the end of it. Sarah was not doctrinaire however and when I said, “Well, ya wanna do a survey anyway?” She said, “Ok.” She thought she would go to heaven because she had kept the commandments, which sadly is impossible. After I went through the gospel she said she would like to be forgiven. She hadn’t ever thought about her sins being forgiven by Jesus work on the Cross and I when I asked her if she had ever asked God to forgive her sins based on what Jesus had done for her she thought hardly a moment and said no. I explained the priests could not forgive her sin but was only representing God to her. They could offer forgiveness because of what Jesus had done on the cross to make it possible for God to forgive her. I offered her the prayer and she said it was her heart but she had to run to class so I said, “Do you believe that Jesus death on the cross is what makes you right with God?” She said, “Yes.” She didn’t want a book but I offered her a Bible study and she took it and the booklet with the prayer. Something seemed to have changed in her and even toward me. She said, “I just wanted to warn you there are Jews and Muslims here at School.” Suggesting I think that they would not have liked what I had to say. But I replied, “I know I have talked to them. They never get upset with me. But it they did I would just apologize and move on.” She then explained she had, “Worked for a Jewish owned company and the owners got upset with you if you even said Merry Christmas.” “Wow.” I replied “I never met a Jewish person who cared about that.” So I am hopeful she truly believed, but I will be praying for her.

I had a great conversation at the end of the day with Dandre, big African American guy. He went to Church and when I asked him if God asked him why he should be let into heaven he said, “Believe in your heart Jesus is Lord and confess with your mouth, that’s the only answer right?” I said it was but after I went through the gospel and questioned him more it became obvious that he had been trusting in his own goodness to get him into heaven, and had never asked God to forgive him because of what Jesus had done for him. He was great to talk to and liked all my analogies, so hey it’s always fun when someone like the way you say it. I explained he needed to trust in Jesus and counting on what He had done for Him on the cross when he asked for forgiveness from God and he decided to pray to receive Christ. He asked me some good questions about how to live the Christian life. I told him some things to pray about doubt and things Satan would bring to mind, “Just pray, ‘Father, take the thoughts of Satan out of my heart,’ I pray that all the time.” He asked how to motivate himself to read the Bible. I said, “Do you read the Sports page?” He did. “Don’t let yourself read it until you have read the Bible that day, it will remind you.” I explained to him that the Christian life was not about trying harder but asking God for His Spirit to give you the strength to live as you would want to, pleasing God. I got his e-mail too to send him a story. So that was a good last conversation of the day.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and yesterday if you got the chance, God blessed. I will be out again sharing the faith Thursday.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a great day of sharing today; I hope you were blessed today as well. Today two students prayed with me to receive Christ, Stephanie and Franklin and I had a good conversation with a Muslim Student Sho, from Pakistan who took the student edition of The Case for Christ from me to read and How Good is Good Enough by Andy Stanley. He was really searching and said he had done a lot of bad things and a lot of bad things had been done to him. He’d investigated other religions and found help through counseling that was Christian ideologically as he reiterated it. We talked a while until his ride came and he took my phone number to talk more.

On two separate occasions I went through the gospel, [or tried to with the second who had to run] with students who are into a new cult at school. It seems to be from their teachings they are The World Mission Society Church of God. I have seen and overheard several Koreans talking up students trying to get them into personal Bible studies, a similar tactic is used by the Church of Christ (who teach Baptismal regeneration — not the Christian denomination found all over the South). WMSCG people walk around asking students if they have heard of the Mother God, which turns out to be some Korean chick whose now dead husband was the second coming of Christ. They believe any number of things I won’t bore you with I shot down about 6-8 of them one by one as one girl took me to passages she had highlighted in a bible. It was a lot like talking to a Jehovah’s Witness, they show you a passage or quote one, you explain how this is obviously a misinterpretation of the plan language found there, they jump to the next one. One she showed me involved a claim for the preexistence of humans b4 they are born on earth (as angels who have sinned and were sent down from heaven) using the language of God’s final speech to Job, in which ironically is God actually telling Job he was not there at the foundation of the world and had not been born, or existed, yet. I am not sure how much progress I made. On another occasion I had come behind them after they had talked to a student and warned them and told them the Gospel.

Stephanie was sitting in the MAC (MCAninch Arts Center), did a survey with me and believed the Gospel after I went through it with her. She is Asian, cute, moral and attended a Catholic Church until College started eating up all her time. But the Gospel all made sense to her though she had not known how God took away her sins and when I asked her if she had ever prayed to be forgiven based on what Jesus had done for her on the cross, she said she hadn’t but wanted to and to have God’s Spirit live inside her, so she prayed to receive Christ. She took a copy of More than a Carpenter from me to read and a Bible study on the Deity of Christ and said, “This is good, because I hear that sometimes, people say Jesus wasn’t God.” So I think she was interested to read and she was enthusiastic about the Lord.

Franklin was sitting on a decorative chunk of limestone on the newly grassed slope by the cafeteria doors chilling in the sun b4 class. He is a pretty big, nice looking Latino guy, and friendly. He had recently moved to the area and didn’t have a Church yet. I could tell he took to the Gospel right-away and while I talked him through stuff he would say, “Oh,” and “I see.” He also did not know how God took away his sins, he was an honest guy. He felt like he was in a relationship with God so I explained the difference between having a relationship with someone and being in one saying everyone has a relationship with God as their creator but not everyone is in one where He lives inside them, I compared it to a girlfriend and a friend who was a girl that he never asked out. He saw the difference. I asked him if he had ever asked God to forgive his sins based on what Jesus had done for him on the cross, he hadn’t and wanted to and did. I also gave him More than a Carpenter and a Bible study and got his e-mail to send him some stuff.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and today if you had a chance. It is beautiful in Chicago all the flowering trees have come out all at once from the heat, it was 87 today. And God has provided many people who have come to Christ through your prayers, 74 so far this school year. Thank you for your help.

Blessings in Him,
Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Well, I hope you had a good day today. I had a good day of sharing on campus and Lily and Chris prayed to receive Jesus. Lily is from a Roman Catholic background, brown hair nice looking kid; she has a really simple heart and just did not understand salvation by faith at all or even the atonement. She seemed to have a bit of a hard time tracking so I tried to be even more precise and clear in what I said to her concerning the gospel. I explained asked God to have relationship based on forgiveness of sins through Jesus. She had not asked God to forgive her based on Christ’s work having understood none of it. But after explaining the prayer to her I again asked her if she believed Jesus had died for her sins on the cross and she said she did and in the end she prayed while I left her alone. I explained the Holy Spirit to her and living the Christian life by seeking His power and gave her the book, More than a Carpenter.

Chris is a Black guy he goes to his uncle’s Church Rhema Word, which I had not heard of but hey they got a Facebook page. He felt like he was “following the law” and lived “according to the book” but when I asked him if he knew how God took away his sins he said, “No.” So I explained the gospel to him. He said he had asked God to forgive his sins but when I asked if he had ever asked to be forgiven for his sins because of what Jesus had done for him on the cross he said he had never thought about the part about Jesus. I talked to him about Brian Urlacher leaving him a ticket to get into his skybox at Soldier Field. I said, “Say you meet him and he says he has a ticket for you. All you have to do is say his name at the gate and they will have a ticket for you under your name Chris. But then you go to the gate and start demanding your free ticket but don’t say who left it for you… and they say “who sent you?” You have to use the Name.” He smiled back at me in recognition and I offered the prayer to him and he said, “I’ll do it.” I gave him the Student edition of The Case for Faith and I gave him the Bible study I give out on the Deity of Christ. I explained the Christian life was lived by the Holy Spirit and explained the fruit of the Holy Spirit to him which he had not understood b4 either. He thought he would e-mail me to get the story I offered him and it seems like he is in a good Church where now the Holy Spirit can be his teacher as he hears the word preached.

So thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry and for the work today if you had a chance. Please pray that Lily’s embryonic faith would grow and Chris would be rooted and grounded in Love.

I am talking to more and more atheists on campus this year, today to an atheist and an agnostic. I think this is increasing, many are raised Roman Catholic. It is something to keep in prayer that God would move in this church. I know some of the priests are under the radar and are evangelicals, believing in Scripture and faith alone and I pray that those who believe might be found in these Churches that they might grow.

Blessings in Him,
Bob