Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you day was blessed and you are warmed and filled with the Spirit. Jessica prayed to receive Jesus today. But our Bible study was cancelled the second week in a row due to weather, as the school closed at 5 PM to extra activities. I had a good day on campus. James took the student edition of The Case for Fatih saying he was an agnostic but would read it. He had grown up in the foster care system and had too many views of religion to pick one, but thought there was something out there. He was grateful for the nudge it seemed. Looked like a regular guy, short mop of hair and a hoodie. Michele, a lovely, tiny girl with long brown hair pulled up randomly on top of her head and the occasional freckle, took the student edition of The Case for Christ, having been burned by the Roman Catholic Church after serving there 3 days a week. She was unsure what to believe after hearing the Gospel, but was grateful for a book. I gave her the Compass church website, saying they were doing some presentations she might like to listen to online.

Before discovering Jessica, I had just talked to another Roman Catholic girl, Emily, who was consecrated to Mary. She wanted to know what I thought about Mary and a lot of other things, asking questions for about 40 minutes after I went through the Gospel with her. Essentially, I had asked her why she thought Mary, who was just a woman, would be able to hear more than one prayer at a time. She had no answer to that. I said Mary was awesome but she sinned. Emily asked why I said that, and I said in her song in Luke she says it in her description of herself. We looked it up in a Bible and I showed her where Mary calls God her Savior. I said that if Mary thought she needed a savior, the only thing she could need saving from was her sin. So by calling God her Savior, she thought she was a sinner. This went on and on in different doctrines of the Church from Augustine and elsewhere, all of which were extra biblical. So I just explained them to her in that light. Then I met Jessica as I went down the stairs.

Jessica was sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the PE building lounge waiting for her mom, who providentially was late. She was up for talking since she was just waiting by the doors. Each time the automatic doors opened we got a shot of cold air through the wide gap to the outside where it was about 10 degrees and blowing. She was wearing jeans and a jacket, had long brown hair pulled back behind her head and lots of freckles. She had a kind face and was very nice. Her father did worship at several Catholic churches, so she bounced around to them, following him as he got a job at the next one. When I asked her what she would say to God as to why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Because I believe in Him and I’ve never not believed in Him. I’ve always known He’s there for me. He’s not gonna let me down now.” She was sure she would go to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she knew with some prompting that Jesus had died to take away her sins. I explained His imputed righteousness and how His blood had cleansed us and made us alive inside. She enjoyed hearing the Gospel. In the end she said she would want to be forgiven for her sins. I asked if she had been trusting in Jesus or had just known the story. She talked about how God was with her through everything and she had always trusted in that. So to help her clarify the question I asked her if, when she asked for forgiveness, if she was thinking about that Jesus had died for her and trusting in that, or if she knew that but had not thought about it before.  “I think that I really had never thought about it. It is just the way things were in our family.” “Like setting the table or celebrating Christmas?” I asked. She agreed it was like that. So I said if she would like to trust in what Jesus had done to forgive her, there was a prayer she could pray. I talked her thought it, asking if it was the desire of her heart. “”Yeah it is,” she said warmly smiling. So I said she could pray it quietly, not so I heard her, but God would hear and she prayed to receive Jesus. Her mom called but she said she was fine waiting, “I will talk to you when you get here. I am talking with someone right now,” she said on the phone and got off to hear more about living the Christian life.  I gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front.  I showed her the 100 verses in the back and said the guy that wrote the book had found the translations styles he liked best to express the verses and she was excited about that. She said she had two bibles, a regular bible and a children’s bible she looked thing up in when she found something hard to understand. I gave her a Bible study and got her email to send her more stuff.  I told her I would keep her in my prayers until a year from spring and ask God to bless her. She reached out her hand to shake mine as I got up to go saying, “Thanks so much for sharing this with me.” I said she was welcome and headed off happily.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was not too frozen. We are bracing for a projected minus 18 and minus 19 for Wednesday and Thursday highs. I’m just trying to make my friends out west happy as they read this. I had a good day on campus and though there are not as many students around campus on Friday, Charley and Leidy each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.

Charley was sitting in the PE Lounge by himself looking at his laptop and was willing to do a survey before class. He had stick-straight brown hair and fair skin, slight build. He said he wanted to see all the MLB parks. There are 32 and he has been to 12. He had on a t-shirt and a hooded jacket. When I asked him what he would say to God if He asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I feel like I’ve treated other people like they would like to be treated, I’m a pretty honest person.” He thought he had about a 75% chance of going to Heaven. He went to a Catholic church and it was hard to tell if he had much familiarity with the Gospel, but he listened to it straight through without objection, tracking with me. At the end I asked him if he would want to be forgiven for his sins with God inside or if he thought something else. “God inside,” he said looking me in the eye. So I said, “Well, it seems like you hadn’t really put all this together before right?” He agreed he hadn’t and I said if he’d like to place his trust in what Jesus had done for him to be forgiven, there was a prayer he could pray silently and God would hear. “What do you think? You wanna do it?” I asked. He nodded yes and took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. Then he closed the booklet and put it in his pack as he had to run to class right then. But I had a chance to give him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s power” in the front and also gave him a Bible, writing his name, the date and “forgiven” in the front,. “Perfect,” he said. I said I would keep him in my prayers. He got up to leave and he thanked me and I told him, “God bless ya baby.” “You too. Have a good day,” he said smiling, and he ran off to class.

Leidy was sitting up on the third floor. She wore a gold knit shirt and black leggings. English was her second language and her syntax got shifted into Spanish word order sometimes. She had a cute round face and her brown hair was pulled back behind her head. She was short and average build, really sweet kid. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Wow, I don’t know. I have [done] lots of sin like everybody. But I tried to do my best every day. Maybe He’ll only see that.” She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven but really wanted to share her faith. But she said she struggled with doing what she wanted to do to be a good Christian. She hadn’t much time before class and I tried to tell her the Gospel as quickly as I could, and she believed Jesus had died for her. She stopped me as I talked about what Jesus had done and said something like, “Yes but you have to try to do things.” I agreed that was true, but explained that we do things to please God by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. I said that God could only live in her and give her that strength if she was trusting in Jesus alone to forgive her and not trying to earn it. And I read what she had said when I asked her why she would get into Heaven. She agreed that she tried and repeatedly failed to regularly do things like read her Bible. I wrote Matthew 22 and told her about the parable there.  She asked me who the king was and I said the King was God and we had to put on his righteousness to enter Heaven, not our own, like the wedding garment.

I explained Christ had earned righteousness that was given to us by perfectly fulfilling the law. Even the Apostle Paul, who was beaten and shipwrecked and did many wonderful things, did not say he had earned his own righteousness but was trusting in the righteousness of God, which he gained through faith in Jesus. She realized as the Lord moved in her that was true. She began to see and wanted to be forgiven with God living inside her. As I went through the prayer with her she began to read it aloud with me and at the end she said, “Amen.” “It’s amazing. It’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. She was so grateful and excited and said she thought God had sent me to explain this to her. I agreed that was true. “I just want to thank you. I needed this so much. This is wonderful what you are doing talking to people.” I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” and “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front, explaining that Jesus told us to become as a child to be dependent on Him and ask for his help in anything and everything. I had made her 10 minutes late for class, but she said this was more important to her than her class. I invited her to the Bible study and told her to email me. She left happy saying, “Maybe I will see you somewhere.” “Anytime just let me know,” I said, having given her my phone number and email.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. I also got a good seed planted with Jen who took the student edition of The Case for Christ.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you could be as warm as ya wanted. I had a good day on campus and Janet prayed with me to receive Jesus. I got a good seed planted with a guy named Mike in the MAC Arts building, too, who was under conviction but was sinning a bit. I gave him the student edition of The Case for Christ. He tried to give me the ‘science /evolution disproves religion’ thing but I gave him a bunch of current DNA stuff and shook his cage open. I walked around for 90 minutes before I could get anyone to do a survey or to talk about God. The school had a small mob of over a half dozen Campus Crusade people doing surveys (I passed 7 in the halls) without going through the Gospel with people. No hope for change, but they could just notify people they had a Christian group with the same effect. So no one I found wanted to do another survey or talk about Heaven where they actually heard the truth (since they had just done a data survey). Many had been asked several times and were annoyed when I spoke with them. But CRU finished their damage at 1 PM or so and I found 3 peeps to talk with after about 3 hours.

Janet was sitting in the cafeteria, having eaten half her sub sandwich. She didn’t look big enough to eat the other half. She was a cute, petite, Latina girl. Small pretty face, no make-up, long brown hair pulled back behind her head. She had diamond look studs in her ears, too big to be real. She had a black long sleeve shirt on and leggings. She had been raised early on by her grandparents who always brought her to church. She hoped to be the first person to graduate from college in her family. When I asked her what she would say to God if He asked her why He should let her into Heaven she said, “Hmm… growing up I guess with my grandparents, they were very religious. I assume that because I haven’t done anything bad I would be accepted.” She was sure she’d go to Heaven when she died. I began to explain the Gospel to her that God loved her and wanted to live inside her to give her power to live life and know her. I explained that first He had to take away her sins and asked her if she remembered what Jesus had done to take them away. “He sacrificed himself” she answered. “Right, He died for you,” I replied and then explained how His blood cleansed her and His righteousness was to her credit. I asked at the end if she would want to be forgiven and she said she would. “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” I asked. “Yes I do,” she replied. “So would you want to place your trust in that and to be forgiven, instead of just hoping you were good enough?” I asked.”Uh huh, yeah.” she said nodding. So I talked her through the prayer she could pray, explaining she could pray it quietly, not so I heard, but God would hear her and forgive her and live inside her. “Think you’d like to do it?” I asked. She nodded. She took the booklet and prayed while I went back to the other side of the table to get a book out of my backpack. I gave her the booklet to keep and explained living by the Spirit’s power “Inside out”. I wrote ‘By the Spirit’s Power’ and her name and the date and ‘forgiven’ in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do and showed her the 100 Bible verses in the back. I gave her a Bible study and got her email to give her some more things. She had her family’s Bible that she had taken for herself and I explained how John began and that she could read there. I also gave her the Rose publication “Following Jesus” because she said she was very busy with work and school and was having a hard time getting to Church. I also explained Zwingli’s symbolic view of the Mass and some other things. “Thank you, thank you,” she said happily as I got up to leave. I said she was welcome and maybe someday I would see her in Heaven and she could tell me she finished her degree. She liked that idea and I left having told her I would be praying for her each night.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a great day walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus and Lucien prayed with me to receive Jesus today. Now if I can just get about 300 people to come over with blow dryers to melt the sheet of ice on my driveway, I’ll be set.

Lucien was an interesting looking guy. He was good looking and said he had French blood (from a Grandfather in Mexico) and his name was French. His eyes (eyelids) were Asian, almond shaped, clean shaven. He was sitting on the chairs by the lockers I use by the doors, near the waterfall. (Yeah COD has a waterfall; the stone mason working at another part of the school said the stone around it cost $100,000.) It is off now, but you can sit by the bronze life-size buck leaping at the base of it. My tax dollars at work. Lucien was on his phone, wearing oatmeal colored winter cap pulled down low. He had torn up jeans on and a big hooded parka with a plaid lining and looked like he was headed out. I asked him if he’d do a student survey about God and he said sure. When I asked him one thing he wanted to do before he died he said, “Have children.” If a guy says that, through the years in my experience, it is likely he’ll receive Jesus (or is a Christian). Average college guys are not thinking about family life as teenagers. He thought he had about a 90% chance of going to Heaven and said he went to Catholic school. I asked him what he would say to God if He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “Why not?” he replied. So I began to go through the Gospel with him so he’d know why. He knew Jesus had died for his sins but had not really been trusting in it saying, “I’m not gonna lie. I went to school those years, but after a while…” “It just starts to kind of bounce off,” I said finishing his thought for him and he said, “Yeah.” As far as religious faith went, he had mostly just been rolling with it. We talked for a long time on about how screwed up the Catholic Church was with Homosexuality and things in society. [Here is an article for an example: Homosexual Subculture Thrives at Catholic Seminary ]

Homosexual Subculture Thrives at Catholic Seminary

I talked to Lucien about the soul and how only Christianity teaches you have a soul that can be damaged or made more healthy or better in this life.(Though other religions teach there is something that goes on after you die.) The Bible was written by God and tells you how your soul can be blessed and thrive. After we’d been talking for a long time we’d hit it off. I had offered him a prayer to receive Jesus and he silently prayed with me to receive Christ towards the end of my time with him. I gave him a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do to read, writing him name and the date and “forgiven” in the front along with “By the Spirit’s Power” having explained the Christian life. He gave me his email. It was one of the more enjoyable conversations with a student I’ve had all school year. We shook hands and I told him I would be praying for him through spring and the next school year. When he found out how many people I was praying for he said I could leave him off the list saying he’d be ok. But I promised him I would put him on it and as I got up I said I would be praying for him again and he said kindly he’d pray for me too.

I encouraged some Christian students with the Gospel and got a good seed planted with a girl named Sedona. A pretty girl with stick straight blonde hair and a wide smile, who thought she’d probably need God some day but was just a Christmas & Easter person at this point. She sincerely thanked me for telling her the Gospel as I got up to leave.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today. God blessed.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with Jesus. I had a good day on campus and Nick, Bre  &  Jada  all prayed to receive Jesus today. I also gave a copy of the Student Edition of The Case for Christ to Alexis, a girl who did not think she believed in God but had a Christian boyfriend she debated with and occasionally went to church. Classes and activities were cancelled at school tonight at 5 PM due to weather, so we had to cancel Bible study

Nick was sitting on the 3rd floor of the BIC on some chairs in the hall. He had brown, curly hair, a warm, round face and black rectangular framed glasses. He had a curly beard and mustache and described himself as shy. He was wearing a grey hoodie. When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “I guess umm… I’ve always tried hard to do my best to help other people through all of my life, kinda along those lines. I never really thought about it.” He thought he had a 50/50 chance to go to Heaven. He had not been to church since he was a little kid. He listened closely to the Gospel and enjoyed the analogies and illustrations I gave him to explain Bible verses. At the end I asked him if he would like to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else. He thought he would like to be forgiven. “Do you believe Jesus is God, died for your sins and rose from the dead?” I asked him. He thought and said, “Yeah I do.” So I asked if he would want to place his trust in that to be forgiven and he said he did. So I offered him the prayer he could pray, walking him through it, asking if he’d like to pray. “”Um.. I mean I guess,” but he meant that as an affirmation and taking the booklet he prayed silently to receive Jesus. I gave him a Bible since he did not have one, and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” under it, saying he could remember. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing by the Spirit’s power in the front. I also gave him a Bible study to read and a card with the website for a local church (Compass)  that is doing an on line outreach he could listen to. He seemed really reserved and I thought he would probably not go to Church without being able to check it out from a distance first. But he was happy as we parted and I told him I would be praying for him and he thanked me.

A girl named Isamar walked up then and asked if she could have information for our groups saying, “That was really cool,” having eavesdropped on my conversation with Nick. I gave her a card and she said, “I’ve been looking for something like this,” and asked if I had a Bible. I said I could get one from my truck if she had a minute. So I walked her to her class on the same floor and told her to lean against the wall so I could spot her and I would run get her a bible. I had just over ten minutes to get back to where I was parked and got her one and ran back. So hopefully she can make it to Bible study.

Bre was laying out on a bench in the PE lounge under the stairs listening to something. She had a large bun of curly hair pulled up on top her head and wore a parka, a sweatshirt and sweatpants. She wore a heavy silver chain around her neck, had a pretty face with full features and was a little larger than an average-sized person. I asked her if she’d do a student survey for our  Bible study group and she agreed and sat right up, giving me the corner of the bench. She was hard to get a read on at first. She attended church regularly. She said her mom was Greek and she wanted to travel there. When I asked her why God should let her into Heaven she said, “I don’t know.” And thinking some more she said, “”Cause I’m me.” I wasn’t sure what she mean exactly, and ferreting it out a bit I think she meant she was genuine. She was certain she was going to Heaven, 99%. I began to explain the Gospel to her and it became clear she had not heard it before. I explained that God wanted to live inside her but first He had to take away her sin. Like a blood transfusion, God wanted to make her his “type” so He could transfuse His life into her. I asked, “So what was the big thing Jesus did to take away your sin?” She didn’t have any idea, so I told her how Jesus lived a perfect life for her, died in her place and His blood became a force in the world that could cleanse her from all her sin.  She interacted with what I was saying a bit then, which was a relief that she  began to open up. When I finished going through the Gospel, I asked if she’d want to be forgiven for her sins and she nodded. I said, “Well, it seems like you never really put all this together before right?” “Right,” she replied. I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and walked her through it, saying she could pray it silently. She agreed and took the booklet. She prayed then to receive Jesus. She had a Bible at home and so I gave her the book, 20 Things God Can’t Do and used it to explain that, when it was hard to forgive someone, you could ask God for a Spirit of forgiveness. “’Cause of what I’ve been through I’ve been getting closer to God,” she replied. “It feels so good to forgive, it’s like a weight is lifted.” I agreed, saying that those that hurt you no longer controlled you when you forgave them. I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front along with “By the Spirit’s Power” explaining the Christian life. I also gave her a Bible study. I shook her hand in leaving after getting her email and said, “It was so nice to meet you.” “I was nice to meet you too,” she replied warmly with a smile and I headed out of the lounge.

Jada was sitting on the north side ground floor of the BIC at a table in the vending machine lounge. She is a cute black student, smaller kind of pug nose, long braids past her shoulders, long oval face. Cool kid. She was wearing a dark blue NIKE sweatshirt and Adidas sweats. I asked her what she would say to God if she died and he asked her why he should let her into Heaven and she said, “’Cause I’m his child I guess.” She thought she had a 50/50 chance to get into Heaven and had not been to Church much. I began to go through the Gospel with her and when I asked her what Jesus had done to take away her sins, she knew Jesus had died. She listened attentively to the Gospel, stopping me once for clarification, asking if everyone went to Heaven because Jesus had died for sin. I explained it was offered to all, kind of like a free ticket under the name of a famous ball player at the Park. But you had to claim his name to get the ticket. She wanted to be forgiven for her sins when I asked, saying she had always known there was a higher power “who made all this” as she gestured around and out the window at the snow covered landscaping in the atrium. “Do you believe Jesus was God, died for your sins and rose from the dead?” I asked. Jada thought for a second and said, “Yes I think I do.” So I asked her if she would want to place her trust in that to be forgiven, claiming what He had done for her and she said, “Yeah.” So I walked her through the prayer and she took the booklet and prayed.  She finished and kept reading most of the booklet and looked up and said, “Oh sorry.” “No worries,” I said smiling, “Amen?” “Amen,” she replied. I also gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing ‘by the Spirit’s power’ in the front and her name, the date and ‘forgiven’. I gave her a Bible Study too, explaining that and also gave her the same website I gave Nick. She shook my hand and laughed, “OK Bob,” when I said I’d see her in Heaven. I told her I would be praying for her as I did all the students, and she thanked me and I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed with some miracles of faith.

In Him,

Bob

“He has saved us and called us with a holy calling,

not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, 

which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” 2^nd Timothy 1:9

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

At Christmas time I’m always thinking more about God’s plans, reminded at the time when we commemorate His birth, how much is fulfilled. What a grand plan. Did you ever face a task and it mounted pretty large in your mind, so your solution was to create a plan? We have done that and also encountered people with no plans who failed us recently. We hired men to rebuild our front porch with concrete. I took their bid to get a permit and the city said it would need more detail to be granted a permit. The concrete company said they did not need a permit to rebuild the steps unless they took the foundation out. The process, once started, turned out to be a short nightmare.  They did not build square forms, so I called them out and bent them over until they came out and rebuilt them. They still failed to make the edges even. And 2 stairs, when held against a square, bow out an inch. They wrecked the sides and made them worse “repairing” them. They damaged the brick taking off the railing, and changed the stairs so the railings needed to be altered by a welder. They lied to us and I ended up finishing some of the work myself, drilling holes and installing the railings they had promised to install. In the end, I realized it was because I did not have detailed drawings from them, or written guarantees. The key to it all was that they did not provide a written plan. (They were highly recommended on the internet, however.)  This is completely not like God, whose promises are written down. And in the model of Christ we see His plans are detailed.

In 2^nd Timothy, we read God has had a plan for us, to save us, before the world began. When we read the hundreds of prophecies that Christ fulfilled, we are convinced even more there was a plan. Plans for Jesus’ birthplace and parentage, the way He died, who He died with and was buried among.  An old idiom states, “God is in the details.” A later idiom says, “The Devil is in the details.” Funny how the Devil seems to always be slipping in and taking God’s place. And evil does seem to be patient and organized, but it is really destructive and chaotic in its ends. The details need not be specific if the end goal is destruction.

It is interesting that evolutionary theory cannot tell you the world is not ordered. That is too obvious with too many working systems. Evolutionary theory simply tries to steal the credit for all this order and claim it was a fantastic, mind-blowing accident. This is, of course, laughable and stupid. But then the average junior high graduate from a suburban school knows far more of the scientific world than Darwin could have dreamed (As evidenced by his poor imagination, billions of years blah blah blah). Darwin was remarkably illiterate, scientifically speaking, by the standards of biology today. According to Dr. John Sanford of Cornell University, we all carry tens of thousands of harmful mutations, and each one us will pass on approximately 100 new mutations to any offspring we have. So humans are not evolving into better organisms, but rather headed toward extinction. In short, Darwin had the plan absolutely wrong and his ignorance has cause a lot of damage.

But then the ignorance of people works great for Satan as he finds it easier to deceive them.  The Devil does not care about people or listen to their petitions.  Why should he? God wishes to help us to do good, and transform our frail attempts. This blesses us and transforms us into better people. But I could care less what a satanist prays for to his devil. Of course, not being an infinite being, Satan never hears what most people say anyway. Satan fulfills the axiom, “Do as thou wilt,” ignoring what people might ask of him, as Satan hates them for being made in God’s image. He does whatever he wants. Except to us. Job teaches us he has to get permission to touch us. And the New Testament says we can resist him and he will flee. [James 4:7]

We are told of God’s plans, that they are good and we are part of them. God’s vision for the world will not turn out as if it was poorly planned. We need not try to get even for others plans against us either. God will use them for our good [Romans 8:28] and take His own vengeance for those who try to damage His workmanship [Romans 12:19]. We can leave these things to Him. I have mentioned before my own inability to plan a day of evangelism. The power of prayer and God’s plans are infinitely better than a day I, or any large organization, could orchestrate, for an afternoon of Christian ministry. It was all laid out before time began, waiting for us to join with you and do it. We can’t continue to do this without your prayers and financial help.

77 students prayed to receive Christ this semester after confessing Christ to me upon hearing the Gospel. Thanks for being a part of it.  Please make mention of them in your prayers, if you would. (An * means they said they would pray later.)

Maya, Paul, Alec, Nashoana, Daniella, Jackie, William, Alexis, John, Mariana*, Justin, Nick, Mark, Jada, Sebastian, Frank*, Celeste, Nick, Sam, Irima, Christian, Joaquin, Dylan, Luis, Mike, Derick, Bridget, Christina, Demya, Tamera, Jalissa, Chamar, Ryan, Patrick, Angelo, Sydney, Adi, Cody, Alyssa, Jane, Zeke, Joey, Kamaria, Drey, Colin, DJ, Stephanie, Jesse, Kyle, Patricia*, Anthony, Cindy, Chuck, Nick, Stephanie, Sean, Jessica, Jocelyn*, Nickie, Jaslynn, Malcolm, Tanner, Nataly, Emily, Lekayla*, Lauren, Oscar, Issac, Patty, Nino, Alec, Mia, Jalen, Steve, Alex, Stephanie, Brian, Josh, Jack, Lionel, Anthony and Jose

In Him,                                                                              bob.thirdwatch@sbcglobal.net

Bob & Ellen                                                                              www.thethirdwatch.org

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Last day of classes for the semester

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your weekend has blessed in the Lord and you are finding Joy. I had a good day on campus Friday and Anthony and Jose each prayed with me to receive Jesus. So 77 people prayed with me to receive Jesus this Semester. I had a good conversation yesterday with Heather, whose father’s critical spirit had turned her off to Christian things so I will be praying for her to pray to receive Christ. She did not want a book but said, “Isn’t there a movie about that?” speaking of “The Case for Christ”. I said there was and she thought she might check it out. I tried to encourage her not to let stuff with her Dad keep her from having her own relationship with God. She was a bit sad but a nice Latina girl.

When I got to school I realized I had not been upstairs on the 3^rd floor of the BIC as often so I went up there and right away bumped into Anthony. He had Latino coloring had conservatively cut wavy almost curly dark hair. Wearing jeans and a shirt features like a Greek, not sharp, good looking kid. He only had a piece of paper with him and was sitting on a bench alone, no backpack or coat but it turned out he was waiting for a friend’s class to get out. When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “Cause I tried making my happiness spread to others.” He thought he had about a 75% chance of going to Heaven and when I asked if he went to church he said, “Not as often as I should, I’d to go more.” He listened closely to the Gospel but he could not think of what Jesus had done to take away his sins. He listened closely to the Gospel that Jesus had died for him and Rose from the dead, His blood cleansed him so God could live inside him and His righteousness was to his credit. After hearing he believed and when I asked if he would like to be forgiven with God living inside him or thought something else. First he said he felt like people lived inside him parents and friends. I said in a way that was true our friends become a part of us as to our parents and shape us. “The bible talks about a great cloud of witnesses,” I said and so it seemed like even after they are gone others can watch our lives. But this would be a little different as God could become one with him and given Him strength to live life. Then he said, “I feel like I would rather have Him living inside me.” So I explained there was a prayer he could pray to be forgiven and walked him through it saying he could pray so only God would hear him, “What do you think, God could live inside you for Christmas?” He nodded and took the booklet and prayed beside me to receive Jesus. He did not have his own Bible so I gave him one and put his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I explained the Christian life living inside out and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do and just finished, quickly explaining the Bible study on the deity of Jesus as his friend had walked out and was waiting, glued to his phone. I told him I would pray for him each night until a year from spring and gave him a card with the link for Compass Church suggesting he could listen to some sermons. As he got up to leave, he thanked me and I said, “Yeah, God bless you man.” “You too, drive safe,” he replied and headed off with his friend.

Jose was sitting down the end of the same hall in a stuffed chair in the lounge with the vending machines. He had on a winter cap with a bit of curly hair coming out. He was on the short side. He had a neatly trimmed mustache his beard was thin but long was thicker on his chin and a couple inches up his jaw line. Looked kind of rough and tumble. He said he was a boxer and had just gotten the plate out of his arm and wrist from a motorcycle accident that had also broken his leg badly. He then showed me a picture of him in a leg cast in a wheel chair. He hoped to box again but visions of glory were now diminished. He said he knew there was a God from being saved from the crash. He had only gone to church when he was very small but had not remembered anything from it, having gone with Grandparents. He was wearing a winter jacket and jeans and a dark shirt. I asked him what he would say if he died and God asked him, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He replied, “Show me the good I’ve done in my life and the bad and see if it evens out. I feel like if I was that bad God would have taken me out.” “Yeah, but God lets some evil people live long lives like Castro, he killed a lot of people in Cuba,” I replied. He agreed. He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. He didn’t know what Jesus had done to take away his sins so I explained everything to him clearly and he understood that Jesus had been killed but he wanted to die and His blood cleansed him so God could live inside.  I asked him if he would want to be forgiven with God inside after going through many verses and talking him through the Gospel and he said he would. I explained a prayer he could pray and he said, “I’ll probably pray that every night now.” So I said he could pray it right now, “Not like I’d hear you but God would hear, wanna do it?” “Yeah,” he replied. He prayed then to receive Jesus. He gave me his email and we talked more about life and how it could be dangerous. “You really have a gift for explaining all this,” he said so I know God had really been at work. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” and “By the Spirit’s Power” and gave him a Bible study to explain the Christ’s claims to be God. He was grateful and I told him I would pray for him each night and gave him a card for Compass Church to listen to sermons on line and I got up and headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry this semester and for Evangelism yesterday if you had a chance, God truly blessed. 77 is a good semester of work.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope life went as hoped today or Jesus meant it didn’t matter. I had another pretty slow day on campus and pretty much chatted up peeps I already know (because they prayed with me to receive Christ in the past). But a blonde blue eye girl named Shelby was very close to the kingdom of God. Her family went to church and she just wasn’t sure about Jesus after I had gone through the Gospel with her saying, “I guess I’m kinda agnostic.” But she was very open so I gave her a copy of the student edition of The Case for Christ. I also gave her a Bible study on the Deity of Christ and she genuinely thanked me. So I will keep her in my prayers. I also bumped into Lionel. On May 14th I had gone through the Gospel with him and then his friend Justin had prayed to receive Christ. And on August 25 Lionel was there when John had trusted Christ, another guy on the track team he knows. I had given Lionel the book 20 Things God Can’t Do in May and the little booklet which it is really a color copy of a version of the 4 Laws. There is a bit different content and I add a lot to it. In August he said he’d kept it but had not trusted Christ so I kidded him about how he would not go to Heaven if he did not receive Jesus and let it be. Several times since then I had passed him in the PE lounge and he’d given me a smile and a nod or said hey if I said hi to him a bit different manner towards me. I was suspicious he had trusted in Christ since he was grinning at me the first time I’d seen him and I had been praying for him every night since May 14. I bumped into him today as I said. I decided to ask him if he had prayed the prayer in that little booklet and he said he had prayed to receive Jesus and he had “been reading the book with the quotes in it” which is 20 Things God Can’t Do. So that was great. I told him I had been praying for him every night and Merry Christmas. He is a quiet guy but he said Merry Christmas back. He has short braids on the top, shorter on the side’s afro. Jett black dude, good looking guy just about my height. So please pray he continues to grow in the Lord.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and Evangelism today if you had a chance. School is pretty empty and tomorrow is the last day but I’ll go back one more time before break to see who is around.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus and had some good apologetic discussions and got two seeds pretty well planted. Migul took the student edition of The Case for Christ to read and was genuinely searching and was grateful. I had a philosophy student (Andy) who thought there probably was a God but went only as far as that, so not quite agnostic talk to me for nearly 30 minutes. We talked of God and the Bible and the presumed contradictions in the NT gospels (there are not any you cannot resolve in my view), metaphysics in general and other issues. He rejected Revelation unless it came directly to him existentially. He saw no obligation to believe it otherwise. His name was Andy. Of course God’s book of nature is a direct revelation to all men and so is the Bible if you read it prayerfully and allow the Holy Spirit to speak. I told him many things, the Easter apologetic as follows among them:

Q: Do you believe in God? A: He thought he did. Q:do you believe God can do anything He wants (not any stupid self-contradictory thing you can come up with)? A: Ok Yes that is part of my idea of God. Q; then could God become a man? A: kind of stuck with a yes there. Q: if God became a man would He tell people the truth? A: If you believe in a greatest of all possible beings (Descartes or Anselm via Aristotle, God as an infinite or most perfect being) God would tell the truth. Q; What would happen to a man who knew the truth and spoke it to the corrupt powers of his day. A: They would kill him, they would kill you today in D.C. if you did the same thing. Q: Given all the above, if they killed God what would God do next? Answer I said is: He would rise from the dead. So the Christian story proceeds through logically possibilities if you grant there is a God.

Before this I walked around the corner and saw that two Mormons had cornered a girl Tamara (cute petite black girl) who prayed to receive Jesus this year on some chairs in the hallway on the first floor of the BIC. So I went over and gave her five and said, “What’s up?” I read their name tags “Elder Hollis” and “Elder Anderson” and started in with them. I told them stuff politely for 15 or 20 minutes to steer them away from her and try to shake them loose from the lies they believed. Another Christian campus worker I know (Jim) tagged in after me. I gave each one a Rose Publication hand out. To Hollis I gave “100 Prophecies fulfilled by Jesus” to Anderson I gave scholarly samplings on “Why Trust the Bible”. I said this was the kind of thing they would have to come up with to be convincing in a University setting. If they had anything remotely considered scholarly that would be accepted outside Brigham Young University to please contact me and gave them my phone# and email on a card. In case you never looked into it the Book of Mormon takes place in North and Central America, (somewhere) by 400AD. Most of the locations mentioned in it they cannot today find (conversely all the places mentioned in the NT we can locate), though the Latter Day Saints church owns a Mountain in NY state where a battle took place the book mentions where about a million people died. Unfortunately for them they have never found any human bones on the hill. Which I pointed out to them.  Telling me to just read the book of Mormon and ask God for a feeling was not worth doing in my view as there were absolutely no facts to support it. He said he had not told me to ask for a feeling and I said that was all that was left to me since there was no scholarly fact to support anything in the book of Mormon. I pointed out to the Elders that in its pages we find Horses, Wheels, Chariots, Steel swords, Metallurgy for coins and barley and hops. But we know for certain none of those things existed here until a 1,000 years later brought by the Spanish. So historically speaking the Book of Mormon is demonstrably false. I said that if they were not sure on a historical level of the book and had not investigated its history and it turned out they believed something wrong, but were telling people it was the truth they would be held accountable for it by God, and be responsible for spreading lies. They walked away unconvinced as far as I could see but I know God might have used something I said to plant a seed that He can trigger later.

That plus 2 hours of chatting up the peeps at Bible study made for a long day and I am wiped out and will be glad for a bit of Christmas break. But there are 3 more days so I hope a few more will come in still this year.

Thanks for praying, God gave me words.

Peace,

Bob