Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and if you are a Cub fan they win! I had an opportunity to go through the gospel with a few peeps today. I talked to two religious Christians that struggled to remember what Jesus had done to take away their sins but in the end thought they had been trusting in Christ. So I hope the conversation brought them closer to trust in Him. I also gave the student edition of The Case for Christ to Owen, (Kind of a gentle giant, big, tall white guy in sweats, glass) who sincerely did not know if Jesus was God, having failed to encounter anyone suggesting Jesus was Lord/God. I also gave him a Bible study where Jesus claimed to be God in scripture and a short argument to make it plausible. I’ll be praying for him. I spent the last hour talking with Cody who had been influenced by the cults (he refused to claim he was a Jehovah’s Witness but used all their arguments) into believing Jesus was not God. I showed him multiple passages in a Bible and he continually acted like he did not understand the plane sense meaning I told to him using the JW twist on Isaiah 9:6 (Mighty is not the same god as Almighty, no answer for how Jesus would be called the Eternal Father) John 1 (the Word was “a” god, there is no indefinite article in the Greek so that’s another of their tiresome lies). If everything that has come into being came into existence by Jesus, Jesus did not ever come into being; he pretended he did not understand this simple logic. He acted like he did not know what it meant that the Jews crucified Jesus for blasphemously claiming to be God. At His trial He claimed to be the Son of God, to them then claiming to be the Son of God was claiming to be God. I finally decided the conversation was satanic. Even liberals scholars who don’t believe the Bible would tell you the New Testament authors believed Jesus was God. I pointed this out but of course scholarship is panned by the JW’s.  Like talking to a leftist with confirmation bias you just walk away shaking your head. He was either deliberately talking me in a circle or was really slow witted and the loop was in his head. But in writing this out the arguments were a guy who sat in a cult for a long time. I decided I had told him enough when he revisited the things he had said before that I disproved to him realizing the game was not sincere. So I left him to his deceit (he was quite happy with it) and headed on my way. He’d been taught no one went to Heaven so he had himself convinced he was at no risk of Hell either. It was interesting to see the excuse he had for effectively dismissing the Bible which is where the JW doctrine leads you. Even the 144,000 they claim are resurrected are not, they are only copies of the people they once were, but then annihilation isn’t much of a risk to worry about is it? Interestingly enough another guy who was raised Jehovah’s Witness this year prayed with me to receive Christ; he saw the false reality at the Kingdom Hall. Luke 8:8 “Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He would call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism today, I am hoping it will one day produce fruit or did today in a way I could not see.

In Him,

Bob

Hey brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was great and the Lord blessed. I had a good day on campus Drey and Kamaria each prayed to receive Jesus today.

I went down a connecting hallway between the main through fairs of the BIC building. One of them has a bump out with two benches across from each other separated by 10-12 feet. Trey was sitting on one of the benches and I asked him if he wanted to do a survey, he said he had already done one. I get that a lot this year because Crusade goes around and does interest surveys and never tells anyone the Gospel. I have no idea why since it seems to inoculate people to hearing. I was told they will tell them the Gospel later but more often than not they never see them again. Trey was sure he had done a survey. Explaining that what I was offering him was more of the same to no end. I asked if wanted to hear how the Bible said he got to Heaven or if he wasn’t that interested. He said he wasn’t interested. Then Kamaria who was sitting across on the other bench and said brightly, “I’ll do it.” So I said cool and walked over to talk to her. African American, she had her hair pulled up in an afro and had a low neck shirt on, cute round face and a pug nose a bit heavy set and on the short side. The guy she was with was acting like an effeminate drama queen and did not want to do the survey. He was side tracking her from the beginning but I prayed he would go away and he soon got into his phone and then walked off when he got a call. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Because you love me, I don’t know. Everyone deserves a second chance? Clean my slate if I mess up kick me out.” She thought she might have a 75% chance of going to Heaven. When I asked her how God took away her sin she did not know so I explained the Gospel to her. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else and she said, “The first one,” with a tone like Of Course. I said well it seemed like you had not put all this together before and she nodded that was true so I said if she wanted to trust in Christ there was a prayer she could pray and I explained it to her. I said she could pray it silently and would be asking for God forgiveness and if she wanted to do it, “Um hmm,” she replied and she silently prayed to receive Jesus. So that was great. I gave her a Bible and showed her the where to turn section putting her name and the Date and “forgiven” under it. The drama guy returned and asked if I knew she was Jada’s sister, (who had prayed to receive Jesus earlier in the year). I said I didn’t but that was great, “you can talk to her about all this”. I gave her a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “by the Spirit’s Power” in the front. We said good bye and I said, “God bless you.” And she said, “God bless you too.”

I got up to walk past Drey who I had glanced over at but he had head phones on and I was pretty sure he hadn’t heard anything. “Can I talk to you?” he asked. I said, “Sure,” and sat down and asked, “What do you want to talk about?” “Just talk,” he said. “Do you have a question?” “Just say what you told her.” “Oh ok,” so I began saying Christianity was like a blood transfusion and I went through the Gospel with him. He was dressed all in black, zipper fleece black jeans and shoes. Drey had dark hair and rectangle glasses and mustache and chin beard that went down his jaw line and thin mutton chops for side burns, good looking guy. He knew Jesus had died for his sins saying he had always believed that and went to church. I explained how Jesus had died in his place and His blood would continue to cleanse him so God could live inside him and remain there. I explained God’s imputed righteousness and offered him the opportunity to pray to receive Jesus when he said he wanted to be forgiven. I talked to him about how God had a relationship with everyone as their creator but if he would trust in What Jesus had done for the forgiveness of his sins God would live inside him. He prayed to receive Jesus and then said, “It’s insane how real this is.” I said that was true if God was drawing you to him. He said he had heard people deny faith based on science. I said that paradigm was changing due to increased scientific understanding, the complexity of the cell and DNA would eventually require a source for the incredible swath of information we now know is necessary to complete a life form even smaller ones were incredibly complex. “Darwin thought the cell was about as complicated as a jellybean with a ball bearing in the middle of it, and cells were interchangeable between life forms, so they could morph into something else, we know now that is impossible.” He agreed. I gave him a Bible study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing by the Spirit’s Power in the front. He only had a Bible in Spanish and he said he could not read it easily. So I said I would get him a Bible out of my truck. (As I walked to my truck I passed Jada who was talking to Kamaria about the gospel in the hall.) When I returned I gave it to him and he said, “Wanna show me how to navigate this?” I showed him the “where to turn” section and the Gospel of John explaining the “Word” in the first chapter and that all Jesus words were in red. I gave him a card for Compass church telling him he could watch the sermon on line to pick up some more teaching. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven in the front of the Bible. It turned out he had been clinically depressed and felt like God had got him out of it and changed him and he did not have destructive thoughts anymore. He teared up a bit telling me. I explained God had been with him but now was in him and would give him the strength he needed living inside out. We said good bye and he shook my hand appreciatively. “If I don’t see you around I’ll see you in Heaven,” I said as I walked away. “For real!” he replied.

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

Blessings,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed. I had a good day on campus and Joey prayed with me to receive Jesus. I got a seed planted with a guy named Micheal and left him with something to think about.

Joey was sitting on padded bench down a side hall looking at his phone. He had a soccer shirt on and jeans, blonde hair swept back in a classic hair cut, soft features. Good looking kid from a Roman catholic background. He asked me how long it would take and I told him. He seemed in a hurry but I needn’t have felt the pressure of it because after I went through the Gospel I asked him if he had a moment to tell him some stuff and he said, “Sure I’m in no hurry I don’t have class for a while.” So much for sweating through a fast presentation of the Gospel. When I asked him what he would say to try to get into Heaven he said, “I don’t know… I’d say I try to live my life by putting others before myself.” He thought he had a 65-70% chance of going to Heaven. He tuned right into the Gospel with an intensity I misread as needing to leave, maybe because he checked his phone once. I try to engage people with how they are responding, be all things to all men. But I’m probably best off when I don’t think I am getting through and pray in my head while I am talking. I’m not really sure how I do that. Sometimes I listen to something on my computer while I listen to the Cub game on the radio and on the TV, when I’m doing that Ellen has to leave the room there is too much racket so I’ve started to listen on a walkman in one ear. But I was in such a hurry I just focused at getting everything said clearly. He knew Jesus had died for his sins so I explained blood and cleansing us and imputed righteousness. Joey was agreeing with everything as I spoke. I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else, “No I would want to be forgiven,” he said. So I asked if he was trusting in what Jesus had done. “I know you knew the story but you know you grow up in the Church and you are fine with everything but then you get to college you have to decide for yourself.” I asked if he had really been trusting in Jesus when he asked for forgiveness or was going to church and “just rolling with it.” “Just rolling with it,” he replied. So I said there was a prayer he could pray asking for forgiveness based on what Jesus had done and talked him through it reading, “Is this prayer the desire of your heart?” He said it was so I said he could pray silently and start from there with God, “You want do it?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. I looked down as he took the booklet writing and he prayed to receive Jesus. When he finished he said, “That felt really good.” He had some time as I mentioned so I explained the Christian life to Him by the Spirit’s power “Inside Out” and talked him through Christ’s claim to be God by walking on the water in a Bible Study. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s power” in the front along with his name and the date and “forgiven”. As I got up to go he reached out and firmly shook my hand and said, “If I don’t see you again, thank you for this.” “You’re welcome; it was great to talk to you.” I replied happily.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with all good things. I had a good day on campus, Jane and Zeke prayed with me to receive Christ and Bridget who had told me on September 12^th she would pray later told me today when I bumped into her she had prayed to receive Jesus, and her mom really like what I had told her when she told her about it.

Jane was sitting on the second floor of the BIC on a pair of stuffed chairs with a circular mini desk on the armrest. She said she’d do a survey and I sat on the other side of the desk. We were in a smaller side lounge half way between the halls. She had an oval pan face and sharp features natural blonde hair down past her shoulders. Nice looking girl, low top Keds on her feat.  She had athletic shorts on and a Marquette T-shirt and came from a Roman Catholic family. I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven and without much conviction she said, “I tried to be a good person.” She thought she had a 75% chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with her and I could tell she was very interested. She knew Jesus had died on the cross to take away our sins so I explained that His blood cleansed her and so God then could live inside her and that His righteousness was to her credit. She wanted to be forgiven and I asked if when she asked for forgiveness for her sins she was thinking she knew she’d be forgiven because Jesus had died for her. Or if growing up in the Church she identified with it and just didn’t think much about it but was kind of just hoping she could be good enough. “Yeah more that,” she replied. I asked her if she would want to place her trust in it and pray a prayer to that, she listened and when I asked if she would want to pray silently she said, “Yeah, why not.” I explained living inside out and the work of the Spirit. I told her that if she was trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%, “Sick!” she said enthusiastically. I gave her, Bible Promises for You and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven”. She gave me her email to send her another Bible Study. I explained when she participated in the symbolism of the mass she could remember it was to remind her Jesus had died and so she was forgiven. I gave her a Bible study on the deity of Christ too. “Do you have any questions?” I finally asked. “No you’re good at explaining,” she said with a smile. “Thanks, God bless you,” I said.  “God bless you too,” she replied. And I headed out.

Zeke was sitting across from the student activities offices. He had on a red and blue ball cap, jeans and a hoodie, had a cub round face. He looked Filipino and went to a Roman Catholic Church, good looking kid. When I asked him what he would say to God if He said, “Why should let you into Heaven?” This is what he said, “I wouldn’t know. Why would you? I know I’ve committed some wrongs in my life. Can you forgive me for what I’ve done?” He still thought he had a 100% chance of going to Heaven if God forgives and accepts. He listened closely to the Gospel too and said he would want to be forgiven. So I offered him the prayer to receive Christ that expresses thanks to Him for dying for his sins and asking Him to make him the kind of person He wants him to be and asked him if he would want to pray it silently so only God would hear. “Yeah I would pray it silently,” he said and he prayed to receive Jesus. I gave him a Bible study explaining how Jesus claimed to be God. I gave him a Bible explaining why some of the books were not in it but had at one time been added by the Catholic Church. I showed him the “Where to Turn” section and he really liked it.  I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” beneath it. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front. He was grateful and I got up to go saying, “Nice to meet you.” “It was a pleasure,” he said sincerely reaching out to shake my hand. “Have a good semester,” I said walking away. “Have a good one,” he called after me. “Yeah you too,” I said and headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today. I was dragging when I first got to school as Tuesdays are a long day but God picked me up.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today and you had peace in the storms of life. We saw a double rainbow outside, the brightest of which was 180 degrees as the Bible study ended tonight. We have just a few kids. Alyssa prayed with me today to receive Christ.

Alyssa was sitting on the floor in the hallway on the ground floor of the PE building that leads out to the Mac arts outdoor concert area. She was wearing a white and blue pullover and rolled up jean shorts. She had long brown wavy hair a pretty full face and was still tan from the summer. She told me her mother was a priest. I asked her what church and she said Episcopal. She was a nice kid. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she laughed a little nervously and thought a bit and said, “Honestly I don’t know what I would say.” She was certain she would go to Heaven however, 100%. I began to go through the Gospel with her and she knew the story that Jesus had died to take away her sins. I mentioned at one point the Holy Spirit could live inside her and she said, “You mean after you die?” “No, now in this life,” I replied. But I don’t think she had known that before. She accepted what I taught her about the Gospel, sin, atonement and that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ. I quoted; “God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” I have a tattoo that says that,” she said something like “Light comes out of Darkness”. She explained it was on her hip sort of lower so I did not ask to see it. I said that was part of what that verse meant. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven and she said she would. I asked if she was trusting in Jesus for forgiveness. “I definitely believe God is the one [who forgives]. I know if I’ve done something bad I can talk to God.” She said she believed God forgave her but that being human she couldn’t always believe she was forgiven. She talked more about trusting in God. So asking a couple different ways I asked again: When she asked for forgiveness was she was thinking that Jesus had died for her sins and trusting in what He had done for her forgiveness. “No I never thought about Jesus dying,” she finally said. I explained that everyone had a relationship with God as their creator, but not everyone was in a relationship with God trusting in Jesus as their savior. It was trusting in Jesus dying for her that would take away her sins and allow His Holy Spirit to live inside her. If she wanted that relationship then the prayer I had already explained to her was something she needed to pray. Then God could give her the strength to live the Christian life inside out. She decided to pray then to receive Christ and she did. I wrote her name, the date, “Forgiven” and “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do. I gave her a Bible study on the Deity of Christ and thinking she might not have much exposure to the Bible given her denomination I gave her a copy of Bible Promises for You writing her name inside. She thanked me and we said goodbye and I invited her to Bible Study.

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

In Him,

Bob

9/24/18

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed. I had a good day on campus and Cody prayed with me to receive Christ. I had a good apologetic discussion helping Dustin see all the lies in his religion class and gave him the Student edition of The Case for Christ.  He wasn’t sure about Christianity and he said, “Well you answered everything I asked you I’m glad I told you I would talk. I told you know the first week of school when you asked me.” I said that God probably wants him to wait until he had some questions from his religions class and he agreed. So I hope and I’ll pray he reads the book and lands with Jesus trusting in Him. I gave Kevin a searching student he Student edition of The Case for Faith. One other girl Alexis was close to trusting in Christ.

Cody was sitting in a side lounge in a connecting north-south hallway in the BIC. It turned out his grandfather was a pastor in Elkhart Indiana. So I told him he was probably praying for him and he agreed. He had stick-straight, shortish, dishwater blonde hair. He wore a white hoodie and ripped up jeans and a bit of an overbite, looked like your average Joe. He was into cars and had a 1969 Chevrolet El Camino he wanted to fix up. I talked to him about some stuff I had to do to my Harley exhaust and he’d had a bike with same thing he’d worked on.  When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, ” Oh my g… I don’t know. You ask for forgiveness I know that much.” He listened closely to the gospel and was interested all the way through. He said he’d want to be forgiven for his sins so I said if he wanted to trust in what Christ has done for him on the cross for forgiveness there was a prayer he could pray and I explained it to him asking if he thought it expressed the desire of his heart, “Yeah,” he replied. So I said that if he wanted to be forgiven he could pray silently and asked if he wanted to do it and he hesitated a couple moments thinking and then said, “Yeah.” and he prayed to receive Christ. He had a Bible. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do I explained the Christian life to him living inside out “by the Spirit’s power” writing that in the front. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and I explained everything God was asking him to do He’d give him the power to do. I told him to tell his grandfather I said hi and he said he would. I gave him a Bible study and too and told him I would pray for him. He thanked me and I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today God truly blessed, I had a productive day.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and life is good walking in the Spirit. I had a good day on campus and will enjoy the cooler air tonight for sleeping (had to take the AC out of the windows early to stop the stink bugs LOL). Today Sydney and Adi (add e) each prayed with me to receive Christ.

When I got to school, walking in from where I usually park I had a prompting to go to the 3rd floor of the BIC and the elevator was right there so I went up. Most of the school is a ghost town on Friday’s there are fewer classes and kids don’t hang at a commuter school as much being the last day of the week. Walking down the hall Sydney was sitting in a lounge wearing a nursing uniform, matched pants and top in light blue, she had a slight thin stature. Her hair was tiny ring curls down to her chin and she had sharp pretty dark features and an alto voice. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I confess Jesus is the son of God.” I said, “Great.” But she said she had a 75% chance of going to Heaven so I assumed going through the Gospel with her would give her some assurance. As I went through the Gospel with her I asked what Jesus had done to take away her sins she said, “I repent and try not to repeat my sins so I will be forgiven.” I said that was true and quoted 1John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. “So that verse says God is just to forgive us,” I said. I explained God could be just in forgiving us because He got paid. I explained that everything belongs to God even us so when we do something wrong we damage His stuff and we owe Him for that, He has to be paid for this damage, and asked, “So how does Jesus make that payment to God?” She didn’t honestly know, though she knew John 3:16 by heart when I quoted it earlier. So I began to explain how Jesus says we have to be perfect (Matt. 5:48) “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  “So if you stood before God he’s be like, ‘Sydney, welcome to heaven, you’re supposed to live a perfect life, did you live a perfect life? Where’s my perfect life?’ And you say ‘I didn’t live a perfect life.’ Then God could say, ‘Well everything here is perfect, I’m perfect everyone here is perfect and this is a perfect place, you don’t fit in here so you have to go to Hell.’ But you’d say that’s crazy then everyone would go to Hell.” I explained Jesus lived a perfect life for us, had died so we do not have to die in Hell and His blood cleansed us so God could live inside us and then I told her God wanted to wrap her in a robe of His righteousness (Is. 61:10). After I had finished she wanted to be forgiven and I explained that it was good that she believed Jesus was God’s son but she needed to add, “Who died for me” writing it next to her answer. I said she was just a couple clicks away. But if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray. I walked her through it and handed her the booklet, “You want me to read it?” I explained she could pray it silently. She looked down to begin and then looked back at me and said, “I am going to take some time [to pray].” I said I was in no hurry that was fine and she prayed to receive Jesus. She had a Bible and gave me an email address she shared with her sister Samantha. I told her if she trusted in the righteousness of God to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I gave her a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s power” and her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I gave her Bible Promises for You for her 15 year old sister encouraging her to tell her the Gospel and we talked through some other things. “Thank you, I needed this.” I said I would pray for her and I gave her the Rose publication Following Jesus as she expressed some questions it answered. I blessed her and headed out.

I had a couple other good conversations explaining the faith and gave one girl Chloe who was on the edge of belief The Case for Christ student edition.

Adi was wearing a school football jersey and sitting alone at a table in the big lounge where we have Bible study. There were some other students across the lounge socializing dressed the same way. It turned out they were all cheerleaders. She had been asked to start a squad and wanted to get a scholarship in that at her next school. She had very pretty features and (looked like the actress Apollonia who received Jesus as her savior later in life) had fair skin, her hair was straightened down past her shoulders. Seated beside me she seemed pretty tall and had a big white bow in her hair. She went to a Pentecostal church. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “For me, I’ve never been greedy. I’ve always helped others out with what they need. I’ve even put others before myself.” She thought she had an 85% chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with her and she said, “I would be that one,” pointing at the circle with God living inside her. I asked her if she thought she had trusted in Christ as her savior. She had known Jesus had died for her sins, or is that something you still need to do? “I know I might have caught you off guard and this isn’t a trial or something but your answer seemed like you were hoping to be good enough to go to Heaven.” I said if she had not trusted in Jesus there was a prayer she could pray and talked her through it and read the line, “Is this prayer the desire of your heart.” “Well mostly,” she said slowly. I asked if there was a part of it she did not think was true and she seemed unsure what that might be saying “I don’t know…”. So I went on to explain living “inside out” with the Spirit living inside her. I explained there was a difference when you HAVE a relationship with someone or are IN a relationship comparing a friendship to a marriage. “Everyone has a relationship with God He is there creator but not everyone is in a relationship with God where they are trusting in Him as their savior and He lives inside them with His Holy Spirit. So do you think you have just had a relationship with God or have you trusted in Jesus where you are in a relationship with Him and He lives inside you? If you want to be in a relationship with Him and haven’t been that is what the prayer is about.” She understood then and wanted to pray to receive Christ and did. She had “a lot of bibles” she said at home and I talked her through the Christian life and gave her a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s power” and her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I told her the parable from Matthew 22 about the guy who gets thrown into hell for wearing the wrong clothes explaining how we needed to be given Christ’s righteousness. She was grateful and I told her I’d pray for her and headed out as her friends came over to the table. I walked through the lounge a little later and she was still sitting there and waved at me and I waved back and talked to Patrick who had come to Christ recently about life and then went around the school for a bit but it was really empty and I’d been there several hours so finding no one else to talk with I headed home.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed. I had a good day on campus and Angelo prayed with me to receive Jesus.

He was sitting in the MAC arts building lounge at a countertop high table not up to much with his phone. He had the short classic Superman hair cut short on the sides. His eyes looked classically Asian, nice smile. I knew from looking at him he was Filipino and he said he wanted to be a Nurse Anesthetist; many Filipinos are nurses in the US. He was raised catholic. He was wearing a wind breaker had a narrow face, slight build. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “That’s a good question…I’m not really sure, I’m not a very religious person. I have my moral values I go by. I’d just be a good person but if you don’t want me in that’s fine.” He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died to take away our sins. When I asked him if he’d want to be forgiven for his sins and trust in Jesus he wanted that so I asked if when he, if ever, asked for forgiveness if he thought he would be forgiven because of Jesus. “That’s a really tough question. I usually depend on myself and if I need an outside force to help me, AKA God I ask.” I said if he wanted to be forgiven and be in a relationship with God there was a prayer he could pray. Then I walked him through it but right away went on to explain living the Christian life by the power of God’s Spirit living “inside out”. Then I explained how God provided the fruit of His Spirit to give us the strength to live quoting them and saying these were all things that would be helpful in being a nurse and he agreed with that. “Anything God is asking you to do is when is best for you and He gives you the strength to do it.” I explained.  Then I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins, and rose from the dead?” “Yeah, I do,” he said. “Well if you wanted to place your trust in that and pray to be forgiven God can live inside you and help you with all of the tasks of life wanna do it?” “Yeah,” he said nodding emphatically. And he prayed with me to receive Jesus. I gave him a Bible showing him the “Where to Turn” section writing his name, the date and “forgiven” and a Bible Study. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front. I told him I would keep him in my prayers and explained that if he would trust in Jesus righteousness to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. He was grateful and I thanked him for talking with me, “You made my day, God bless you” He grinned at me and said, “God bless you too.”

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord. I had a tough morning dealing with the dishonest concrete contractor working on my porch, I know God will do him as he has done me, since he repeatedly lied. But hey once I got some peace about it I had a great day on campus as 4 peeps prayed with me to receive Jesus a girl Jalissa and 3 guys Chamar, Ryan and Patrick.

Jalissa was sitting in the hall of the BIC waiting to go to class and said she would do a student survey for the bible study group. African American she had dyed her hair red and it was straight and falling past her shoulders. She had a nice face and her long nails were seriously blinded out with rhinestones and polish. She wore Jeans and a flannel shirt and had what looked like an off the shoulder blue print peasant blouse under it. She wore red lipstick, looked like a girly girl, she was really nice. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I mean you can repent and stuff. I know I’ve made mistakes… we’re supposed to do that as humans. So if you repent I know God is really forgiving.” It turned out her grandparents were both pastors but she didn’t like going to church which she described as something of a fashion show. I gave her a card for the Compass church saying she could watch on line and see if she liked it. I went through the Gospel with her explaining that God was forgiving because of Jesus. I explained how everything fit together, His death for her sins, blood to cleanse her so God could live inside her and the righteousness of God to her credit. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven or thought something else, “Be forgiven,” she said. “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” “I do,” she answered. I said if she wanted to receive Jesus forgiveness there was a prayer she could pray to begin trusting in what He did  to forgive her and walked her through it saying she could pray silently and she said, “Is this the kind of prayer you can pray in the morning when you get up and before bed?” I told her I had a couple books that would help her pray, giving her Max Lucado  Pocket Prayers and showing her in Bible promises for You how she could pray a Bible Verse. I guided her back to the prayer and she said, “OK.” And prayed to receive Jesus. She had a Bible so I told her about the Christian life and gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” under it. She thanked me for things as we talked about how if she would trust in the righteousness of God to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100% and I invited her to Bible Study again.  As she got up to go I told her I would keep her in my prayers and she said, “Thank you so much!” And headed to class.

Chamar had been playing basketball last semester at North Park in the city but he might have said Northwestern (possible he seems pretty sharp). He said things had kind of fallen apart there but he would be returning second semester. He played forward. He was a big solidly built black guy with a mustache and thick beard, which grew longer in an oval at the chin. Had his hair short on the side and a mushroom top. Good looking guy, big. He wore a sweatshirt and athletic shorts. He was sitting on a bench in the hall that goes to a door that empties out to the outdoor Amphitheatre by the MAC. He said he was busy at first and so I asked him if he knew how to get into Heaven. He was sure he did. So I asked him how God took away his sins, he didn’t know. I explained Christianity was like a blood transfusion where God has to make you His type so He can live inside you. So He has to take away your sin to make you His type, and if you do not know how He takes away your sin you cannot trust in that by faith to be forgiven and go to Heaven. That grabbed his interest and he let me sit down explain the Gospel. Since he wasn’t stopping me I covered everything, used some sports analogies too, pulling out a booklet so some of the verses I quoted would be in front of him. So I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else. “Yeah the one on the right,” pointing at that circle with God living inside him. So I said he could pray to trust in Christ and walked him through the prayer asking if that was the desire of his heart and he said yeah and I told him he could pray and he nodded and took the booklet and did. He told me then he’d had a “Tough day, this is great.” I guess his mom was upset but then he talked to his Grandma who seemed to be a Christian and she told him of a vision she had had of his infant brother (who had died) doing flips in front of her and he had seen it in his mind. I took him to mean that there was an afterlife and everything would be ok. I told him the Bible teaches that if his brother had one believing parent he would be in Heaven and sometimes God took people very young to spare them an awful life but that God also was asking him to sacrifice as he had lost his brother. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” under it and “by the Spirit’s Power” in the front. Also gave him a Bible study and explained the Christian life inside out and if he now trusted in the righteousness of God to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. And I told him the parable of Matthew 22 about the wedding feast where one dude is sent to Hell for wearing the wrong clothes (he wasn’t clothed in Jesus Galatians 3:27). Telling him I would pray for him ‘til a year from spring he said he would pray for me to and I thanked him and headed out. He was a great guy.

Ryan was sitting by the bagel shop in the MAC on a bench. He had on a black and white knit sweater, white t-shirt and jeans. His afro looked like Chamar’s but a hair band shaped it. Sharp features, good looking guy. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “That’s a hard question… I don’t know. It’s honestly up to Him or her or whomever it’s not my place to say.” It turned out his family went to the Kingdom Hall and I explained that really wasn’t Christianity after going through the Gospel with him. I said, “Jesus had to be God to take away your sins or His life was not worth an infinite amount and he could not earn enough righteousness to cover all of us.” I explained the Trinity to him as I had to Chamar saying he was like a trinity in a small sense, he had a body like Jesus a will or a mind like the Father and emotions like the Holy Spirit, there was sort of three parts to him. Like when he talked to himself while alone driving, it was like there was another guy inside him. When I had explained all I typically explain about the Gospel to him I asked if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else and he said, “Be forgiven,” emphatically. I asked if he thought Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead and he said, “I do.” Explaining how he could tell God he wanted to place his trust in that to be forgiven, I walked him through the prayer and barely audibly as Chamar had done he prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life “inside out” gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote his name and “forgiven” and “by the Spirit’s Power” in the front saying if he would trust in the righteousness of God to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I gave him a bible study and I told him a parable from Matthew 22 and talked him through a lot of stuff. He thanked me for the “great information dump”; I think is how he said it. I told him I would pray for him and he thanked me and getting up to go to class (we’d talked for 35 minutes) he said, “I’m really gonna look at this (the book) I really enjoyed that talk.” I thanked him for talking to me and blessed him and he said, “Thank you God bless you too.” And I said, “Thanks” and headed out.

Patrick was half Irish and half Filipino, he kind of looked like a boyishly handsome Sgt. Carter from “Gomer Pile USMC”, same hair cut, couple day’s growth of beard wearing shorts and a windbreaker. His mom had grown up very poor in The Philippines. He had been back there and was grateful for the life he had here. He went to a Church of God Church where they do not use instruments in worship (theirs used an organ a bit). He knew Jesus had died for his sins but had not been trusting in it saying when I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven, “For the good deeds I did. I’m born a sinner so…” He was 100% sure he would go to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with him explaining that he had to be perfect and that was the symbol in the sacrificial system animals had to be without blemish. But nothing he did was perfect so he had nothing to offer to God. After explaining everything to him I asked if he wanted to be forgiven and he did. So I asked if when he asked for forgiveness if he knew God was forgiving and would just forgive him, or was hoping to be good enough or didn’t really know. He said he wasn’t really sure if he had been trusting in Christ. “Well, if you are not really sure it seems like you couldn’t have really been trusting in what Christ had done.” “Exactly.” He replied thinking the same thing. So I offered him a prayer he could pray and he prayed to receive Jesus. I gave him  Bible Promises for You. I wrote his name in the front and “forgiven”. Since he liked to read he took The Case for Christ which he seemed really interested in. I told him everything God was asking him to do He would give him the power to do “inside out”. We talked for a while about some other things. I got up to go telling him I would pray for him. “Thank you for the knowledge and everything. I appreciate that.” “Thank you for being willing to talk to me,” I replied and I headed out to the truck.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and evangelism today if you had a chance, I really felt the power of the Lord. Ellen’s cold is a bit better she had to skip Bible Study.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus and Tamera prayed with me to receive Jesus.

Tamera was the first person I talked to she was sitting at a counter high table in the back room of the cafeteria. She is a petit 4’11” Black girl. Today she had her hair up in an afro bun with a 3 inch hair band around her head. She wore a bright colored tie-dye with some anime characters on the front and black jeans. Cute kid, small features. She was friendly and used to go to Church with her Grandma in Rockford. She lives locally now. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said. “Umm… I feel like I’d say like, I don’t know… I did a lot of bad stuff in my life but I did more good than bad.” She thought she had an 85% chance of going to Heaven. She listened to the Gospel closely and she knew Jesus had died for her sins. I explained the imputed righteousness of Christ saying she was saved by faith. “You should do good things to please God but your good stuff does not fix your bad stuff.” I went on to tell her the tale I often tell. “Like say you had a boyfriend for about 3 weeks, you thought he was pretty cool but then it turned out he was cheating on you and stealing your stuff, so you cut him loose. He comes around in about a week and he’s like ‘Oh Tamera I know I did you really wrong. I was even stealing your stuff and selling it for drugs, but I just want you to know, I’m gonna be nice to my next three girl friends.’ You’d be like, ‘Yeah that doesn’t help me at all.’  ‘Cause you can’t do good stuff over here to fix your bad stuff there. But that’s what a lot of people think. They’re like, “I’ve done some bad stuff but I I’ve done some good stuff too. My good stuffs gonna fix my bad stuff with God’. But your bad stuffs still out there kicking people around and there’s not much you can do about it. But God says He’ll turn your bad things into good things. It says in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good, for them that love God and are called according to His purpose. So God can take the trajectory of even bad things that happen to you or you have done and turn them into good things–because He is all powerful and knows the future.” I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins or thought something else. “Probably forgiven,” she replied. So I said if she wanted to there was a prayer she could pray to receive God’s forgiveness and I talked her through it and said if she wanted to you could pray it, not like I would hear, and God could live inside her. “So what do you think I said holding the booklet before her and I waited a while, as she thought (I think reading it silently through again, praying God would penetrate her heart. “Maybe,” she finally said. “It seems right.” So I waited a few moments more and she reached out and took the booklet and I said, “Just pretend I’m not even here.” She prayed to receive Christ. She had a Bible so I gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “by the Spirit’s power” in the front and her name and the date and “forgiven” saying she could remember. I told her anything God asked her to do He would also give her the power to do. I gave her a Bible study and asked if she had any questions and invited her to Bible study again as she lived in town. She gave me her email. I headed over to talk to some other black girls, both from Africa who had said hi while we were talking, I’m the godfather for the little boy Eli, one of the girls had recently. I chatted with them and then headed out. I was a ways down the hall almost to the book store and remembering Tamera hadn’t a church I walked all the way back and gave her a card for the Compass church. I hope she will come to Bible Study.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed though I slept very little last night. I got a couple good seeds planted too with Johnny (nation with a broad down the center of his head) whose dad has been taking him to church and Ryan (strawberry blond, stock kid) an atheist in the Mac.

In Him,

Bob