Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you were blessed today as you walked with Him.  I has a good day on campus today, and Ada prayed to receive Christ. Two other girls said they would pray after class and ran to theirs: Xesia (Excess e ah) and Sydney.  Tomorrow we’ll do a book table to try to get some more peeps to Bible Study and share the Gospel with those who drop by.  We had a good group at Bible study tonight.

Ada was walking down the hall with one of the girls I know who is from Nigeria, Emike.  Ada had long braids past her shoulders and looked a bit like Emike, who is her cousin, with a bit wider nose and a narrow face. Cute, wearing shredded up jeans.  I was introduced and Emike said she’d gotten into a fender-bender on the way to school. I began talking to Ada as we stood, asking her some questions leading to the Gospel. She goes to the Teen Church meeting at local large church, it turns out, but didn’t understand the Gospel.  I explained that God wanted to live inside her to give her eternal life and she asked Emike, “Did you know this?”  To which Emike’s reply expressed both that she knew it and it was true.  So at one point Ada dramatically rushed away.  I said “Do you think she’ll come back?  “Probably” Emike said. So we talked some more and then I said we should go around the corner to look for Ada. She’d sat down there on some chairs and been distracted by her phone, and was a little freaked out by the Gospel it seemed. But Emike assured her, “He tells this to everyone.”  I completed going through the Gospel with Ada and she said she had not understood it before and wanted to be forgiven.  I walked her through the prayer and she prayed to receive Christ. She wanted a book and had a Bible, so I gave her 20 things God Can’t Do and she put it in her purse happily.  Kind of strange, but they traveled on their way and I told them I’d be praying for them. (Ada is in a good church).  I already  pray for Emike.  I’m sure I’ll see them around.

Xescia (Excess e ah) was sitting at one of the counter-height tables in the MAC arts center.  She had a wide, rounder head with very curly hair and looked a bit Latino.  A happy person, it seemed.  She said she’d gone to a bad church in Cicero as a kid. That left her disinterested in Church.  She was up for talking about God, though she didn’t take my questions seriously, saying she’d ask God to let her into heaven so she could “meet David Bowie.” To which I said he might have had a shot, but I was not sure he was there but in the other place  where there is no community, so you couldn’t run into him.  She genuinely listened to the Gospel until a bit after her class began, through the prayer explanation saying she wanted to be forgiven and believed Jesus was God and had died for her sins, “I’ll definitely do this, but I have to run to class” and she ran off.  But sometimes the art students are possible to meet again in the lounge, so I hope I’ll run into her later to see if she was genuinely interested and prayed.

Sydney was a pretty, short girl waiting for class in the science building. She had leggings on and what looked a bit like workout clothes.  She had dark blonde hair, shoulder-length with curls in the ends of it.  I asked her if she’d like to know about God and she said “I want to, but how long does it take? I have to go to class.” So I offered her the speeded up version that I should have done faster, as she quickly nodded to every point and listened to me explain the prayer. She said she wanted to be forgiven and have God living inside her, and believed Jesus was God and had died for her., but she would have to pray later as she just had to get to class.  So I cut her loose, giving her some contact information and gave her the booklet and she took off to class.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a moment.  God blessed.  And I’ll be praying for Sydney and Xescia in the hope they will come too.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a good day walkin’ with the Lord.  I had a great day on campus talkin’ with the peeps and 3 girls prayed with me to receive Christ: Taranice, Mirna and Berenice.  So 8 have prayed with me this week, pretty great.  Thanks for praying.

Taranice was sitting in a lounge in the BIC building with another black girl who did not want to talk.  But Taranice said she’d do a survey with me.  She was a pretty girl with long eyelashes and long straightened hair.  She wore a gray one-piece outfit, kind of a loose-fitting jumpsuit and had a very thin ring in one nostril.  When I asked her what she might say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “I stayed true to myself while I was on earth and tried to help people rather than just help myself.” She was sure she would go to Heaven.  It turned out she did not go to church and hadn’t before much, if at all. But as I went through the Gospel she assented to each point agreeing with it in some verbal way or with a nod. In the end she wanted to be forgiven but thought she trusted Christ. I was certain she never had and asked her if she had known the story before I explained it to her. She said she hadn’t.  “Well you can’t trust in something you don’t know, right?” It dawned on her that was true and she agreed she needed to ask God for forgiveness and tell Him she trusted in Him.  She prayed and was happy about it. It was kinda impressive. She’d been so convinced of what I had told her she’d in a moment thought she’d began the conversation in the same way it had ended.  We talked more about the Spirit in us and she then asked, “How do you know (God is leading you)?  I explained the Law was God’s loving guidance for us so that we would not do destructive things to ourselves. I gave her examples of robbing a bank or sleeping with someone she wasn’t married to, which she then admitted she’d done, but “not a lot.”  “Some thoughts are not from God, and when you have a thought you don’t think is from Him you should just pray for God to take the thoughts of Satan out of your heart.  I do that all the time.”  That seemed to clear up what she’d wondered about.  She had to run to class but I gave her the book 20 Things God Can’t Do, showing her some verses in it and a Bible study.  She was working on getting a car and hoped to come to the Bible study at school.  She showed me a prayer directed to St. Joseph (Jesus’ adopted father) with a drawing of him holding the Christ Child on one side.   Her Grandma had given it to her on a laminated card.  I said that was fine, but she should pray the prayer to Jesus instead.  “Yeah I was wondering why I’d pray to Joseph,” she said.  I didn’t have time to explain, as she was nearly late for class so I said, “Yeah, just pray it to Jesus.”  “Thanks for walking up!” she said enthusiastically gathering her things and I said she was welcome.

Mirna was from Guatemala and was sitting in the circle of sofas outside the cafeteria.  She has been in the US for three years.  She’d lived in Guatemala with her grandma and had come up to the states to live with her dad. He didn’t go to church as her grandma and uncles, who were singers in church, had. Mirna had a bit of an accent, Her words were clear but her sentences sometimes came in the syntax of her native speech. She was cute and had long dark braids on her head and a black and white print blouse on with ties in front.  She wore the larger-framed circular glasses that are popular now.  She felt bad about not going to church it seemed, but she tried to go there and talked to God when she felt bad about things. “Sometimes I feel like I need it.” she said.  When I asked her what she might say to God to get into Heaven she first said, thinking out loud, “I’ve done good things and bad things, so I don’t know…” Then she said, answering, “Because I help people a lot. I’ve done nice things.”  She thought she’d have a 70% chance of going to Heaven.  She took in the Gospel and the verses with interest. When I offered her the idea that there are two kind of people, describing the lost and forgiven people, I repeated them again to say “Would you like to be forgiven or do you think something else” and she immediately said “no” to the second option as I said it.  I suggested she had not really understood what I had explained to her before, as I could tell as I taught her the Gospel it was novel to her and she agreed.  “Well if you’d like to be forgiven, you can just ask God for it. There’s a prayer you can pray.” I walked her thorough it, telling her she could pray it right now, not so I heard her, but that God could hear her thoughts.  She took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ.  I offered her some books and she wanted both 20 Things God Can’t Do (I think for the list of 100 bible verses you should know in back) and the student edition of The Case for Christ.  I gave them to her and a Bible study. She gave me her email to send her some more stuff and was grateful.

Berenice was sitting on a bench as you go out the northeast door of the BIC building.  A Latina girl with a cute round face and a bit wider nose wearing glasses. She had very curly ringlets of brown hair that went to her shoulders.  She wore a sleeveless Bears t-shirt and jeans.  Really Cheerful. She went to a Roman Catholic Church and was sure she’d go to Heaven when she died.  It is interesting to me how many Roman Catholic kids are pretty sure they will go to Heaven when they die, since they were never taught that in church.  Roman Catholic doctrine is that most people (except the saints) go to purgatory, which is burning. It’s described like hell in their writings, but I don’t think I have ever had a student directly tell me, “Well I’ll go to purgatory first.”  But in a few cases, in talking through things, a couple thought they might be in purgatory.  Berenice didn’t. She was 100% sure she’d go to Heaven until I explained the Gospel to her and that to be in Heaven she’d have to be perfect.  She said she’d go there “Because, I feel that I helped people in life and I never did anything too bad.” As I went through the Gospel though it did not seem she knew any of it.  She had kind of a pretty musical voice and gave little exclamations as I talked that came out like notes, taking it very seriously.  She wanted to be forgiven for her sins and was glad to pray for forgiveness when I offered a prayer to her to ask for it.  She took the Book Bible Promises for You. I also gave her a Bible Study and got her email.  As I got up to go I said, “Oh and this, ” pointing to the questions asking the % likelihood you’d go to Heaven, “is 100%. Because if you are trusting in His righteousness. How righteous is Jesus?”  “100%” she said smiling.  “Right,” I said, “100%”.

I gave an agnostic, Chris, the student, edition of The Case for Faith. He was willing to read it after saying he believed nothing happened when you die, but admitted he’d never really thought about it or read anything.  I gave a Christian Nursing student The Case for a Creator today also.  He was a big Filipino dude named Sean.

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

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Hope ya had a great day hanging out in the Spirit.  I had a good day on campus, though it was shortened by a Doctor appointment to check my broken jaw, which seems to be healing well. (I can bite an apple in 3 more weeks.)  Meanwhile at College of DuPage, Alex, a nursing student, prayed with me to receive Christ.

She was sitting on a bench in the hall in the medical classroom portion of the science building and said she’d listen to how you get to Heaven.  When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her in she said, “I haven’t killed anybody.” “Yet,” I said. “But then I guess if you were a nurse it would be an accident.” “No, if you were negligent it is your fault,” she replied seriously.  She wanted to get a PhD in Nursing Education and seemed very ambitious.  She was a little heavy set, cute face, wearing a striped skirt (kinda reminded me of a zebra) with black tights and a black blouse.  Her dark brown hair framed her face in kind of a shag cut with bangs that split up on her forehead.  She was very articulate and to the point.  She thought she had a 50/50 shot of getting into Heaven.  I explained sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ to her.  “Your sins are paid for by the blood of Christ. ‘Life is in the blood’ the Bible says and Jesus is the source of all life because He is God. So when He pours out His blood, He pours out His life on the world and it makes life all the places we made death.  There is death inside us because of sin, so the Bible says the ‘Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.’ It turns death into life. But you need standing before God.  It is like the idea that you are smart enough to complete college but that is not enough to get in. You need to prove graduation from High School and get good enough test scores.  Christ’s righteousness gives you something to present you to God, gives you standing.  Otherwise you would not even have one perfect day to show for your time on earth.”  I went through the Gospel with her and asked her if she wanted to be forgiven. She said she did, and so I asked her if she believed Jesus was God, had died for her sins and rose from the dead.  She thought for a moment and said “Yes.”  I asked “Would you want to trust in that then to be forgiven? If you do there is a prayer you can pray.”  I walked her through it and she thanked me and began to flip through the booklet saying, “We have a nursing prayer kind of like this I guess” she said.  So I explained the work of the Holy Spirit to her and then encouraged her that telling God she wanted to be forgiven, actually saying the words in your heart is important.  She turned to the prayer and quietly prayed it.  I told her I would pray for her every night through this school year and the next and she was glad for that.  We’d talked a long time and she said she had to get to work. So I quickly gave her a book 20 things God Can’t Do and a Bible study.  She said, “I want to take this, but I know I won’t read it. But I’ll never throw it out.” I said that was fine and that I got the books for a great deal in the summer and the best part of it was a list of 100 verses in the back she could look at. “Keep it on the shelf, maybe you’ll have time for it sometime” I offered. She started to leave and said, “Thank you so much!”  “God bless you,” I replied.  “You too” she said.

I had a good conversation with a guy who was forced to get around primarily in a wheelchair.  He had seen a lot of pain. He’d been to church and hadn’t received Christ.  Greg seemed open and even willing to come to Bible study, but there was more pain there than he would let on.  He was a good lookin’ guy with a beard and brown sandy hair. But his legs beneath the knees were withered and in braces.  He had to go after I had offered him the Gospel, and he said he’d think about it.  My heart really went out to him, so I’ll be praying he comes in.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance.  God led and blessed by His Spirit.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a good day walking with the Lord.  I had a good day on campus and went through the Gospel with 7 students.  No one came to Christ, though 2 students, who seemed to have no clear understanding of the Gospel but were faithful Roman Catholics, claimed to be trusting in Jesus though they began seemedly to be trusting in their religious works.  Explaining salvation by faith to Religious students like this, along with imputation, is a about 15% of the conversations I have, since DuPage county is about 60% Roman Catholic.  Some pray with me – almost all respond positively.  The guys were Kevin, an average sandy-haired guy, and Thomas, a shorter guy dressed like an athlete with bright red hair.  Both were really interested and grateful, and they took Bible Studies from me on the Deity of Christ that they were drawn to.  Thomas said, “Thanks I’ll think about all this.”  Both said the same thing when I asked them, after going through the Gospel, “If you do something wrong and feel like you should ask for forgiveness, are you thinking ‘Well I’m good and do good things at Church and God is good so he will forgive me,’ or are you trusting that Jesus has died on the Cross for your sins and that is why you will be forgiven?”  Each then said, after thinking about it, “I trust in Jesus.”  So I hope that is a first step for their faith if it was not already present at a saving depth.

Ken was really searching today. He’s a big guy with dishwater blonde hair and a day’s growth of beard. He wore metal-rimmed glasses.  He started out in Art but decided there was a better future in Heating and Air Conditioning. He was sitting on the floor, against the wall in the big lounge where we have Bible Study.   When asked why God should let him into Heaven he said he would say and ask.  “I would consider myself a good enough person. It seems like I’d be a logical choice [to get into Heaven]. But if He has some standard I didn’t reach, if He could tell me what I didn’t do to reach it and what I did do.”  We talked a long time and about Faith and that was the rub he’d had a hard time getting to.  Strangely, some rude guy sat down on the floor with us, trying to interrupt, but gave up somehow and walked away.  The guy didn’t even introduce himself and just began talking over what we were saying to each other with some brand of universalism then left.  It turned out Ken had been listening to The Case for Faith as he drove to work (an hour each day) given to him by an old High School friend.  He said it was pretty good and had some good arguments, but he couldn’t quite get to faith.  I went through the Gospel with him, quoting Eph. 2:8.  I recommended he pray to God while he listened to the book and ask God to give him faith, since it was a gift from God.  I explained the rest of Gospel to him entirely, the Trinity and the Holy Spirit.  I gave him Michael Heiser’s podcast to listen also, and a couple Rose publication hand outs on the validity of the Bible and 100 Prophecies Jesus fulfilled.  He was really interested in them and anxious to read them.  I gave him my contact information and a Bible study, so I’ll be praying for Ken.  It was the best conversation because I saw that I was a piece God was using along with his old friend to lead Ken to Himself.  I know God will complete it.  In the end he said the idea of asking for faith as he drove and listened (to Strobel’s book) really seemed a good one and he said he would likely do it. Please pray he does.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for Evangelism today if you had a chance. God blessed and I felt it was a good use of time serving the Lord.

In Him,

Bob

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed in the Lord.  I had a good day out sharing the Gospel. Karrina and Gabriela each prayed with me to receive Christ.  I had a couple other good conversations too. Perla grilled me with questions for an hour and was really grateful for the answers. She wasn’t ready to take the step of trusting in Christ, though she was a catholic that believed He was God and had died for her sins. So I hope my prayers for her this year will bring her in.

Karrina was sitting on the floor in the hall of the science building on the 1st floor waiting for class.  She had long, pretty dark-brown hair and eyebrows, a couple of well placed freckles and was wearing a retainer over her newly straightened teeth. She had some bling on her sandals and wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  She said she had been in the Free Church but now attended the Bible Church in town.  When I asked her what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven she said, “That I spread the word of God.”  It turned out she just meant being loving, because she did not have any ideas about how God took away her sin. When I asked she guessed “Holy water?” So she either got that from a movie, or had been to a roman catholic church.  She was reasonably sure she’d go to Heaven, guessing she had a 90% chance.  So I went through the Gospel with her and could tell she’d not heard it before.  She was really nice and attentive and said some things along the lines of “Oh I see how that works.”  When I had finished going through what she needed to know to be saved, and she’d said she wanted to be forgiven, I said, “It seems like you didn’t have the story down before?” She nodded in response and I said she could pray and accept God’s forgiveness, telling Him she had faith in Him.  She paused for a moment, praying in front of me, but decided to do it silently and did, and was happy after.  I told her she could keep the little booklet and I explained the Holy Spirit’s power in living the Christian life.  She was really grateful and gave me her email address to send her some stuff. I hope God might lead her to Bible study.  I gave her a copy of the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and a Bible study showing her how to read through it.  I got up to go and said “Nice to meet ya!” She said, “Thank you!  You too.”  I think sometimes some people need to hear things explained by an evangelist ,supported by prayers from God’s people, to come to understand.

Gabriela was sitting on a bench in the next building to the East, across the science building from where I had been talking to Karrina.  I’d bumped into a student I knew who I pray for (John) and gave him a book and chatted him up encouraging his faith.  I walked past Gabriela, who was sitting alone, and thought I should double back and ask her. So I sat down with a post about 15 feet between us and took a moment to eat a couple bites of a soft chew energy bar and pray a moment. Then I walked up and asked her if she’d like to do a student survey for our Bible Study group.  She was willing. I found out she had seen a bit of Europe, spoke German along with English and Spanish, and was from Venezuela.  I mentioned she was probably glad not to be there presently and she said “Yeah it’s bad there.”  She had just a slight accent and was quite pretty, with light-brown hair and wore a print sleeveless blouse and jeans with white and blue fabric slip-on shoes.  It seemed she had gone to church when she was younger. When I asked her what she would say to God to be let into Heaven, she said, “Because I lived my life to the fullest.”  It is not uncommon for a student to say something like this. Seems kind of like the beer commercial response. But I think for most it is more the idea that life is a gift from God and He expects you to do something with it, not just sit around. It does not occur to most people that what they have done with their lives they largely did simply to please themselves and enjoy some pleasure. They hadn’t served anyone.  She seemed to really enjoy the Gospel, and when I was done I asked her if she wanted to be forgiven and she said she did.  I asked if she believed that Jesus was God, that He had died for her sins.  She thought for a moment and decided she did. So I asked her if she would like to put her trust in that and be forgiven, and she said, without hesitation in a mater-of-fact way, “Yeah.”  I walked her through the prayer and said she could pray it “like I was not there” and she did.  I explained more of the Christian life to her and the Trinity, and encouraged her to read the Bible.  I gave her one, as she only had access to a family Bible. She wanted to read the student edition of The Case for Christ which I gave her and she took a Bible study from me, also giving me her email.  She thought she might be able to come to Bible study next week, so I hope she will.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. We also had a new comer to Bible Study tonight.

In Him,

Bob

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

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

Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

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

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

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

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

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

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

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

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

In Him,

Bob

To donate to our college ministry:

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