Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you had a good day walking by the Spirit’s powers through the trials of today and could rest in Him. I had a good day on campus and two guys Mason and Tom each prayed to receive Christ.

Mason was sitting in the southeast corner lounge of the second floor of the BIC killing some time until his class. I asked him if he wanted to do a survey for our Bible Study group and he agreed and got up to go wherever the survey was and I said it’s cool right here, “You just tell me what you think…” He had dark hair slicked back short on the sides, he’d grown a couple days of a beard and had shaved the mustache. Good looking kid wearing cargo shorts and a red shirt and sandals. He said he like to be “classy”. It turned out he was attending church and a Bible study a couple times a week. Unfortunately he was attending “Second City” which is the college group of the “Chicago Church of Christ”. They are a works salvation cult effectively, though some genuine Christians may be in the Church. The teach that you must be baptized and do good works to go to Heaven. Only secondarily if at all in my experience talking with them do they mention the atoning work of Christ. When I asked Mason what he would say to God if asked why he should let him into Heaven he said, “I wouldn’t have a reason because I’m not baptized yet.” He thought the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 0% saying as if it was God talking, “You can’t join Heaven if you have not pursued My work.” I imagine that is something they say at meetings. But of course the work of God is not limited to categories one would typically think of as a ministry. And being a good employee, or parent, sibling, student whatever are not the works of righteousness unless the Christian does them in the power of the Spirit. I went through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died for his sins and wanted to be forgiven. When I showed him the option her said, “The one on the right.” Which was a circle with Christ living inside him, but he had not been trusting in Christ for forgiveness. I walked him through the prayer asked if he wanted to pray and he said, “Yeah.” And he prayed to receive Christ. As he finished I said, “Your sins are forgiven. Not because I say so but because God’s word does.” It was then I found out what Bible study he went to so I cautioned him against the legalism of Second City.  I said I had gone through the Gospel with some of the leaders i the past.  They had answered the question of why they went to Heaven appealing to Baptism and their own good works.  Only when I finished going through the Gospel with them did they agree saying, “Well of course Jesus had to die to take away sins.” I told him the parable of the Wedding Banquet [Matthew 22] explaining the wedding clothes were the Righteousness of Christ which we are clothed in not our own righteousness [Gal. 3:27]. I told him how Christ said “I never knew you.” to people who had appealed to their religious works of casting out demons prophecy and miracles. I generally helped him see that yes he should be baptized, but if he walked out in the parking lot and was killed by a car he would go to Heaven though he was not yet baptized. He was saved by faith and should do good works but only those done in the power of the Spirit please God, not those done in our own strength. We had a long conversation about how we sometime failed in trying to please God and I explained to him that now he could ask God to change him and the Christian life was not just trying hard but living “Inside Out” by God’s power. I gave him a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date he had trusted Christ in the front and “By the Power of the Spirit”. He gave me his phone number and got up to head to class and I said, “I’ll see you in heaven.” “He turned and smiling said, “There’ll be a big banquet too!” “And we’ll have classy duds,” I replied. He laughed and went off to class.

Tom was sitting at a table in the downstairs of the PE lounge. He was a big dude with freckles and strawberry blonde hair, mustache and beard, said he wanted to play in the NFL. He had a ball cap on shorts and a hoodie. He’d been to church in Georgia and Wisconsin when he lived there but now just read the Bible on his own. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven if he died he said, “I would say, ‘I know I’ve sinned in my life. I’ve also helped my community, [and] pushed people to do their best.'” He thought he had about a 95% chance of going to Heaven. He understood that Jesus had died to take away his sins and seemed to be familiar with the Gospel. After I finished explaining everything to him I said, if he wanted to trust in what Jesus had done, there was a prayer he could pray.  I walked him through it and said. “Say for some strange reason I had to take a class here and you were in it and some girl in it said to me that she thought you were good looking and asked me to give you her number. So I did. And you got to know her, studied together, had coffee together in a group but you never called her up. You’d have a relationship with her, because you were friends but you would not be in a relationship with her. A lot of people who go to church are like that with God, they believe He is their creator, they know the stories in the Bible and believe them, but they have never trusted in Him for forgiveness. So I know you knew the story [of what Jesus had done] but were you trusting in it to be forgiven or is that something you still need to do?” I had pointed out earlier that his answer to the question had been an appeal to his good works. “I still have to do that,” he replied. So I offered him the prayer and he silently prayed to receive Christ. We talked about how there was a Bible study with one of the coaches and I encouraged him to go (turned out it is Monday nights. This year Football practice is in the morning so I said we had pizza and he could come to ours too but no pressure. He gave me his e-mail and I gave him a Bible Study and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date he had trusted Christ in the front and “By the Power of the Spirit” explaining the life in Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. I said that he could ask God to give him skills on the field and even ask to play in the NFL and if it is not something that would be bad for him God might give that to him and that I would pray that for him too for the next school year and the year after. I suggested somethings he could read in the Bible. I explained that if he was trusting in Christ’s righteousness to be his it was 100% he would go to heaven. He smiled at that and as he got up he should my hand and said, “Thanks for the talk.” And he headed into the meeting.

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

In Him,

Bob