Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed in the Lord. I had a very good day on campus and Savannah, Grace and John each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.

Savannah was sitting looking at her computer in the hall of the BIC building and said she’d do a survey with me for our Bible Study Group. She was wearing a Green College of Du Page hoodie and leggings. She wore black-framed glasses and had her curly brown hair up under a baseball cap. She was tall and slim, narrow features, nice-looking girl, looked Latina in coloring. She had not been to church in several years, in part it seemed because her mom had converted to Mormonism and she didn’t believe their teachings. I mentioned that the Book of Mormon all took place by 400 AD in our area of the world, and yet it said there was metallurgy, so coins and swords, as well as horses and chariots. None of these things were here until a thousand years later, arriving with the Conquistadors. So we know they just made it all up. Savannah agreed. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I’d probably say  my life on earth, I tried to live a pretty positive, equal life, fair to everybody, wasn’t judgmental, tried to be nice to everyone. Of course no one’s the perfect person.” She thought she’d have a 60% chance of going to Heaven. She listened closely to the Gospel and hadn’t remembered Jesus had died for her but she wanted to be forgiven for her sins. “Do you believe Jesus was God He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” I asked. “Yeah most definitely,” she said. So I showed her the prayer in the booklet and talked her through it, saying she could pray right then silently and God would forgive her.” “Now?” she asked. “Yeah,” I replied, “as if I wasn’t here if you want to.” “Yeah” she said with a shy smile and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living by the Spirit’s power and she seemed thrilled that God would give her all the strength necessary to live the Christian life through His Spirit, simply by asking for it. I explained that if she was trusting in Jesus righteousness to be her righteousness, that she could be certain she was going to Heaven, 100%. Knowing she needed a good church and she lived in Naperville I asked her if she had heard of Compass, and it turned out she lived right near the campus of their church on Hobson. She thought she might check it out. I also told her Charles Stanley “In Touch Ministries” was good on Sundays on TV as she had antenna TV. She had a Bible but I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do  and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” along with the date and “Forgiven” in the front. We talked for a bit more. She was really nice and I got her email to send her some stuff. She is busy tomorrow but was interested to come to Bible Study, so I hope she’ll come next week. I gave her a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ and Bible Promises for You. She thanked me and I said, “God Bless you,” getting up to leave. “God Bless you too. Maybe I’ll make it some Tuesday,” she replied cheerfully.
I sat and wrote down some notes and ate a few bites of an energy bar around the corner and down the hall from Savannah. Grace was sitting a few chairs down from me then on the corner, so I asked if she’d do a survey for our Bible Study group. She said sure. She had really curly blonde hair, was wearing black leggings and a heavy knit black cotton sweater. Nice friendly smile, cute kid, not very tall. She said she hadn’t gone to church but she prayed a lot and was reading a book on trusting God by Joyce Meyer, (who has written some heretical stuff, but in my experience most people don’t pick up on it). When I asked Grace what she would say to God if asked why He should let her into Heaven, she thought for awhile and finally said, “Because I love God.” She thought she had about a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. She’d heard Jesus had died for her sins and she listened closely to the Gospel. As I finished going through everything with her, I asked if she’d want to be forgiven with God living inside her and she said, “Yes.”  So I asked if she believed Jesus was God, had died for her sins and rose from the dead, and said she did. I asked if she had had trusted in that to be forgiven or if it was still something she had to do. “I still have to do that,” she replied. So I talked her through the prayer, offering it to her and she silently prayed to receive Christ. I explained walking by the Spirit’s power, which she was enthusiastic about too and wrote her name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do along with “By the Spirit’s Power”.  I gave her a Bible Study and got her email to send her some stuff.  I explained that if she was trusting in the righteousness of Christ to be her righteousness, the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. “Awesome!” she said. She thanked me and I headed off.

At the end of the afternoon, I was talking to a guy, Cristian, who said he believed but had had no assurance. So I encouraged him, going through the Gospel with him. I gave him a copy of the student edition of The Case for Christ as some insurance, since he’d been going to some Kingdom Hall bible studies and warned him about the JW’s. At the very end, John walked up asking to join in the conversation saying he’d overheard us talking about theology. But I had kept Cristian for awhile and said I was gonna bounce. He said OK and headed to the next table down in the MAC Arts lounge. Cristian headed out to the parking lot so I struck up a conversation with John. He had kind of discovered some of the truth of Christianity. He’d also been into what had been explained to him as Buddhist meditation. Fortunately he had been doing it wrong (I did not correct him giving him the right way to do it however) it didn’t make any difference as his ‘Meditation” had content and was not an emptying process like what can lead to demonic possession. He just thought through metaphors he said. So I explained that was fine as long as the metaphor was not twisted into something wrong, he needed to have a foundation of truth. He had shoulder-length sandy hair and a canvass jacket on, was a head shorter than me, with a mustache and something of a beard, nice friendly smile. He said he’d been reading some prayers in what had seemed to be a catholic prayer book. He occasionally had a hard time connecting his thoughts. I gave him the book Pocket Prayers by Lucado and went through some of the Gospel with him. He seemed unsure of what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven. So I talked with him more and went through the rest of the Gospel. I asked if when he asked for forgiveness if he’d been trusting in what Jesus had done for him on the Cross or if he’d hoped he was good enough to be forgiven. “I never really asked for forgiveness,” he replied. I explained he needed to do that and trust in what Christ had done so that the Spirit could live inside him and guide him. I walked him through the prayer then and he prayed to receive Christ. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and explained walking by the Spirit. I gave him my contact information and got his email to send him some follow-up stuff. He had to go then, but thought he’d like to come to the Bible Study so I hope he will. I’ll be praying for him and Gracie and Savannah too each night.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. I got a few other seeds planted with students  who thanked me and said they’d enjoyed talking with me ( Jade, G-G and Anthony).  So I am hopeful God will continue to work in them as well. God blessed today.

In Him,

Bob