Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking by the Spirit. I had a really good day on campus David, Dan and Frank each prayed with me to receive Christ and Andres was very interested to think about committing to Christ, he did believe he was God and had died for his sins.

David was sitting in the second floor of MAC lounge overlooking the bigger lounge beneath waiting for his girlfriend to get out of class. He was a polish immigrant who had come here as a child. He worked on cars buying them and fixing them up or having them fixed up. He showed me a picture of a Porsche convertible he was working on and a Toyota he’d bought. He wore braces that were bringing all the gaps between each tooth together. Looked like the typical American, nice looking guy. He had a fireman’s t-shirt on and a baseball cap, shorts, not very tall, dimples in his small face when he smiled. He went to a Polish Catholic Church. When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven he said, “I’ve been a pretty good person.” He thought he had about a 75% chance of going to Heaven. He listened to the Gospel and the look on his face was a bit like he wasn’t that into it, so I put a bit more energy into it making him laugh. I was trying too hard to keep him engaged with illustrations. He seemed to be a word picture guy. But then I realized what I was doing and silently asked God to work. As I went through the Gospel we stopped and started as he told me about his cars and showed me pictures on his phone, we had a good conversation going. When I asked him how God took away his sins he thought for a bit and said, “Baptism.” I said that was what Augustine said took away his original sin but what about his everyday sins that he’d done, “How does God pay for that? You know because if you do something wrong you wrecked God stuff, if you damage yourself, you belong to him, if you drive slow in traffic you stole time for the guy behind you. So you owe God for that, how does God pay for it?” He couldn’t think of anything so I said it was with Jesus and I explained the Atonement and the Imputed righteousness of Christ, saying the mass was a symbolic illustration of that showing Jesus had died and so he was forgiven (he was remembering everything by then). He said he would want to be forgiven for his sins and so I said that I thought he knew the story but had he committed to trusting in Christ to be forgiven. I said I knew growing up in the Church as a kid it had probably become part of his identity but when you are grown you have to decide if you are going to commit to those things. I asked if he’d been trusting in that he was a good enough person to be forgiven of had he thought that because Jesus had died for him he’d be forgiven. “A little of both,” he replied (I think that is sometimes a way of saying you haven’t been trusting in Christ but you knew the story so it must have played in to your thinking somehow). So I said, “If you thought you wanted to commit to these things there is a prayer you could pray,” and I walked him through the prayer and said, “Is that something you think you still should do?” “I could commit more,” he replied. So I said he could pray silently in his heart and God would hear and he would know he was forgiven. “Yeah, I’ll do it,” he said, and prayed to receive Jesus. I gave him the booklet and 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the side explaining walking by the Spirit and also gave him a Bible Study. He was appreciative and I said I would keep him in my prayers and he thanked me. I headed out.

I came across David on the floor below after walking outside where I bumped into the girl who is living with us until semester’s end, Hope. So I walked her to class in the MAC. Then going outside towards the PE building I felt like I should turn around and cut over to the hospitality building through the MAC. As I cut through the lounge again I found Dan. He looked like he could be Indian or Pakistani. He asked if the survey took place somewhere else and I said I had it with me and he said “Alright lets go.”  He had a full beard and dark straight hair, just over his ears, combed back on top, wore print shorts and a T-shirt held his phone with one ear piece in and toyed with it from time to time. It turned out he went to a Lutheran Church near his house. He wanted to travel. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “Well, I’d say I tried my best in my life to be a generally good person. I try my best not to lie, I don’t steal. I balance my regular life with my religious priorities… that’s it.” He thought he had about an 80 percent chance to get to heaven. He listened to the Gospel and knew Jesus had “sacrificed Himself” for our sins. I explained we don’t go to Heaven because we are good but because Jesus is good and His righteousness is to our credit. He said he would want to be forgiven with God living inside of him so I asked if when he asked for forgiveness he thought God would forgive him because Jesus died for him or had he been thinking he had been basically a good person and was religious and so God would forgive him. “More so the latter,” he replied. So I said if he’d want to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray to ask God to forgive him and live inside him I talked him through it asking if he would like to pray silently and he nodded yes. I waited while he prayed. I told him he could keep the booklet and he said, Alright I’ll keep it.” I gave him a Bible study talking to him about it a bit. I gave him the booklet and 20 Things God Can’t Do also writing his name and the date and “forgiven” on the inside explaining that anything God was asking him to do in the book He would also give him the power to do if he just asked. I told him if he would trust in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. He shook my hand and said, “Thank you.” “God bless you man,” I said. “Alright you too,” he said, happy.

I found Frank sitting in the hallway of the Science building on the first floor. He had a brown suit jacket on and jeans, short sleeved t-shirt blonde hair combed back Clark Kent style. He seemed professorial, but he was not that old. He was a nice guy who had left the Catholic Church he had grown up in at the age of 15 or 16. He said he believed the teaching of Jesus but the Catholic Church seemed too dogmatic and had lost the message. He said he worked on having a positive relationship with God without being tethered to one denomination but missed having community. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “Oh man, I never really thought about that before.” He thought a bit and said, “I’d say I did everything within my power to be the best person… without any expectation of reward.” I went through the Gospel with Him and he seemed to track with everything well, he knew Jesus had died for his sins. He wanted to be forgiven.  So I explained, trying to describe the relationship he seemed to have with the Lord, that everyone had a relationship with God, because He was their Creator, but not everyone was in a relationship with God where He lived inside them having forgiven their sins. I talked about a friendship he might have with a girl compared to dating her. He understood that. So I said that if he wanted to be forgiven trusting in Jesus to be in a relationship with God there was a prayer he could pray. He was a very amicable person and after I talked him through the prayer he said, “That’s something I’d be open to.” So I said he could pray silently if he wanted to do so and he said, “Cool.” And he prayed to receive Jesus. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do too writing his name and the date and “forgiven” and gave him a Bible study. And I explained a life in Christ living By the Spirit’s Power which I also wrote in the book explaining it by illustration. He gave me his e-mail so I could explain some more things and had to go but I gave him a card for the Compass Church as we parted saying the pastor there was good. He said he knew right where it was in Wheaton and walked his dog right past it. I think he’ll visit so that was great.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism if you had a chance today God truly blessed and it was a great day to walk around talking to peeps about Jesus.

In Him,

Bob