Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope Friday was blessed for you and you sensed the leading of the Lord’s love. I had a slow day on campus and only found 2 people that I did not know, to go through the Gospel with but each of them prayed with me to receive Jesus. A girl Laila who attended a Methodist church and a corner-back on the football team Torre who was from St. Louis each came to Christ yesterday. This got pretty long but if you are up for their storied here they are.

Laila was sitting waiting for her ride in the corner of the BIC building by the doors closest to the MAC arts building where I had just come from cutting through the sunshine. She was wearing a black ball cap with a J on the front, her brown shoulder-length, fly-away hair pouring out from underneath. She had on a long sleeve, aqua blue, t-shirt and black sweats. Her face lit up with a bright smile when she laughed and she wore round glasses with brown frames (large, sort of Harry Potter like). When I asked if she’d like to do a student survey on God and stuff she said she only had 5 minutes so I said, “Well you wanna just answer a short version?” She said OK. So I asked her what she would say to God if she died and God asked her why He should let her into Heaven. “Honestly I’d probably say you shouldn’t. I don’t deserve that.” So I asked what was the likelihood she would get into Heaven and she said 20%.  I said, as I have to hundreds of students this year, “Well Christianity is like a blood transfusion, I have a+ blood so if you have B- blood and you give me a blood transfusion I would clot up and die. So God wants to transfuse His life into you, to live inside you with His Holy Spirit, but first He has to make you His type. But we all have sin in us. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. So sin kills ya and God give you life so God takes away your sins so He can live inside you.” I took out the booklet then and turned to the place with some verses on Sin to scribble in it as I talked. She seemed to be tracking with that so I said, “What’s the big thing Jesus does to take away you sin?” She knew Jesus had died to take away our sins and said something like, “He was crucified.” “Right,” I replied. “This is how it works.” I explained she had to live a perfect life from what Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect.” She could not do that so Jesus lived a perfect life for her. I explained how Jesus had died so she did not have to die in Hell and when He poured out His blood he poured out His life on the world and His Blood becomes a life force that makes life, all the places we’ve made death. There’s death inside us from our sin and the Bible says, ‘The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, it turns death into life.’ So now you are alive inside And God can live inside you, it’s like you’re the Energizer Bunny and God is the Batteries, if He lives inside you, you keep going and going and when you die it’s like you don’t die because God’s inside.” That made her smile. I explained then that the perfect life Jesus lived was too her credit. I went on until I had told her she needed to receive Christ by faith and asked her if she would want to be forgiven. She said she would. So I said I know you knew the story but when you sinned were you hoping you were good enough and would try not to do it again and God would forgive you or did you think, “I know I’ll be forgiven because Jesus died for me?” She said she had just hoped she was good enough. So I walked her through the prayer and asked if it was the desire of her heart. “I’d like it to be,” she replied. Then I explained living inside out asking God for His strength to do everything and that God would give her the power to do anything He was asking her to do. So I explained the prayer again and asked her if she would like to pray it silently and she said, “Yeah.” Then she prayed to receive Christ and she was happy. That was great. I Gave her a Bible Study and the book 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” on the inside. Saying she could remember this was the day she had been forgiven. I also wrote “By the Spirit’s power” illustrating again that she only needed to ask for God’s power and strength, having told her about the fruit of the Spirit. Her ride had been waiting a bit by then so as she got up to go I gave her the Rose publication “100 Prophecies fulfilled by Jesus” told her that now the likelihood she would go to Heaven trusting as she was in Christ’s righteousness was 100% and encouraged her to email me. “Thank you so much.” She said. “You’re welcome,” I said cheerfully. So hey 7 minutes can change your life.

Torre was sitting in the PE lounge by himself at a table just chilling waiting for a ride. He had an inch high rough afro and a bit of a mustache and chin beard. Good looking kid. He said he went to St. John Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis and he kind of seemed superficially like a Baptist. His plaid shirt with small collar was buttoned up to the top, had jeans on and a black backpack separated us when I sat at the table. He seemed really conservative and reserved. Sometimes the Black students get really serious on me, which is better than the opposite effect. He’d come up here to play football saying it was the only community college in Illinois with a team. He had thin lean build of a defensive corner or a receiver. I asked him what he would say to God get into Heaven and he said, “’Cause I believe that I have learned why He put me on the earth, the reason I was there, like what was my purpose.” I asked him what that was and he said, “To help people and teach people what I know.” So I asked what he knew. “Just like many things how to help people and help people have a better life and why you are here on Earth.” He was 100% sure he would go to Heaven. Not hearing the Gospel in there anywhere I was reasonably certain he was not trusting in the work of Christ on the Cross to save him. I went into the Gospel and there did not seem to be any recognition of the verses as I began so I asked him what the big thing that God had done to take away his sins. He didn’t follow me asking a clarifying question and I said, “Well in History what was it that God did to pay for your sins?” He still wasn’t getting the question so I tried, “What did he do for you personally that took away your sins?” thinking maybe I should be saying “Jesus” and not “God”. But then he responded, “Being at gun point and Him reaching out to that person not to make that decision made a big impact on me. Being closer to death He opened my eyes up more.” He later said he had kind of talked the guy out of it a bit saying he was going to get out of the city and make something of his life. It seemed like someone with a gun, possibly in a gang, had thought Torre was following him when he’d circled around to get into the back of a commercial building, the front door being locked for some reason. “Well, I can see how that would have an impact on you. So you are kind of saying that made you feel closer to God.” He agreed. So I said, “Yeah that’s not what I am talking about,” and I went on to explain the death of Christ to pay for his sins His blood to cleanse him and His righteousness imputed to him. He tracked with me through that so I asked if he would want to be forgiven with God living inside him. “I believe God lives inside me.” He replied. At this point I was completely certain God had not been living inside him since he seemed to know nothing of the Gospel and was not trusting in Christ to save him. So I said that God had to take away his sins by faith in the work of Christ and that it was true that God was with Him as He is with everyone as their creator that this was taking the next step with God where he would be forgiven for his sins and live inside him. It took a bit more explaining and I explained the prayer to him and offered to him asking if it was the desire of his heart. It was. I said that he could pray it silently like I wasn’t even there. “I like to pray personally,” he said. The table was up against the wall of the Gym so I offered to go for a walk over to the other side of the lounge, which is a good 40 feet long, to give him privacy and he agreed. I walked off past the staircase and around it and he took quite a while to pray. I idled away by the vending machines until when I glanced over he had looked up and had finished and I approached him and said, “Amen?” and he acknowledged he prayed.   I showed him living the Christian life by the Spirit’s power. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do. Writing “By the Spirit’s power” and “forgiven” and the date in the front and explaining asking for God’s help in everything and that if he trusted in Christ’s righteousness, as Paul did by Faith in the Bible, the likelihood he would go to Heaven was in fact 100%. His ride was leaving but he said he’d get a ride with another guy and we talked some more. His Grandmother had given him his Bible, his parents were not together but his dad was in the picture. I gave him the book Bible Promises for You to give to his mom. He did not know if he’d come back next fall due to money. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked finally. “No thanks I think you did a lot for me,” he replied. I said I would keep him in my prayers and got his Email to send him stuff and headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob