Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you felt the nearness of God. Thanks so very much if you had a chance to pray. God blessed. Maya, Paul, Alec and Nashoana (na show na) all prayed with me to receive Christ today.

Several peeps turned me down (kindly enough, the students are pretty nice at COD) and I finally went through the Gospel with a Christian (Eliza), so that got the rust off a bit. It also helped push out the caffeine from aspirin I had taken for the headache I woke up with, to work it off.

Maya was sitting in the hall down from the dental office at school. She is Latina and had on sandals, a yellow drop-neck blouse with straight leg jeans.  She had a cute wide face, nice smile, tan face, was a sweet person. She went to a Catholic church. When I asked her what she would say to God if asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” she said, “I’d say that I’m… I think I’ve lived my life to the point where I’ve helped people. I wanted to help people too. [I think] I deserve to be in, but it’s all right [if He says no] because I know some people deserve to be in more than I do.” I said a lot of people deserve to be in more than me. She thought she had about an 80% chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with her and the imputed righteousness of Christ and explained we did not go to heaven because of what we had done for God, but because of what we have asked Him to do for us by His blood. She had believed, I think, that Christ had died to take away sin, so I asked her if she was trusting in what Jesus had done for her on the Cross or if she was hoping she’d be good enough. “I think I was hoping,” she replied meekly. I explained she could receive God’s forgiveness trusting in Christ, and the Holy Spirit would live inside her and give her the strength to do anything God was asking her to do. I walked her through the prayer, asking her if she’d like to pray silently and then she silently prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to her and walking by the Spirit. I gave her a bible study and 20 Things God Can’t Do, writing her name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. I explained the content and wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” on the title page.  I explained a symbolic view of the mass, telling her that when it came in the service, it was reminding her Jesus had died for her so she knew she was forgiven and she could just tell God “Thank you.” I told her I would be praying for her and she was grateful.  I got her email to send her a bible study and invited her to ours. As I got up to go she said, “Thank you, it was nice to meet you Bob.” “It was nice to meet you too,” I replied. “I don’t know if I will see you again, but I’ll see ya in Heaven.”

Paul was sitting at a table on the other side of a wall up against the Science building lounge by the vending machines. He had a flower-print Cub hat on turned backward and a Hawaiian shirt (keeping with the theme). He had a beard, kind face, was a nice guy. I asked if he wanted to do a student survey for our Bible study group and he said he went to Church regularly. It was a church I have known of from the past. I told him to tell some peeps hi. When I asked him why God should let him into Heaven, he said, “It’s not my choice to make, it’s my choices that I’ve made.” “So it’s what you have done in life?” I asked. “What I’ve done,” he agreed. “I’ve forgiven myself through Jesus. It’s their decision [the Trinity maybe or the peeps up there?] when I get there for the final test.” He went on to say the test was that there would be a movie of his life and he would have to justify all his decisions. I went through the Gospel with Paul, explaining God had to take away his sin so He could live inside him with His Spirit and asked him how God took away his sin. He told me he had an aunt who was sitting close to God and telling him what to do. It seemed he was talking about the source of his conscience. “Like Karma,” he said. So basically at this point he was wrong about everything he had said. I said the Bible said there was a great cloud of witnesses who might be seeing us but that “this is what has to happen theologically to take away your sins.” I then went through the Gospel, the Cross, the blood of Christ and the righteousness of God imputed to him. He began to say he thought he had started out there, with the Gospel and had kind of gotten away from it. I thought he’d had a kind of “Come to Jesus” emotional moment (from how he described it) and possibly later heard some of the Gospel which he was recollecting. I pointed out that none of his responses to my questions were right, and that he had not, based on them, been trusting in what Christ had done for him to be forgiven. I said, “Say there was some kind of thing at school here and they got Rizzo to come speak (the Cubs First baseman). So we get to be friends and we go and were the first ones in line.” I went on to say that Rizzo offered us spare Skybox seats he had for a game, asking if we want them. We say for sure and tell him our names and he says they’ll be waiting for us at the gate. We show up and give our names and the gate woman says, “Who left them for you? I might have 15 Paul and Bob tickets in here.” “Oh yeah” we say and say “it was Rizzo.” Then you tell her you want to show Rizzo you appreciate it and want to pay something for the tickets. She says that will get her fired, but if you wanna show Rizzo you appreciate the Sky Box tickets, behave well in the sky box. Don’t curse at the umpires or spit on the crowd or something. So I explained that without giving Rizzo’s name, we don’t get the ticket to get in. We can’t pay for the ticket, but we can show our gratitude by our behavior. He saw the metaphor. I also taught him the Matt. 22 parable where the guy in the wrong garment gets thrown into Hell. I explained that the “Wedding Garment” is the righteousness of Christ, and from everything he had said he planned to show up in his own clothes of good works and that is exactly what kept that guy out of Heaven. He realized he had not understood things right and, after I walked him through the prayer, decided to pray to receive Jesus and start over somewhat. He did and I gave him the book 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote his name, the date and “Forgiven” in the front and “By the Spirit’s power.” I explained then that if he was trusting in Christ’s work and His righteousness, the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. He said he would work on remembering that, and I said “No, ask God to help you to remember it. Everything is by the Spirit’s power.” I gave him a bible study and wrote “Grace” on the top explaining that. I know in the end Paul got it, so I’ll pray knowledge will take root. He thought he might be able to make it to the Bible Study and I hope he comes. I told him I would keep him in my prayers.

Heading out over the bridge I saw Alec, who looked really familiar as I walked by the doors below which led into the SRC right by the bookstore. He had a roman nose from the profile and stick straight light brown hair, wearing jeans and a t-shit, smaller guy. I asked if we’d talked before and he said he had a twin brother [Chris] and people always confused them. He was up for answering some questions though. I sat down and we talked in chairs against the window. I asked him what he would say to God if he died to get into Heaven and he said, “Let’s see… I’ve been faithful this whole time. I’ve kept my faith. I’ve lived a good life. I don’t know what else I’d say.” He thought he had about an 80-90% chance of going to Heaven “at least.” When I explained God had to take away his sins to live inside him, I asked what God had done to take away his sins. He said something like, “He comes inside you.” More or less repeating the question back as a description. So I went through the Gospel with him and it seemed novel. But he accepted everything and wanted to be forgiven for his sins, agreeing he had not understood it all before. So I walked him through the prayer and he prayed to receive Jesus. So that was great. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote his name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. Alec goes to a good church I know of, so I’ll pray he grows there. I gave him a bible study and got his email to send him another one and a story and some other stuff. I got up to leave and turned to him and he said, “Thank you.” And I said he was welcome and looped round the rest of the BIC for about 45 minutes, finding no one else to talk to.

I headed back towards where I’d parked by the science building and had kind of a picture in my head to go down stairs and loop around half the building and out. I talked to one Christian who lacked assurance and seemed works-oriented (Saved by faith, stay saved by works kind of thing.) But he had to run to class, so I left him with some quick thoughts and will hope to see him again. Nashoana was sitting just a couple doors down and I walked past her, feeling kind of tanked and planning on going home. But I felt prompted to go ask her to talk, so I told God I would ask but when she turned me down I was done for the day. But she was up for talking. She is African American, from Liberia at one time I think, and her long hair was in kind of loose bending curls. She had kind of a frank, pretty face, with nice features. She wore a t-shirt and jeans. It turned out she came from a religious family. Later, when I offered her a Bible, she said she had one. It was the only one that her family had and it was in her room. I asked if she wanted her own, but she said no, she was the only one who read it. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Oh, ummm… I did my best in life. The best I could, given the circumstances.” She said she thought she had about a 60% chance of going to Heaven. “I feel like it should be higher though,” she added. I began to go through the Gospel with her and when I asked her how God took away her sins, she guessed saying, “I was born.” “Well you have to be born-again” I replied.” “I died?” she guessed again, not understanding me. She really took to the Gospel of what Christ had done to save her though, as I explained God could make good things out of whatever she had done or had happened to her. I explained that God’s not like a bad boyfriend, where, when you say you are sorry and he says, “Well, we’ll see how you do.” God says you are forgiven and He knows the future and has a good plan. I asked if she wanted to be forgiven or if she thought something else, and she pointed with the end of her pen to the circle with God living inside her. So I asked, “Do you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead?” “Yes.” she said. “Would you want to place your trust in that to be forgiven?” I asked.  “Yeah. Definitely,” she said with conviction. So I walked her through the prayer and she prayed with me to receive Jesus. I gave her the book Bible Promises for You and showed her some verses and how she might pray them. Putting a star by Eph. 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” and showing her that God had good works for her to do, He had prepared knowing the future, and she could pray that He would lead her to them. I explained the other religious texts that did not predict the future. I gave her a bible study and explained it some and she of course kept the booklet. She thought she might be able to come to Bible Study too, so I hope she will. “Well God bless you Nashoana,” I said, giving her a fist bump. “God bless you too,” she replied and I said He had, meeting her, as I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. It was a great way to begin the year.

In Him,

Bob