Hey Brothers and Sister in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you are feeling the blessing and presence of the Lord. We survived the replacement of our crumbling front stairs, though barely, and feel we can disguise some of the gross misdeeds with landscaping and forgive it. I know, my growth in basic Christianity would be stunning were it at all remarkable.

Sebastian and Celeste prayed to receive Jesus today so that lifted my heart. I was in danger of being like Jonah over his vine, but I repented and prayed for the owner of the company this morning on the phone (about his painful foot and bone spurs, his name is Harold if you’d feel like praying for him he is 81) He previously shared with me his very difficult life. He said he was going to come over and we’d talk more about religion. Seemed making an issue about my concrete might be an obstacle to him hearing the gospel so I mostly let it go, he’s Catholic.

Sebastian was sitting in the PE lounge, about noon. Good looking black guy with a nice complexion looked like he got a lot of sun, nice features, a kind, oval face, nice smile, not real big in stature. He wore a black and white knit zip up the front open cardigan sweater and black straight leg jeans, white shoes and a white t-shirt.  He was playing a game on his phone and was willing to answer some questions. When I asked him what he would say to God if he died and was asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “”Umm I don’t know, ahh…I don’t know that could tell Him one solid reason why.” He thought he had about a 50% chance of going to heaven. He’d been going to a church on Rt. 59 called Calvary until about a year ago.  It’s a good church and I have meet quite a few Christians through the years who went there and also had several students who went there pray with me to receive Christ. I went through the Gospel with him and he’d remembered that Jesus had died for his sins. He had not really put any of it together except that Christ died for sinners and he had not been trusting in it. When I finished explaining everything related to the atonement of Christ and imputed righteousness. He wanted to be forgiven when I asked if he would want to trust in Jesus dying for him so God could live inside him he said, “I would want God inside.” “It seems like you hadn’t really put all this together and nailed it down yet putting your trust in it?” I said. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. So I said there was a prayer he could pray to be forgiven and talked it through with him. I asked him, “It says does this prayer express the desire of your heart so does it? He agreed. I said he could pray it silently so only God could hear, “Wanna do it?” Yeah he replied and prayed to receive Christ. I gave him a Bible Study and the Book 20 Things God Can’t Do explaining living by the Spirit asking for Him to transform us, Inside out. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in it so he could remember. He had a Bible so I said he could begin reading in John if he wanted. He did not use email. “Thanks,” he said. “Yeah sure,” I replied.  He’d said he was athletic. “What do you play here?” “Soccer,” he said. “We got a game at 4 but I have an earlier class.” He was just waiting around. “Well maybe that was God’s providence for you,” I said. He thought about it and I said, “God bless ya brother.” “Have a good one, “ he said.

Celeste was sitting in the upstairs PE lounge a couple hours later. She looked Latina; solid athletic frame had shorts on and a 4 inch recent scar on her knee. She was pretty, broad faced, sharp nose, long brown hair falling off her shoulders, She wore her eye make-up coo brushed points at the corners of her eye. She played soccer.  When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I think I would say it’s up to you, I think it’s up to him to let me in or not.” She thought she had about a 50% chance of going to Heaven. When she told me she went to a Catholic church I said that the last part of the survey was “What she thought about Christianity and I had some verses in this little booklet to show her.” She listened to the Gospel and took it all in; she knew Jesus had died for her sins. But I explained everything to her about the blood of Christ cleansing her from her sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ and how Jesus had paid our debt to God. I asked her if she’d want to be forgiven with God inside her or if she thought something else and she said, “I’d want God inside.” I said something like, “You know you grow up in the church and you really have your parent’s faith and there is nothing about it that bothers you when you go there and it is part of your identity but you don’t think about it much. But then you become a woman and you have to decide for yourself what you will believe.” I said she would have to believe Jesus was God He died for her sins and rose from the dead but also to place her trust in that and asked her if she was trusting. She thought she was because when she damaged her knee and had to have surgery she thought she would like to play soccer again but if she couldn’t because her knee did not recover she would trust God for that too. But then her knee recovered. I said, “That’s actually a great story,” impressed with her faith.  But I am asking something a bit different if you had been trusting in Jesus to take away your sin and make you right with God. She said no she’d really never thought about that. I said, “What God wants most from you is what she would want most someday in a guy she married, “You’d want him to believe you, and you’d want to believe him. And that what God wants most to be in a relationship with Him, He wants you to believe Him and what he has said he did to take away your sin.” I said that if she wanted to have a relationship with God like that there was a prayer she could pray and ask God to forgive her and the Holy Spirit would live inside her. I talked through the prayer and asked her if she wanted to pray it and she said, “Yeah it was nice.” So he took the booklet and took what seemed like a long time and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living the Christian life by the power of the Spirit inside out and that everything God was asking her to do He would give her the power to do. I explained a symbolic view of the mass where she could thank God for dying for her knowing she was forgiven. I gave her the same Bible study and book 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. She liked that and was thankful.  I said maybe I would “see her in Heaven someday, there was a lot of people there but who knows?” She seemed happy and that and I headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob