Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you day was blessed today and it’s getting warmer on the weekend over by you as it is promised here. I had a good day on campus and Stephanie and Brian each prayed with me to receive Jesus. I had a good conversation with Gilda too who had doubts but gratefully took the student edition of  The Case for Christ and “100 Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus”  [Rose Publication]. Also Victor a US Marine who seemed close heard the Gospel.

Stephanie was sitting in one of the bigger lounges on the 1st floor of the BIC. She had a short haircut, kinda shaggy on either side of her ear; stick straight, near black hair. She looked Native American in features and coloring. She had a red hoodie on with the words pony writing a dozen times on a ribbon up her sleeves and black pants. She was drinking a large coffee and as I talked she placed her chin on the cup lid sitting on the arm table between us and listened. When I asked her what she would say if God asked her why He should let her into Heaven she thought for a while said, “You tell me why you shouldn’t let me in and I’ll give you a counter argument.” She went to Church every Sunday and thought she had about a 50% chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel with her and she listened carefully and she knew Jesus died to take away her sins but she had not trusted in the Gospel. She was interested in everything I said though, that His blood cleansed her and His righteousness was to her credit. And that she did not get to Heaven by being good enough but by trusting in the work and person of Christ. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven or thought something else and she thought for a long while and I waited and she finally said, “I don’t want a life without Jesus.” So I asked her if she wanted to place her trust in Him there was a prayer she could pray and I explained it. Then I said something like: You know you grow up in the Church and never quite think about it but this would be a way as an adult to tell God you are trusting in what Jesus has done to be forgiven. I asked if she’d like to pray it silently and she just said, “Sure.” Then she silently prayed to receive Christ. I talked to her then about living “inside out” I wrote “By the Spirit’s power” and her name, the date and “forgiven “in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do and she thanked me. I gave her a bible study and also explained the symbolism of the mass commemorating that Jesus had died for her and so she was forgiven and that when she took it she could just say “thank you.” I told her if she would trust in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. She had to run to class then but she reached out to shake my hand and smiled and said, “Thank you. Nice meeting you.” “Nice meeting you too, you’re welcome.” And she headed out of the lounge.

Brian had dark hair and looked ethnically from the country of India. He had no accent and seemed American. He had a beard/mustache, thin on his cheeks and heavy on his chin and jaw line. He was a good looking guy, bigger than me, wore Clark Kent glasses, black sweats and a t-shirt. He was sitting in the big lounge where we have Bible Study at a table waiting for his ride to call him. We talked a long time as I walked him through the philosophical ideas he had been encountering in his philosophy class. We talked about how they compared to Christian thought. He talked about Aristotle and Descartes and liked Descartes’ idea that God’s Existence is derived immediately from the clear and distinct idea of a supremely perfect being. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “Oh wow, the soul bit…” He thought some and then said, “I would say to Him I thought I’ve done my best to help others… Lived the best life that I could.” He thought he had a 50/50 shot at going to Heaven. I explained to him that the problem of our getting into Heaven was that Heaven was not just a place it was a presence. So our real problem was ontological (the study of being). Our being does not match God’s being so we have to be perfected to be in God’s presence or we’d be like a paper bag trying to hold fire. We had to be changed, and only Christianity taught the soul could be transformed in this life. Other religions might teach that a part of you goes on after but the soul of humans as a part of us that is changed by God’s presence in us and transformed for the better is exclusively Christian. I explained some of the differences in the different denominational ideas in Christianity, his questions were about Catholicism and I explained sacramentalism to him suggesting that if this were true (though the Bible did not expressly say the sacraments contributed to the wellbeing or growth of the soul) this effect would still be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. So then not by the sacraments being turned into a charm of some kind by being spoken over, and this charm then affecting you. We talked more about the mass in this light. That the Blood of Jesus that now cleanses us from all sin (1John 1:7 Hebrew 9:22) is now a power in the world. Because God lives in us and cannot be one with sin, if the Mass were required to cleanse us from sin God’s presence would have to leave us between our times of taking the mass  once we sin–until we could be cleansed again by another sacramental experience (or do an act of prescribed confession and penance). Sacraments would only have power if the Holy Spirit decided to recognize and use them and would be insufficient to keep us one with God as we cannot do them every moment. This all made sense to Him. After I went through the Gospel (and I had to hurry at the end as his friend who it turned out had been waiting called him), he said he wanted to be forgiven. He hesitated to pray in a rush for just a moment and then decided saying, “I have to go to… yeah sure.” I quickly gave him a Bible study on the Deity of Christ and wrote “By the Spirit’s power” his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do. Then he got up grabbing his jacket and said, “Awesome sir, thank you,” and shook my hand. I said he was welcome and he ran off.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today had a chance. God was guiding me and blessed the work.

In Him,

Bob