Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I had a great day today sharing the gospel with students Tuesday. Sarah committed to Christ by faith and Dandre prayed to receive Jesus trusting in Him and not his good works and effort to make him right with God. Two other students were close to the kingdom too.

Sarah is in the Newman Society which is a Catholic group and usually when someone tells me that in conversation I let it go in the realization they will be implacable. If you are a doctrinaire Romanist you are likely in my experience to reject the Bible concerning your justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ. The words Justification and Imputation rarely come out of my pie hole in going through the gospel but that is what I have taught them by the end of it. Sarah was not doctrinaire however and when I said, “Well, ya wanna do a survey anyway?” She said, “Ok.” She thought she would go to heaven because she had kept the commandments, which sadly is impossible. After I went through the gospel she said she would like to be forgiven. She hadn’t ever thought about her sins being forgiven by Jesus work on the Cross and I when I asked her if she had ever asked God to forgive her sins based on what Jesus had done for her she thought hardly a moment and said no. I explained the priests could not forgive her sin but was only representing God to her. They could offer forgiveness because of what Jesus had done on the cross to make it possible for God to forgive her. I offered her the prayer and she said it was her heart but she had to run to class so I said, “Do you believe that Jesus death on the cross is what makes you right with God?” She said, “Yes.” She didn’t want a book but I offered her a Bible study and she took it and the booklet with the prayer. Something seemed to have changed in her and even toward me. She said, “I just wanted to warn you there are Jews and Muslims here at School.” Suggesting I think that they would not have liked what I had to say. But I replied, “I know I have talked to them. They never get upset with me. But it they did I would just apologize and move on.” She then explained she had, “Worked for a Jewish owned company and the owners got upset with you if you even said Merry Christmas.” “Wow.” I replied “I never met a Jewish person who cared about that.” So I am hopeful she truly believed, but I will be praying for her.

I had a great conversation at the end of the day with Dandre, big African American guy. He went to Church and when I asked him if God asked him why he should be let into heaven he said, “Believe in your heart Jesus is Lord and confess with your mouth, that’s the only answer right?” I said it was but after I went through the gospel and questioned him more it became obvious that he had been trusting in his own goodness to get him into heaven, and had never asked God to forgive him because of what Jesus had done for him. He was great to talk to and liked all my analogies, so hey it’s always fun when someone like the way you say it. I explained he needed to trust in Jesus and counting on what He had done for Him on the cross when he asked for forgiveness from God and he decided to pray to receive Christ. He asked me some good questions about how to live the Christian life. I told him some things to pray about doubt and things Satan would bring to mind, “Just pray, ‘Father, take the thoughts of Satan out of my heart,’ I pray that all the time.” He asked how to motivate himself to read the Bible. I said, “Do you read the Sports page?” He did. “Don’t let yourself read it until you have read the Bible that day, it will remind you.” I explained to him that the Christian life was not about trying harder but asking God for His Spirit to give you the strength to live as you would want to, pleasing God. I got his e-mail too to send him a story. So that was a good last conversation of the day.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and yesterday if you got the chance, God blessed. I will be out again sharing the faith Thursday.

Blessings in Him,
Bob