Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was not too frozen. We are bracing for a projected minus 18 and minus 19 for Wednesday and Thursday highs. I’m just trying to make my friends out west happy as they read this. I had a good day on campus and though there are not as many students around campus on Friday, Charley and Leidy each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.

Charley was sitting in the PE Lounge by himself looking at his laptop and was willing to do a survey before class. He had stick-straight brown hair and fair skin, slight build. He said he wanted to see all the MLB parks. There are 32 and he has been to 12. He had on a t-shirt and a hooded jacket. When I asked him what he would say to God if He asked why He should let him into Heaven he said, “I feel like I’ve treated other people like they would like to be treated, I’m a pretty honest person.” He thought he had about a 75% chance of going to Heaven. He went to a Catholic church and it was hard to tell if he had much familiarity with the Gospel, but he listened to it straight through without objection, tracking with me. At the end I asked him if he would want to be forgiven for his sins with God inside or if he thought something else. “God inside,” he said looking me in the eye. So I said, “Well, it seems like you hadn’t really put all this together before right?” He agreed he hadn’t and I said if he’d like to place his trust in what Jesus had done for him to be forgiven, there was a prayer he could pray silently and God would hear. “What do you think? You wanna do it?” I asked. He nodded yes and took the booklet and prayed to receive Christ. Then he closed the booklet and put it in his pack as he had to run to class right then. But I had a chance to give him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote “By the Spirit’s power” in the front and also gave him a Bible, writing his name, the date and “forgiven” in the front,. “Perfect,” he said. I said I would keep him in my prayers. He got up to leave and he thanked me and I told him, “God bless ya baby.” “You too. Have a good day,” he said smiling, and he ran off to class.

Leidy was sitting up on the third floor. She wore a gold knit shirt and black leggings. English was her second language and her syntax got shifted into Spanish word order sometimes. She had a cute round face and her brown hair was pulled back behind her head. She was short and average build, really sweet kid. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “Wow, I don’t know. I have [done] lots of sin like everybody. But I tried to do my best every day. Maybe He’ll only see that.” She thought she had a 50% chance of going to Heaven but really wanted to share her faith. But she said she struggled with doing what she wanted to do to be a good Christian. She hadn’t much time before class and I tried to tell her the Gospel as quickly as I could, and she believed Jesus had died for her. She stopped me as I talked about what Jesus had done and said something like, “Yes but you have to try to do things.” I agreed that was true, but explained that we do things to please God by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us. I said that God could only live in her and give her that strength if she was trusting in Jesus alone to forgive her and not trying to earn it. And I read what she had said when I asked her why she would get into Heaven. She agreed that she tried and repeatedly failed to regularly do things like read her Bible. I wrote Matthew 22 and told her about the parable there.  She asked me who the king was and I said the King was God and we had to put on his righteousness to enter Heaven, not our own, like the wedding garment.

I explained Christ had earned righteousness that was given to us by perfectly fulfilling the law. Even the Apostle Paul, who was beaten and shipwrecked and did many wonderful things, did not say he had earned his own righteousness but was trusting in the righteousness of God, which he gained through faith in Jesus. She realized as the Lord moved in her that was true. She began to see and wanted to be forgiven with God living inside her. As I went through the prayer with her she began to read it aloud with me and at the end she said, “Amen.” “It’s amazing. It’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. She was so grateful and excited and said she thought God had sent me to explain this to her. I agreed that was true. “I just want to thank you. I needed this so much. This is wonderful what you are doing talking to people.” I gave her 20 Things God Can’t Do writing her name and the date and “forgiven” and “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front, explaining that Jesus told us to become as a child to be dependent on Him and ask for his help in anything and everything. I had made her 10 minutes late for class, but she said this was more important to her than her class. I invited her to the Bible study and told her to email me. She left happy saying, “Maybe I will see you somewhere.” “Anytime just let me know,” I said, having given her my phone number and email.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God truly blessed. I also got a good seed planted with Jen who took the student edition of The Case for Christ.

In Him,

Bob