Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today with all good things. I had a good day on campus and  Anthony and Tavarus each prayed to receive Jesus today. I still get chronic headaches, muscle tension in my neck that I wake up with, so I think I’ll have to find something to kill the pain for that. The Chiropractor said it is probably stress related.

Tavarus was sitting in the hallway of the BIC, idling away the time, and said he’d do a survey. He had a rough-top afro cut very short on the sides. With one strand pulled down across his forehead with a couple silver beads on it. He wore a hoodie and sweats. He had a warm, wide face with full features and a chin beard he stroked occasionally. Good looking guy. He said he’d do a survey and went to an evangelical church on Rt 59 that a lot of students attend. He was a musician and played several instruments. I asked him what he would say to God if He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He said, “Because I’ve been following His message and His word. I believe in Him.” He was 90% sure he would go to Heaven but qualified it saying, “No one is perfect. We’re all gonna get judged.” I said I agreed and often thought if when the Bible said “He will wipe away every tear from your eyes” it meant we would be crying when we got there for a moment. I began to go through the Gospel with him and asked him what the big thing was that God had done to take away his sins. He struggled to think of something saying, “For me personally?” I said for anyone and said, “What the Bible says He did.” “Well there are a lot of things,” he continued trying to think of one so I stopped him and said something like, “Here I’ll just tell you.” and began to explain what Jesus had done in dying for him, that His blood had cleansed him and that His righteousness was to his credit. I could see the explanations I gave him from the scripture were novel to him. After finishing the explanation I asked if he would want to be forgiven with God living inside him or thought something else. “I’d be forgiven,” he replied. “Well, it seems like you had never put this together before right?” I asked. “Yeah,” he admitted with a big smile. So I explained if he wanted to be forgiven, there was a prayer he could pray. I walked him through it suggesting he could pray it silently so only God could hear,and be forgiven and God would live in Him and give him guidance for life. He shook his head, smiling, and took the booklet asking, “Can I keep this?” I said he could. Then he silently prayed to receive Jesus. He was happy then and I explained the Christian life living “inside out” by the Spirit’s power. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do, writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the inside. He thought that was great. I also wrote “By the Spirit” after explaining anything the book said that seemed conditional, like it was on him to do his part first; God would give him the power to do that too. Anything God wanted him to do, if he could see the future, would be something he would want to do, as it would turn out better than whatever else he wanted to do to the contrary, in the moment. He gave me his email to get a Bible study. I gave him a Bible study on the Deity of Christ too. I stood up to leave and he reached out shaking my hand and said, “Thank you, thank you. Have a good day.” “You too,” I replied and I headed off.

Anthony was sitting in the Mac building by the elevator as the stairs up to the doors. He looked to be a bit older than that average guy, maybe 30 or so. He had some ink on his hands and across his fingers I could see. He wore a short beard, mustache and short brown hair, had on a brown hoodie and baggy jeans, he was a pretty big guy, somehow had kind of the midlevel monk look. He said he only had 10 minutes to talk, so I asked if he’d like the cliff notes version. He was cool with that so getting his name I just asked what he would say to God if he died and was asked why He should let him into Heaven. “Because I’ve surrendered to Him and I believe in Him,” he replied. That would seem like he was in the camp, but after many years of evangelism I know this kind of response does not necessarily mean someone is trusting in Christ as their Savior. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he was engaged, but he did not know what Jesus had done to take away his sins. I could see with him too that what I was telling him he had not heard before. So I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in Jesus or if he thought something else. “Yeah,” he said firmly that he’d want to. I said (as I had 40 minutes earlier to Tavarus), “It seems like you had not really put all this together before.” “No,” he said frankly. So I offered him a prayer to trust in Christ to forgive him talking him through it as well and asked if he’d like to pray silently and he said, “Yeah,” again and prayed to receive Jesus. I knew I did not have much time so I quickly explained living “inside out” and by the spirit’s power and wrote the later in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do along with his name and the date and “forgiven.” I gave him a Bible study and he asked where ours met. I told him and said there was free pizza. “I’m on a special diet but I think I can come next week (it seemed like God had healed him of something). So I hope he does. “Thank you, thanks Bob,” he said as I got up to leave. “”You’re welcome,” I said happily and I headed off to the other side of campus to head to the Chiropractor.

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

In Him,

Bob