Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you had joy in Jesus. I had a good day on campus and Jaden and Roben each prayed with me to receive Jesus.

Roben was sitting in the Hallway on a row of chairs in the BIC on the second floor, the hall was pretty empty. I asked him if he wanted to do a student survey for a Bible study group. “I already did that last semester I think, are you with CRU?” “No this is something different. Like you’re walking down the road and ya get hit by a bus so you’re dead and ya stand before God and He asks you, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” “It would be up to Him.” ‘Right it is up to Him but there are things that God wants you to believe for Him to let you into Heaven. So would you want to know what the Bible says it is that gets you into Heaven?” He thought it would saying, “Be nice to know.” I did a survey with him. He had jeans on and a knit sweater, was from the Philippines and had gone to church there when he was a kid. He wore his hair in bangs, wore rectangular rim glasses and had a warm wide face. Gentle kind voice, he wanted to be a grade school teacher. He was really engaged as I went through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died to take away sin but he hadn’t put His death and resurrection together before. When I explained how he was cleansed by the blood of Christ he responded with an “Oh.” of realization. He was really receptive and grateful to know everything concerning salvation, and in the end I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven or thought something else showing him the circles depicted in the booklet. “I would be that one with God inside,” he replied pointing to the circle on the right. I asked if he believed Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead and he said he did. So I explained there was a prayer he could pray to be forgiven and tell God he wanted to know Him. He was enthusiastic to find that out and listened to the explanation of the prayer and when I said he could pray it silently if he wanted to he said, “Yeah,” enthusiastically. He took the booklet from me then and prayed to receive Christ. I explained then living inside out by the Spirit’s power” as I always do if someone does not have to immediately run to a class. I wrote “Ask” and “By the Spirit’s power in the front of 20 Things God Can’t Do along with his name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. I explained everything God was asking him to do He would give him the power to do if he would ask for it by the Spirit. I explained some other things to him with some word pictures and gave him a Bible Study and got his e-mail to send him a follow up with the verses I quoted to him not written in the booklet. “This is 100% then,” I said pointing to the number. “If you are trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be your righteousness. How righteousness is Jesus? 100% righteous. What’s His righteousness worth? An infinite amount.” He liked hearing that.  “Nice to have met you,” I said shaking his hand. “You too,” he said cheerfully. “God bless you.” “You too,” he said again and I headed out happy.

Late in the day of work I got over to the PE building where I hadn’t been for a couple days. I went through the Gospel with a professing Christian on the football team Kelly. He just talked about all the religious works he had done to get into Heaven but he let me go through the Gospel with Him and then in the end insisted he’d been trusting in Jesus. So I hope it redirected him. Big bearded dude wanted to pay in the NFL his hair pulled straight up over his head into a mass of curly afro about 4 cups of hair. Good guy.

As I came down the stairs I saw some guys hanging out against the counter just to the side of the staircase. Jaden had a rough afro shorter on the sides and high over his head, a bit of facial hair on his chin and lip. He had a wide nose and his chin was set back a bit, not a bad looking kid and he described himself as handsome when I’d asked for 3 words to describe himself, wore sweats and athletic shoes. He had a couple of football players on either side so I walked up to them all and said, “Hey anybody wanna do a student survey what you think about God and stuff?” “I’ll do it,” Jaden said. I got his name and asked him something he wanted to do before he died. “Win the Super Bowl,” he replied. His friends laughed, as the one on his left had done when he’d described himself as handsome. He was a really sincere guy though, a good person with good intentions. I asked him what he would say to God if he died to get into Heaven and he said, “I been kind and generous to people all my life. I ain’t never had nothing so I gave back.” He thought he had about a “50-60%” chance of going to Heaven. He said he had stopped going to church early in his teen years, something seemed to have stopped the habit. As I went through the Gospel he knew Jesus had died for his sins. I explained how His blood had also cleansed him and His righteousness was to his credit like extra credit in a class. As I finished I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus and he said he would. I asked him too if he believed Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead. He shook his head and said, “Yeah.” I showed him the prayer where he could trust in it too and just a few moments before I finished 3 of the foot ballplayers chatting around us suddenly up and walked away. I was glad to see that hoping he would be willing to pray and he did. We talked some more about living the Christian life “Inside out”. He did not want a book. His grades had not been good enough to play football I think so I doubt he was much of a reader.  Sometimes I think they could have a whole extra set of professional sports if the public schools actually gave more guys the skies to get through college. He said he knew an app he could get or had on his phone to read the Bible so I’ll pray he will. I explained if he would trust in the righteousness of Jesus to be his it was 100% sure he would go to Heaven. I told him I would be praying for him and said, “You want me to pray you get into the NFL?” “Yeah” he replied with some enthusiasm. “You got hops? He was not that tall only my height 6 foot or so, “Can you dunk a ball.” (Different sport I know but I wanted to ask how high he could jump and most athletes play around a bit with basket ball) “Yeah I can.” “Alright you got hops then man what do you play, he said he was a receiver.  I said, “Who knows what God has but I’ll pray that.” He thanked me and said he appreciated it and I headed out after getting him to take a Bible study to read.

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

In Him,

Bob