Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed walking in the Lord. I had a really good day on campus Ivan, Ethan and Zandrix each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.

Ivan was sitting in the ground floor long on the south side of the BIC that has vending machines and looks out onto the atrium of the building; it’s been nicely landscaped like an upper class back yard, stone walls and trees and such. He was sitting at a table on his phone and said he’d do a survey. He had on hoodie with narrow horizontal stripes of brown and grey, a ball cap turned backwards and brown skinny jeans. He had a thick jaw line beard and a mustache that didn’t meet it, only over his lip. Warm tan face, he looked Latino, slightly broader nose heavy eye brows. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I’ve done enough good than bad”[sic] He thought he had a 50+% chance of going to Heaven, which he thought was a good shot. (Hey if they say there is a 50% chance of rain it rains.) He seemed to have come from a Catholic background and his parents were now going to some kind of evangelical church in Carol Stream. He hadn’t understood the Gospel at all and didn’t seem to know Christ had died to take away his sins. I went thought he Gospel and the imputed righteousness of Christ His death, where He died so we would not have to die in hell and his blood that cleaned us. When I’d finished I asked him if he’d want to be forgiven with Christ living inside or if God was on the outside of his life. There are two circles I use in the little booklet, though not in the way the booklet describes, (the 4 laws also does not mention Hell, Christ’s imputed righteousness, blood or that He is God, merely the son of God, ya gotta add a lot to it but I’ve never gotten around to printing up my own booklet). He said, “I’ve been more this one I think.” pointing at the circle with God outside your life. So I asked would you want to have God live inside and be forgiven. “Yeah,” he replied. So I said there was a prayer he could pray. I walked him through it and asked if it was the desire of his heart. He was hesitant so I said something like, “Something not quite you?” He said, “Yeah.” Since he’d seemed really turned in I asked what it was that kept him from praying figuring I might be able to give him a book or thought that would help. He said something like, “Well, right now I’m not going to Church.” I said this wasn’t really about if he was consistently going to Church but if he wanted to begin with God knowing he was forgiven. I went on to read a line at the end of the booklet talking about the Holy Spirit (best line in the book). I said if God was living inside him He would give him the strength to live the Christian life. Maybe some morning when he did not really feel like going to church He might give him the nudge he needed to get up and go, but to begin he had to trust in Christ. The rest could come along in time, but if he trusted in Him and died he would go to Heaven. And I told him the parable in Matt. 20 where everyone received a denarius even those who had not labored very long living for Christ. “I figure I’ll just be happy to be there,” I said. And he laughed with me and agreed and decided then to pray to receive Jesus. I went through some of the Christian life with Him and he did not have his own Bible so I gave him one showing him the “Where to Turn” section and the messianic passages and Jesus words in red. I put his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing “By the Spirit’s Power” in the front. I said I would keep him in my prayers. I gave him a Bible study and explained a bit and got up to go and he said, “Thank you, appreciate it,’ with a big smile. I said I’d see him in Heaven and since I was old I’d get there first and he could look me up and I’d show him where all the cool places were.

Ethan was sitting in the cafeteria. He was a slightly built guy with a narrow face, kinda looked like “where’s Waldo” without the glasses. Wry smile, perfect teeth. He wore a windbreaker and sweats; he’d been a gymnast and coached now. He wanted to have kids. When I asked him what he say to God if He asked him why he should be let into Heaven he said, “You tell me, you’re the Judge.” When I asked the % he thought his likelihood of going to Heaven was he said, “The questions keep getting harder… %70-30.” I began to go through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died to take away his sins. So I began to tell him the story of the Gospel. In the end he said he’d want to be forgiven with Christ so I asked if when he’d asked for forgiveness for his sins he’d been thinking he was a pretty good person and God would forgive him or had he been sure he’d be forgiven because he knew Jesus had died for him. “It’s hard to size myself up like that,” he replied. So I talked some more with him about growing up with faith and not really thinking about it much and about living “inside out” trusting in the Spirit’s power to live the Christian life. So I said there was a prayer he could pray and after talking him through it I asked if he’d said something like that to God before or if he thought he’d still need to do it. “Yeah,” he decided and prayed to receive Jesus. When he finished he said, “Thank you.” to me. I explained the Christian life to him saying he could begin reading the Bible in John and told him about the fruit of the Spirit and His power giving us all the strength we need to live the Christian life. “I gotta say this was a pretty impressive presentation,” he said as a compliment with a grin. I thanked him and I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do, writing his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and “By the Spirit’s power” in the front. I gave him a Bible study explaining it and got his Mail to send him some stuff got up to go and said, maybe I’d see him around, “Nice to meet ya Bob.” And I headed out.

Zandrix was Filipino and kinda small, he had a round head with a slightly larger flat nose and braces on his teeth a bit of an accent. He wore a ball cap turned backwards. He had grey suede half boots and grey skinny jeans on, a cotton light grey ribbed sweater. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “Cause I believe in You.” He thought he had a 50% chance of going to Heaven. He knew Jesus had died for our sins. But he listened closely to the Gospel and the imputed righteousness of Christ. He wanted to be forgiven for his sins when I finished going through everything he said he’d want to be forgiven so I asked him if he’d been trusting in Christ or had thought he been thinking he was a good person and God would forgive him. He said “Either way,” and I think I had a bit of a language barrier going on but I think he meant “a little of both”. I talked him through the prayer and I suggested that possibly sometime later he might want to say to God something like the prayer.  I suggested if he wasn’t sure what he’d been trusting in he probably wasn’t trusting in it, but that did not resonate with him to help him think it through. I said “Well you said you would say “Cause I believe in You,” so what did you believe but that Jesus was God and had died for you.” But that seemed to make him realize he had not been trusting in Christ, that was not really what he’d meant. I talked him through the Christian life and said that if he’d wanted to say it to God that God was like a pretty girl, He likes to be asked [for forgiveness] and he grinned at that and agreed. And he decided then he wanted to pray then to receive Jesus. When he’d finished I suggested growing up you really don’t think about it, you go to church and it feels like you and he smiled then and said that was true. So I gave him the book Bible Promises for You and put his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and “By the Spirit’s Power” having explained to him more of the Christian life. I gave him a Bible study and got his Email and got up to go and said, “IF I see ya I’ll say hi”. He said with a grin, “You too, see ya around.”

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

In Him,

Bob