Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your having a great day in the Spirit and are enjoying the weekend. I had a good day on campus Friday and Ray and Kevin prayed to receive Christ.

Ray was sitting in a row of chairs outside the cafeteria on a lunch break from his school job but said he had a few minutes. He had wavy brown hair swept up and onto his head and a few days growth of spotty beard. Looked a bit like Frankie Avalon. He attended a Catholic church, had a blue hoodie on and blue jeans, kind of slight in build shorter than me, real friendly. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said “Because I tried my best not to bring any hurt to the world or bring any pain to others. But I didn’t really spread any love or kindness—didn’t do the opposite either.” He said he thought his chance of going to heaven was between 50-85%. He felt like he had a personal connection with God on his own. He would reach out to Him if, “I was in trouble or get something I don’t think I deserve.” I began to explain the Gospel to him and after thinking a bit he remembered Jesus had died for his sins. He took it all in as I explained, “You don’t go to Heaven because you are good but because you are connected to Jesus.” God wanted to adopt us and give us the blessings of His family, the sacrifice for our sins, the blood that cleansed us and the righteousness of God, (Christ earned to be our clothing). I explained he needed to believe this by faith saying, “When you think about a girl you might marry one day what do you want most from her and she from you? You want her to believe in you and you in her.” “Trust, loyalty” he said. “Right,” I agreed. And God wants this from you too so you can be in a relationship with him. In the end I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus or thought something else explaining that Buddhism wasn’t about seeking for God but just trying to escape the illusion of the physical world Buddha thought was unreal. Islam had a different god.  “Islam has a different God?” he asked. “I thought they were the same?” I explained the Islamic god was not a father as he did not have a son; he did not live inside you and was not ultimately bounded by any essential thing, not justice so there was no need for a payment for your sins or even reason. I explained the reason the Islamic world did not create a scientific method like the west was because early Christian scientists thought you could think God’s thoughts after Him as He was reasonable and His creation would be marked by reason and order. Islam did not think this of their god. “Oh, he replied I’d thought they were the same.” I asked him if he would want to be forgiven then trusting in Jesus. “Yes,” he replied. I walked him through the prayer he could pray and asked if it was the desire of his heart. “Yes,” he replied simply. So I said he could pray it silently like I wasn’t there. Would he want to and he said, ”Oh. Yeah.” And he prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to him then living Inside Out and by the Spirit’s power. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote Just Ask and By the Spirit’s Power in the front along with his name and the date and “forgiven’. I gave him a Bible Study on the deity of Christ telling him that in trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. I got up to go and explained the Mass saying, “The wafer is symbolic of His Body and the wine symbolic of his blood it reminds you Jesus has died for you and so you are forgiven so when you take it you can just say, ‘thank you’.” “Thank you,” he replied that’s helpful.” He was very grateful to learn about faith in Christ, he was a kind guy and I encouraged him to email me with any questions he might have. “You’re welcome,” I said when he thanked me and headed off.

I found Kevin sitting upstairs in the PE lounge alone at a table (there was no one else up there or anywhere else by that time and I figured he’d be the last person I talked to). He said he’d do a survey. He was a Latino guy as well a bit darker in complexion he wore rectangular framed glasses and had the Clark Kent hair cut, short on the sides and swept back. He had on a plaid shirt with a grey hoodie attached to the collar. Warm smile, rectangular face, good looking’ guy with a slight build. He said he wanted to buy a house for his family. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I’ve always tried to do good and stay positive.” He thought he had a 60% chance of going to heaven said he’d gone through RES (this is Catholic Religious Education Resources for young people) when he was younger. He remembered Christ had died for his sins. I went through the Gospel with him and he took it all in and as I explained how the Blood of Christ cleansed him so God could live inside him he said, “Ok, so that’s how you get into Heaven.” “Right,” I replied and explained the righteousness of God imputed to him by the perfect life of Christ. I said he needed to trust in this by faith and that his good stuff didn’t fix his bad stuff. “Like say you had a girl friend for about 3 weeks. You thought she was pretty cool but then you found out she was cheating on you and stealing your stuff, so you cut her loose. Then she comes around in about a week and she’s like, ‘Kevin I know I did you wrong, I was even stealing your stuff and selling it for drugs, but I just want you to know I’m gonna be nice to my next 3 boyfriends.’ You’d be like that doesn’t help me at all.” He laughed and agreed imagining the conversation. “‘Cause you can’t do good things over there to fix your bad things here. But that’s how a lot of people think, they’d be like I’ve done a lot of bad stuff, but I’ve done a lot of good stuff too, my good stuff is gonna fix my bad stuff with God.’ But your bad stuff’s still out there kicking people around and there’s not much you can do about it. But God can turn your bad stuff into good stuff. It says in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good, for them that love God and are called according to His purpose. So God can change the trajectory of the bad things that happen to you, or that you do, into good things because He controls the future.” I said then there were two kinds of people in the world, people who want to be forgiven for their sins so they’ve trusted in Jesus and what He did to be forgiven and people who think something else. I said for example Islam had a different God and the Buddha left his wife and kid to seek enlightenment but he’s not looking for God he’s just trying to get his head straight. So which person are you or would you want to be. “I guess I’m a little of both, I’d want to be forgiven but I guess like the Buddha says I’d wanna get my head straight.” I replied, “Well in Christianity the way you get your head straight is by the Holy Spirit living inside you when you trust in Christ to forgive you of your sins then by His power you live the Christian life.” I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and after walking him through it I asked if it was the desire of his heart. He acknowledged it was so I said he could pray the prayer silently and be forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked. “Right now?” he asked. “Sure just pretend I’m not here,” I came back. “Ok I’ll do a quick one,” he replied. And he prayed to receive Christ. When he finished I said he could keep the booklet and explained living the Christian life Inside Out by the Spirit’s power. He didn’t have a Bible so I gave him one saying he could call it a Christmas present. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” on the inside. “So I’m forgiven because you gave me a Bible?” he asked. “No you are forgiven because you prayed and asked for forgiveness this is just the day it happened. He saw the point then. I gave him a copy of 20 Things God Can’t Do and wore Just Ask and By the Spirit’s Power in the front explaining that God wanted to help him but he needed to ask. I gave him a Bible study then on Jesus’ claims to be God in the NT and told him the story of how Jesus walks on the water saying it’s sort of  “a miracle to make people look stupid,” pointing out all the disciples are supposed to be in the know but they think He’s a ghost and one doubts so he sinks. Then I explained how this was to show He was God based on Job 9:8 (Who alone stretches out the heavens. And marches on the waves of the sea). “That’s a great story,” he said as I then got up to go. “Thanks for your time man,” he said as I began to leave. “Have a great Christmas.” “Yeah it will be even greater since someone came to Christ,” I said with a smile and I headed off.

So thanks for your prayers for the Ministry and for Evangelism the last day on campus this semester 103 students prayed to receive Christ with me on campus this semester and another one trusted in Christ. As did our waitress on vacation. I’m pretty wasted so I’m gonna try to get the tree up and find the energy to help Ellen decorate the house a bit.

In Him,

Bob