Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope your day was blessed with all good things coming down from the Father of Lights. If you are in Iowa for the Caucus vote, feel free to vote twice, as eight counties have registration rates higher than the eligible population. So hey, you should get your fair share of the count. lol. 🙂 I jest, you still should only vote once. I had a good day on campus, and Joe and Michael each prayed with me to receive Jesus today.
Joe was sitting in the hallway in the BIC between classes on the ground floor and said he’d do a student survey. He went to a Bible Study back in High School at his coach’s home. (In the face he looked like my 2nd cousin Joe.) He had a great smile and conservative cut dark brown hair, stereotypical Italian, good-looking guy. Wore grey sweats tight at the ankles and a runners zip up jacket. He was shorter than me by a bit. He asked really good questions. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “I’ve been going to Church pretty frequently my whole life. I’ve done my best to follow His teachings as they’ve been told to me by my parents.” He thought he had a 95% chance of going to Heaven. He knew Jesus had died for our sins. I said that if we did not live a perfect life we could not be in Heaven. “I don’t know if it’s that binary,” he put in. I said that Heaven wasn’t just a place, it was the presence of God. The real problem was ontological. Our being did not match God’s being, so it really was in or out, since we could not live a perfect life. But God loved us and wanted us to be in His presence. So Jesus lived the perfect life for us and became the perfect payment for our sins to God so He could be both Just and Forgiving. His blood cleansed us and His righteousness was to our credit. “So that’s what the New Testament is about,” he said. I agreed. I explained receiving Christ by faith. He asked if the works we did played a role at all and I said that they did if they were done in Faith, asking for God’s power to do them. By themselves, living a moral life by Christian standards saved you a lot of pain and grief and kept you from wrecking your life. So it was a blessing to be raised that way because you know how to live. But this would not save you. I explained how our good things could not make up for our bad things and he agreed. I said he had to receive Jesus by faith, trusting that His work and power saved us. I asked if he’d want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in Jesus and he gave this kind of frank yeah obviously kind of nod. So I walked him through the prayer and said he could pray it so only God would hear and he went “hmm” and nodded and took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. We talked about the blessings of living a good life. He agreed, saying he watched his roommate last year at IL State basically self destruct with partying every weekend until he had to drop out of school. “It made me want to do the opposite,” he said. And I thought about the verse in scripture concerning the lost. “Vessels of wrath fit for destruction” God used to perfect the elect. I explained living “Inside Out” asking for God’s power to do anything he thought God wanted him to do. We talked about how dark and shallow the world had gotten. “This is the most meaningful conversation I’ve had in weeks,” he said. I gave him a copy of 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and “forgiven” in the front and “Just Ask By the Power of the Spirit.” I gave him a Bible study and he said he’d try to make it out sometime to ours. He was thankful and I told him I would keep him in my prayers. Really solid guy.
I came across Michael in a chair in the hallway outside the bookstore. He had swept back hair just slightly receding and a warm, youthful face. He had jeans on and an athletic sweatshirt that had some white printing on the front. Good looking kid. He led a youth group and went witnessing at Woodfield mall. But I don’t think he understood the Gospel enough to do so. He knew Jesus had died for our sins, but he was not trusting in that but instead hoping he would be a good enough Christian. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “That’s a tough question. I would tell him that I’m not the perfect Christian. I love Him. I know I’ve done wrong. But I love you. It’s not an easy question.” Based on this answer I have no idea what he was telling people at the mall. It kind of seemed like he was having what he considered interesting discussions. I asked him what the likelihood was he would go to Heaven. “There’s a chance,” he replied. “What does it say that the wages of sins is death or something, then something about eternal life. I would like to be forgiven for my sins and have eternal life with Him. Hopefully it’s a good chance.” So I explained the Gospel to him. As I said, he knew Jesus had died for him. I asked if, when he asked for forgiveness for his sins, he had been trusting in what Jesus had done on the Cross or had he been hoping that being a Good Christian would get him into Heaven. He said a little in Jesus but mostly he had been hoping in being good enough. So I said if he wanted to be sure and place his confidence in Jesus, there was a prayer he could pray. I told him how he could be certain he was going to Heaven, turning in the righteousness of Christ and he could ask God to know Him personally– live inside him with His Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit would seal him and he would be sure he was forgiven. After I walked him through the prayer, he prayed with me to receive Christ. I suggested he could explain some of this now to his youth group he was leading at Willow Creek. He agreed that would be a good idea. 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” and “Just Ask.” I said now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness, the likelihood he was going to Heaven was 100%. We talked about his church then and I told him I had gone there when it met in the theater. “Oh, with Hybels,” he said. I expressed my opinion that Hybels had turned out to be less than a good person and he agreed and we headed out. So I hope it sinks in that he was off track and he comes to a better understanding and passes it on to his students.
So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed.
In Him,
Bob