Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed. We are having some nice weather here after a few storms this weekend. I had a good day on campus and Cedric and Marshawn each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray a blessing on them if ya got a moment. The details are below if you have some time.

I found Marshawn down the end of the corridor that goes past the yoga classes out to the MAC arts outdoor theatre. He had small braids about 4 inches long (seems to be the style right now) and later revealed a thin Errol Flynn style mustache and a chin beard, a wide nose and face and a warm smile. He wore a white hoodie and sweats. He played Basketball at school, broad shouldered athletic looking guy. I asked him if he’d like to do a survey and he said he’d done one. So I said this was different, asking him the main question where if he dies and God asks: Why should I let you into Heaven? He didn’t know what he’d say, so I asked if he’d like to know what the Bible says the answer is and he said, “Yeah you can tell me.” Then I said there’s a little booklet here I can use to explain it all. And sitting beside him on a bench I began to go through the Gospel. He did not remember what Jesus had done to take away his sins as we spoke, but I think it all came back to him as I went through it, seems he had gone to Church as a kid. I asked if he’d like to be forgiven, trusting in Jesus, where God would live inside him or if he thought something else. He said, “This one, to be forgiven,” he said pointing at the circle with God on the throne. I said,  “Well it seems like you might not have put all this together before?” “Well, it’s more like a refresher course,” he replied. So I said if he would like to trust in Christ to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through the prayer and asked if it was the desire of his heart, something he wanted to do. He said “What?” like he had been thinking about something else. So I read it through again and asked if he would like to pray and he said, “Uh huh, yeah.” And he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. As I took the booklet back I said he could keep it “Yeah I would want it,” he interjected, but then I used the propositions in back to explain the Christian life living by the Spirit’s power. Reading, “Your walk with Christ depends on what you allow Him to do in and through you, empowered by the Holy Spirit, not what you do for Him by your own self effort.” So I wrote “By the Spirit’s Power” and “Just ask” saying the book of James says in the Bible, You do not have because you do not ask. I handed it to him and said, “So it’s inside out not outside in.” ‘What do you mean?” he asked. So I explained that unlike learning a jump shot, where you take a 1000 of them from the 3 point line (saying I had watched Paxson doing that before a game back in the day), you hope your discipline will change you muscle memory and change you on the inside and the shot will become automatic. But in Christianity, you ask God to change you on the inside first and you become a good person and do good things. I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “Forgiven” and “Inside Out” on the inside cover. I also gave him a Bible study on how Jesus claims to be God. He had not heard the story of how Jesus walked on the water, so I explained what Jesus had done and how He was claiming to be God. I told him I would pray for him and thanked him for talking with me. “Thanks so much,” he replied. I asked to see his face so I could picture it when I prayed for him. He shot me a grin and I headed out

I found Cedric then with his back against a post, just past the doors into the PE lounge. He said he’d do a survey. He was tall, 6”4’ I think and had a lighter brownish afro; it was kind of a mat that came out in braids. He wore a set of rectangle lenses for glasses, made him look smart. Did not look muscular, thin arms. Later saw he had a pyramid sharp nose and fairly sharp features, a beard only on his jaw line and a wisp of a mustache. Wore a white T-shirt and jeans. He wanted to become a pilot and travel the world. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven, he thought for a long time. “It literally would be like hard to make a decision—any one thing that I would say… there would be another that I shouldn’t have done either.” “Oh like the Scales of Justice balancing it out. Did you do more good than bad?” I asked. He seemed to agree, but might not have known what the Scales of Justice were. He thought he had maybe a 50 or 60% chance of going to Heaven. So I began to explain the Gospel to him and he tuned right in. He knew Jesus had died to take away his sins. He interacted a bit as I explained the righteousness of God Christ earns that is to our credit. I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins, trusting in Jesus or if he thought something else. He said, “Yeah,”  he’d want to be forgiven. So I said there was a prayer he could pray and walking him through it, I asked if it was the desire of his heart I and would he want to pray it? He nodded and said, “Sure.” He then prayed to receive Jesus. So that was great. I took back the booklet to write in more. I explained living “Inside out, By the Spirit’s Power” saying “Just ask.” He said, “Thank you.”  I explained that trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness, the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. I also gave him Bible Promises for You and a Bible study on how Jesus claims to be God. I wrote his name and the date and “Forgiven” in the front. I said I would pray for him and through next year. He thanked me again and I said, “Have a good one!” “You too,” he replied. “Thank you.”

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

In Him,

Bob