Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope ya had a great day walking with the Lord. I’m working through some stomach issues that knocked me out three days last week. But I was blessed on campus nonetheless as God’s strength is perfected in weakness. Travis and Jack each prayed with me to receive Jesus today. Each felt God was working today and I felt like their stories were divine appointments. Please pray their faith is blessed and they are given even faith in the future. If you feel like making time to read what happened it’s below.

 Travis was the first guy I talked to on campus. I pulled into the first parking space and got into school quickly and he was sitting in a lounge around the first corner of the BIC building on the east end ground floor. He has a light blondish mop of wavy hair on top, real short cut on the sides. He wore a zip up runner’s jacket with two colors of light blue and faded blue jeans. He was tall when he stood over 6 feet and

Slim build with an oval face, kind of a baby face, good lookin’ kid. He told me he only had 10 minutes to answer questions before class began. When I asked him what he would say to God if asked “Why should I let you into Heaven” he said “You know everything I’ve done. I feel I’ve made the right choices. I’m not free of sin, but I’ve done more good than bad.” He said he felt like there was kind of a karmic balance of good and bad actions that got you into Heaven. He hung out with a lot of religious people but said he had never in his life been to church and that his boss was a strong Christian. He said he thought it was very likely he would get into Heaven. He said he felt like God had recently guided him out of a “crazy situation,” which turned out to be living with his atheist girl friend. He thought she was manipulating and controlling him and had a hold on him somehow. He finally decided to just grab all his stuff and get out. He said he’d prayed to get out and felt that was what God was leading him to do. It had left him interested in spiritual things in that moment. It seemed like he’d just gone through a catalytic moment in his life.  I went straight through the Gospel with him making my illustrations abrupt and to the point. I explained that the Blood of Christ on the cross had cleansed him so God could live inside him. God had to be paid with perfect things to fix what we had damaged in life but we could not pay so God paid Himself. I explained the righteousness of God to his credit (he liked that illustration of getting extra credit in a class) meant that he did not go to Heaven because he was good or had done enough good things, but because Jesus was good and was connected to him. I explained faith and asked him if he wanted to place his trust I that Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead to be forgiven. He emphatically said he did. I offered him the prayer talking him through it and said he could pray it silently then knowing he was forgiven. I asked if he wanted to do it and he thoughtfully said, “Yeah”. I began to go through the Christian life stuff and asked if he had a Bible, he said he’d been meaning to get one. I gave him one and showed him the Where to Turn” section which providentially opened right up to that page in back. I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front. I said he had my Email if he had any questions. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do saying everything in the Book and in the Christian life was “By the Spirit’s Power” writing that in the front and “Just Ask” on a couple chapter pages.  I gave him a Bible study and he had to run to class. He got up and was really happy saying, “I feel like I really needed this.” He shook my hand and pulled down his mask for me with a grin. I said I would pray for him for the next year each day and he happily headed off.

Jack was sitting in a row of chairs at the entrance to the tunnel leading to the PE building from the BIC. He had dark sandy red hair. I asked him if he wanted to answer some questions for a Bible Study group. “Tell me about the group,” he replied so I gave him a flyer for the Biker Bible study I have been teaching saying the one on campus had become complicated to get going due to Covid. I asked if he’d want to answer the one big question. He agreed and I got his name and asked, ‘You get hit by a bus and your dead and you stand before God and He asks, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” “I don’t’ think anything you do is worthy,” he replied. “You’d have to hope in His forgiving nature. It’s up to Him to forgive me. You could repent but you’d never know if you repented enough.” I agreed that there were lists of bad things in the Bible that would send you to hell but no list of good things that if you did them all you could be sure you would be in Heaven. I said the Bible tells how to get to Heaven and asked if he would want to hear some verses. He said sure and I began to go through the Gospel with him. He stopped me and asked if I believed in signs or numbers in the Bible. I did and said Missler explained 7’s in the beginning of Matthew. (I later wrote the YouTube search he could do to find it). He said he had a story about 7’s and said I wanted to hear it but first let me tell you how you get to Heaven. He agreed and I explained everything as I had for Travis today.  When I had finished and I offered him the two options of choices, believing on Jesus and His saving work or something else I asked if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins. “I don’t know,” he replied. I asked, “Do you believe Jesus was God died for your sins and rose from the dead? Do you think that is true?” He said he did. But he did not believe you could be saved simply because you believed. You should also do good things. I explained that he was right that the evidence of a saved life would be seen but not because we tried to do good things but because the Holy Spirit had transformed us. I explained living “Inside out” where we asked God to transform us on the inside and we then would do good things on the outside as a natural expression of a transformed nature. The Bible talks about being made perfect but we would never be perfected in this life. I said if he wanted to have God living inside him to give him the strength to do good things He could place his trust in what Christ had done. Otherwise he’d be in danger of believing he had done good things himself without God and that might lead to pride. “Pride one the deadly sins,” he put in and I agreed. And I read again the verse from the booklet Ephesians 2:8&9. I said God would make things into Good that we had done, none of our actions could be perfect in themselves but he could make good outcomes from them because he controlled the future. I then quoted Romans 8:28 again to him. I asked if he would like to have God’s power on the inside and be forgiven and he said he would so I said if he did there was a prayer he could pray and I walked him through it and offered it to him saying he could pray it silently and God would hear. He took the booklet then and prayed to receive Christ saying, “Hmm” and nodding as he prayed. He then went on to tell me some of the times he had seen signs and he thought God was telling him He was watching over his life and leading some of his decisions. He had heard songs and then seen billboard ads reading 777 as he drove, saw it again for another casino, then got a 777 address delivering food for Door Dash. He said to himself, “If there are stone angels and religious statues in the yard, I will know God can give me signs and guide my life.” There were statues just like that when he arrived. Unfortunately he began seeing signs here and there and got kind of overcome with the concept. He started reading about it and got into meditation and took different drugs to try to see more things. This had led to some serious problems. But he became convinced it was evil at worst or at best he could not be sure what kind of spirit he was dealing with. I talked him through some of the issues. I encouraged him to learn and read Bible verses. I gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do writing his name and the date and forgiven on the inside. I encouraged him that now he was sealed by the Spirit [Eph 1:13], it was a one way door and he could claim the name of Christ and no other powers could touch him. He told me some stories where on one bad trip his cat told him he had failed God. I said all that was forgiven now and we talked a while. I then gave him the book Bible Promises for You so he could meditate on specific verses. I gave him The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet as we talked more about some issues and the Bible Study on the Deity of Christ. He thought that our speaking had been God’s leading and I agreed. He’d been waiting for his girlfriend to get out of class. She had marched by to go to the bathroom as we talked and seemed upset. Her class was about to get out. So I left him saying I would be praying for him each night. “I’ll be praying for you too,” he replied shaking my hand cheerfully. And I got up and headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance. God blessed with two great conversations that lead to a prayer of faith.

In Him

Bob