Hey Sisters and Brothers In Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with all good things walking with the Lord. I had a good day on campus. We started a Bible study with one girl Alma who prayed to receive Jesus last year and Jaden and Cira each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray for them if you have a moment to do so. Their stories are below if you have time.

Jaden was sitting in the Cafeteria where I went ahead of meeting for Bible study. He was a big Black guy with a beard, wearing a snow cap, slightly wider nose. He wore a red t-shirt after he took off his sweatshirt while we were talking and had black and red plaid flannel lounge pants on. He is a power lifter and hopes to keep working for a while on getting the world record. He has added 100 pounds to his lift in the last 7 months having had to break for the lockdowns. The record is 1000 pounds. He has a tattoo on his right forearm that says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” But he had not been trusting in the Blood and righteousness of Christ for salvation. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “That’s a good question.” Then thinking a bit more he said, “’Cause I always follow your will. I always look at you as my Father.” He thought he had about a 70% chance of going to Heaven. He paid close attention to the Gospel as I told it to him and had known that Jesus died to take away our sins. I asked him if he would want to be forgiven for his sins as I finished the Gospel message, trusting in what Jesus had done for him and he said, “Yes.”  So I offered him the prayer to pray, walking him through it, and asked if it was the desire of his heart. He nodded and said. “Yes.” So I said he could pray it right then and he would know the likelihood he was going to Heaven was 100%. He took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living “inside out” then to him, “By the Spirit’s power.” I said God could give him strength to pursue the goal he had lifting and he said, “I know,” and showed me then his tattoo on his arm with Philippians 4:13 written under it saying,  “I came across this verse.” We had a good talk and I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside and also gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ. He fist bumped me to thank me and wished me a blessed day and I headed out.

After Bible study, I walked Ellen to the door and then headed down on the same floor, down the hallway by the Bookstore and found Cira sitting at a bar-height table. She had a light-blue sweatshirt on with the Chicago skyline on it and looked close to having rolled out of bed. She had a thin, narrow pretty face (like Little House on the Prairie), which I saw when she took sips of her drink, and wore no make-up. Her light brown hair was in waves down to her shoulders. She was friendly and came from a Roman Catholic background, though her church attendance had become sketchy, like everyone’s it seems. She said she wanted to explore the world and then clarified to say she wanted to understand finance. I talked with her then about the petro dollar collapsing and fractional reserve banking, none of which she had understood before. When I got back to the survey, I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven if she’d gotten hit by a bus and was dead. She said, “My belief has never changed—even though I got hit by a bus.” Adding the caveat as a joke. She thought she had a 90% chance of going to Heaven. I asked if she meant her belief in God and she agreed that she mean that. She listened attentively to the Gospel, asking what would happen if she could not get to a priest for a while. I mentioned an Admiral I had recently read about who was in prison for 7 years in Vietnam. “There was no priest in the camp.” I said she could confess her sins directly to God, quoting 1John 1:9. I explained the standing doctrine of the Catholic Church is that only God can forgive your sins. So I said, “The priest does not forgive you, he is telling you God forgives you.” I explained the analogy I often use where the priest is like an insurance agent for automobile insurance. You get the insurance from the agent who sells you the policy. But when you crack up your car, you don’t expect the agent to pay but know that the policy says the Insurance Company will pay for the damage. I went on to explain the righteousness of Christ He earned by perfectly fulfilling the Law and quoted Isaiah 61:10 and Galatians 3:27. She said she had never thought about it this way before. When I had finished I said, “It seems like you had not understood all this before.” And she agreed. I went on to asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins, trusting in Jesus. She said she would, so I said there was a prayer she could pray and walked her through it. I asked her if it was the desire of her heart and she nodded and said yes. So I said she could pray it right then. “I wouldn’t hear you, but God would hear you and then you would know you were forgiven.” “OK,” she replied. And I said, “Just pretend I’m not here.” And I stepped back a bit and she said, “I’m just going to read it as it is.” “OK.” I said and I bowed my head and when she had finished by crossing herself. I explained living “inside out” transformed by the Spirit’s power. I gave her a copy of Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “Forgiven!” in the front and a Bible study on the Deity of Christ. We said goodbye and she thanked me saying, “Thank you Bob, I appreciate it.” And I said, “Your welcome.” And headed off.

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

In Him,

Bob