5/9/22

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with all good things resting in the knowledge that He loves you. Hannah and Cam prayed with me to receive Jesus today and I had some good conversations. I spoke with a Muslim, Ahmed where I kept pressing that God was Just and Loving and the idea that God get’s paid and so His forgiveness is the foundation of our country’s laws, restitution and payment for damages. I also told him about a friend from Lebanon who had a vision of Jesus who told him to, “Pray to Me alone.” He’d been trying to press the point asking why would God want to become a man. We ended talking politics we agreed on. Please pray for Hannah and Cam to be blessed in their faith. Their stories are below if you have time you wish to spend on them.

 Hannah was sitting on the second floor as you walk out of the SRC building and come to the edge of the Student Services Center on the second floor. There are just the two chairs there, she described herself as an introvert and the spot fit. I sat on the table between them. She is a petite kid and had kind of a tom boy look going with a ball cap and stick straight brown hair pouring out to her shoulders. She wore a grey sweatshirt with some print across it and jeans, had red rimmed nearly round glasses, cute kid. She said she had been raised in a Lutheran Church. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “I try to treat everybody with kindness. I don’t know if that’s enough… I’m torn. Kindness is a basic thing; to actually go beyond and deserve it is actually different.” She had an insight most people lack, if Heaven was a reward and goodness is basically expected as a norm, you’d have to do something exceptional to earn it? I asked her how likely it was she would get into Heaven and she said, “There’s a pretty good chance, I wouldn’t be able to quantify it though.” She remembered Jesus had died to take away our sins when I asked her and followed the Gospel, the blood and righteousness of Christ to pay for her sins. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins or thought something else and she said she’d want to be forgiven. So I said if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it and asked if it was the desire of her heart. She nodded and I said, “You could pray it silently now if you want. I wouldn‘t hear but God would hear and you’d know you were forgiven, wanna do it?” “Ah, yeah,” she replied and she took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life, living “inside out” and telling her of the fruit of the Spirit which she had memorized and recited saying she’d learned it in a song as a child. She did not want a book. I gave her a Bible study she thought she’d be interested in. I told her now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I told her I would keep her in my prayers for the next year. “I don’t know if I’ll see ya again but I’ll see you in Heaven. Thanks for talking with me.” “Thank you Bob.” She replied. And we each headed off in different directions.

Cam was sitting in the hallway on the first floor of the BIC near the tunnel to the MAC Arts building. He was 15 minutes early for class around the corner. He had a grey sweatshirt on that said “FOOTBALL” and was a pretty big guy, though not as tall as me when we stood. He wore grey sweat pants. His mustache had come in light and ended at his mouth but he had a thick beard and an oval face, looked like the proverbial Longshoreman. His ball cap was turned backwards. He said he had gone to church some as a kid. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “Because I asked for his forgiveness almost every night.” He knew Jesus had died to take away his sins saying he had gone to 12 years of Catholic School. I asked him the likelihood he would get into Heaven and he said, “It’s up to Him.” And then thinking about it he said, “80%”.  As I went through the Gospel he agreed with it affirming the work of Jesus. I explained that the real reason God forgiven him is He got paid, using the illustration of borrowing a friend’s car and denting it and having to pay to make it perfect again. “Everything belongs to God,” I explained so, “if you hurt somebody or hurt yourself or the world in some way you owe God something perfect back.” I went on to say that because we were not perfect we could not pay. But God loves us so He became a man and when He pours out His perfect blood it pays God back for all the imperfect things we have done that we owe God something perfect for. Basically what I had told Ahmed earlier in the day. “So the reason God forgives you is He got paid,” I said again. “He is just, but he had to pay Himself.” “I never thought about it that way before,” he replied. I went on to tell him about the righteousness of God that Christ earned by perfectly fulfilling the Law and that it was to our credit. I asked him if he would want to be forgiven for his sins. He said he would, expressing again that he was from a catholic background so it was in keeping with that. (I had talked to a Roman Catholic guy, Frank, earlier in the day that had said, “I believe Jesus died for us all and in His resurrection. As long as you believe and you are His servant you’ll have a place in Heaven.”) Some Catholics I talk to express a basic evangelical faith. As I had gone through the other verses he had said things like “For sure,’ and “Absolutely” so I was not sure if he would say he had been asking God for forgiveness trusting in what Christ had done. “Can I take this with me?” he asked. He had a class in a couple minutes. I said that if he had not had a chance to ay to God that he was trusting in what Jesus had done to forgive him there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it. He said he tried to think of what he had done that was against what God wanted then he asked for forgiveness for those things. “But are you asking for forgiveness trusting in what Jesus had done?” I asked. Saying that was what the prayer was for if he would want to pray it. He said he had actually prayed it as I went through it with him, suggesting he just did that when he read prayers, he prayed them. So I said, “OK.” I showed him the last line then explaining the Christian life living “Inside out” and said if he now trusted in the righteousness of Jesus to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. He had to run to class and so I gave him Bible Promises for You quickly writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. He took it, it seemed with gratitude and headed off.

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

In Him,

Bob