Results of the Work – 8/31/22

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with good things from the Lord and joy in your heart. I had a good day on campus and Scott and Josephinie* each trusted Christ as Savior. Please pray for them to grow in their faith in Christ. Their stories are below if you have some time to read today. Thanks for your prayers. Adnan was a Muslim (looked 30) who showed some interest today and took a Bible Study on the deity of Christ and The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet. He also copied down my friend’s phone number to contact who does ministry with Muslims, Hesham Shehab. So hopefully he’ll call him and he was not just being polite.

Scott was sitting in the hallway on the first floor that connects the BIC and the SSC. Interestingly enough the CRU group had a meeting today and so did Intervarsity Fellowship in rooms directly across from where we sat. Scott was wearing a white cowboy hat with the edges over his ears curled up. He actually looked something like “Woody” from the cartoon movie “Toy Story”. He had a thin face and similar features. His voice box seemed to have a kind of injury. When he spoke it sounded like he was speaking through water. It was a little difficult to make out the words. But I prayed for help not wanting to call attention to his disability. He had a dark red t-shirt on and grey shorts. When I asked him what he would say to God if he died and was asked: Why should I let you into Heaven? He said, “Um, I’m a Christian. I followed the scriptures as best I could.” He thought he had about a 70% chance of going to Heaven. I said God wanted to know and live inside him and so had to take way his sin and asked how Jesus did that. He didn’t know saying, “He forgives you?” So I went on to explain the Gospel. It seemed like he’d been to a few different Churches. One he’d had a falling out with, he said they’d asked him to leave. They did not believe any crosses should be displayed as it was idolatry.  He had a cross in his room, a piece of Jewelry his grandmother had inherited to him. He kept it on his mirror as a remembrance of her and her faith. We talked about legalism a bit. I went through the Gospel with him and he hadn’t really understood the atonement. I explained Christ’s righteousness and believing by faith. I asked if he would want to be forgiven with God living inside him trusting in what Jesus had done and he said, “I’d want to be forgiven with God inside.” So I said, “It doesn’t seem like you have put all this together before,” he kind of nodded, “But if you’d want to be forgiven there is a prayer you can pray.” and I talked him through it and asked, “It says here then is this prayer the desire of your heart?” “Yeah,” he said so I said he could pray it silently and God would hear and asked if he’d want to do it. ”Yeah,” he said enthusiastically. And he prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living “inside out” asking for transformation by the Spirit. I gave him a Bible Study and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven” in the front of Bible Promises for You. He thanked me and shook my hand and we both got up and left.

Josephine was sitting on the second floor of the east most science building in the hall. She was an attractive black woman, wearing jeans and a peasant blouse and looked to be in her mid 20’s. She had long hair with some brown tints in it and a rhinestone on her left cheek, full lips classic African American features. She had a larger frame but was not over weight at all. I asked her if she wanted to do a student survey and she said she’d been asked so I said this was a little different and asked if she’d just want to answer the one big question. She agreed.  So I of course said, “You’re walking down the road and you get hit by a bus so you’re dead and you stand before God and He says: Why should I let you into Heaven? What would you say?” “I’m a good person.” She’d said that she went to church and was a Christian. “The Bible says something a little different would you be interested in hearing the Bible verses that explain how you get to Heaven?” “OK,” she replied and I began to go through the Gospel with her. When I asked her what the big thing Jesus had done to take away her sins was she said, “He forgives you?” “Yeah I said He does but the real reason God forgives you is because He got paid.” I explained how Jesus lived the perfect life we could not and was the sacrifice for our sins and His blood cleansed us, paid God back for all the imperfect things we owed God something perfect for. “He over pays really by giving His life, unless you’ve killed someone.” I said. She smiled and said she hadn’t. When I finished explaining being saved by faith I asked her if she would want to be forgiven and have God live inside her and she said she did. So I said well do you think you have ever asked God to forgive you trusting in what Jesus has done or were you hoping to be good enough and things would work out?” “The second one,” she replied smiling kind of like you got me.. I said there was a prayer she could pray and I explained it saying she could pray it silently when she agreed it was the desire of her heart. “I’ll pray this later when I can be more intimate with God.” She talked about hierocracy a bit then and it seemed she wanted to feel like it was genuine. I said sure no worries and explained living “inside out” by the power of the Spirit and said if she was trusting now in the righteousness of Christ to be her righteousness the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. I asked her again then, “So now if I asked you what you would say to God to get into Heaven what would you say?” She smiled and said, “Because of Jesus.” “His blood and righteousness right I said. I said there was a book she might like with promises in it and she agreed she would. I gave her Bible Promises for You and asked her to spell her name again for me and she said, “You can just write Josie,” and I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven” in the front and she was touched by that. I thanked her for talking with me and headed off. I hope I’ll get to that part of campus next Wednesday to try to bump into her again.

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

In Him,

Bob