Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with all good things this weekend. We picked up a coconut cream pie from the pie shop which was spoiled and we got a refund for, so I am sure things will go well better, though my yard work was rained out. I had a good day on campus Thursday and Ryan and D. (short for David it would seem) both prayed to receive Jesus. Please pray they grow. Their stories are below if you have some time. Thanks for your prayers.

Ryan was wearing sweats and had a curly mop of sandy hair on top and half circular, flat on top, glasses. His face was longer and sort of squared off like Where’s Waldo. He was friendly and was sitting along the wall that has a walk up window for the Student Actives office. He was up for doing a survey and answered the question “What’s one thing you want to do before you die?” with, “Have a family.” This answer is nearly always a harbinger that a guy will come to Christ if he’s not a Christian already. I asked him what he would say to God if asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “I don’t think I’d say anything because who am I to say anything? He could know [something I forgot] in my past ” he replied. He went on to say he was not always as close to God as he is now.  I agreed in some circumstances it was better to be silent. He thought he had a 60% chance of going to Heaven. I said, ‘The Bible says God removes your sins from you as far as the East is from the West and remembers them no more.  You might think if God did that then He would have to forget like 80% of your life. But Romans 8:28 says God makes all things work together for good for them that love God and are called according to His purposes. So when God remembers your life He remembers the Good He made out of it not the bad you did.” I also gave him some examples about how God might allow a bad thing to happen so something else that was good could happen. He’d never heard the verses before and liked the idea. I went through the Gospel with Him and asked him what the big thing was that Jesus had done to take away his sins. “He forgives you?” He queried. I said, “It’s true He forgave you but the reason God forgives you is He got paid.” And I went on to explain the Blood of Christ cleansing him and it’s infinite worth being a payment for sin. I think he remembered the crucifixion then as he began affirming what I said. And I explained the righteousness of God Christ earned that was to his credit (imputation). I said he needed to receive Christ by faith and asked if he wanted to be forgiven. He said he wanted to be forgiven but he did not think he could make God his only priority right now. I explained that he might be thinking about it wrong. I told him everyone was supposed to do what God was asking them to do, for him right now he was supposed to go to school. God would help him go to school and give him as much success as would not derail God’s purposes for his life. But becoming a Christian did not mean he had to be ready to become a priest. When he received forgiveness God would live inside him and guide him and give him help to live life. I said there was a verse in Colossians 3:2 that said to keep your mind fixed on things above, not on things of the Earth. But that did not mean you did not think about anything that was happening here on Earth but that you had God’s attitude toward it. I explained living “inside out by the Spirit’s power.” I said by way of example, “Someday you will get married and God will want you to love your wife and take care of your kids, they will be your ministry for Him then. The Bible says he who does not take care of the needs of his family is worse than an infidel, an unbeliever [1Timothy 5:8]. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through the prayer and asked, “It says here is this prayer the desire of your heart?” “I think so yeah,” he said affirming it was. So I said he could pray it silently and said he could do so now and be forgiven. “Wanna do it?” “Yeah,” he replied. And he prayed to receive Jesus. He had a Bible but I gave him Bible Promises For You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!’ on the inside and said that now trusting in Jesus righteousness to be his righteousness the likelihood he would get into Heaven was 100%. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible study o the deity of Christ. I explained how everything in the Bible was validated through the last 15 years or so of scholarship. He said he had a friend that had talked about that with him. So I gave him a creation magazine saying he could give it to his friend or flip through some of the things the scientists said in it. He was grateful and thanked me and I thanked him for his time and headed out.

20 steps later Dominic a guy who I have talked to before several times about his Christian life caught up with me and we began to talk. D. was someone he knew from class. He walked up and said he liked to listen to people talk about faith. He was pretty immature socially, shorter white kid, young face, glasses round with flat tops. He was wearing a Bull team jersey over a t-shirt and had a Bulls fan cap on. He had heavy chains around his neck, like Mr. T or a rapper, they were silver in color and one had inch high letters hanging from it that said “CEO”. I asked him what he would say if he died and God said, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “Because I’m a good person,” he replied. I began telling him Christianity was like a blood transfusion where God needs to live inside you with his Holy Spirit. “If God lives inside you and you are one with Him that way He’s eternal and He is the source of life, so you would have eternal live.’ I explained God could not live inside him because of his sin.  As I went through the Gospel, the Blood of Christ cleansing him of his sins so God could live inside him and this was the payment for sin. He asked Dominick if he knew this stuff. He said he did. “Did he tell you?” “No he knew it already when we met,” I replied. D regularly went to Catholic church so I explained the symbolism of the Mass saying in taking it he should just say thank you. As it commemorated that Jesus had died and shed His blood for him so he could be forgiven. As I finished I asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in Christ there was a prayer he could pray showing it to him on the next page. Before I could explain it he took it and prayed to receive Jesus. He became noticeably calmer. I offered him a book. He did not want one so I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the front of the booklet. I gave him a Bible Study and explained why Jesus had walked on water as he had mentioned that miracle. He took the information and said goodbye and walked off. Dominick will see him in class and is the kind of guy too nice to blow anyone off. So though D came across a bit over caffeinated I know he will touch base with him. We walked over to a counter height table together and talked for an hour about his future. He is 18 and in-love but we figured out some short term goals and he called last night and is getting some things in place already.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism last week if you had a chance. 4 students prayed to receive Christ and God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob