Results of the Work 2/15/23

Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed today knowing the Lord’s eyes of protection are on you. Ahsi and Kristina each prayed with me to receive Jesus today. Please pray they are blessed in their faith trusting in Christ. Their stories are below if you have time. Thanks for your prayers.

Ahsi (ahh see) was sitting in the hall of the first floor of the Science building, the south east side. It seemed she was waiting for her class to begin sitting next to a Biology book the size of a phone book. She wore a winter cap and had a cute round face, chipmunk cheeks, and dark complexion. She seemed tall, though we remained seated she might have been as tall as me. She had an African English accent. She had tan pants on and a matching camel colored jacket. She seemed disciplined and said she was goal oriented. When I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven she said, “That’s easy, I’ve done the work. I try to share His word as much as I can. I go to Church and went to youth groups. I tell people about my faith.” She was 100% sure she would go to Heaven. I began to explain the Gospel and said God wanted to know her to live inside her but first He had to take away her sin. Like a blood transfusion where if you transfuse the wrong type of blood someone they would clot up and die. God wants to transfuse His life into you but first has to make you His type. So he purifies you cleanses you from sin. “So what’s the big thing that happens to take away all your sin?” She thought for a moment and was struggling to think of how that might have happened. Since she had appealed to religious works to save her I was not entirely surprised. I said,  “Well this is how it works” and I began to explain how Jesus had died for her and the Blood of Jesus cleansed her from sin and God got paid. I explained His righteousness could be to her credit. I explained that she needed to believe on the name of Jesus, His reputation, that’s He was God had died for her sins and rose from the dead. Then I said this was only by faith. She had known John 3:16 (When you think about it the verse says God loved the world and so gave His Son, there are many things people say Jesus was given to the world for these days.) As I had begun that verse with her and some verses seemed like they might have been familiar, it also seemed she knew “By grace you are saved through faith, but she had not known faith in what). But it was obvious she had never trusted in Christ. So finishing I said it did not seem like she had put all this together before. The last question was would she want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done and have Him live inside her. She nodded and pointed to the circle with Christ inside. So I went through the prayer with her asking if it was the desire of her heart. She said it was so I said she could pray it right now silently and God would hear her and she would know she was forgiven. “Want to do that?” “Yeah,” she replied. I handed her the booklet and she prayed to receive Christ. “Thank you,” she said when I said she could keep the booklet. I explained the Christian life was Inside out when she would ask God to transform her on the inside and she would then become a good person who does good things. I explained that anything God was asking her to do He would give her the strength to do it by the Spirit’s power if she asked. I said now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus the likelihood she would go to Heaven was 100%. She had heard of the fruit of the Spirit. I gave her Bible Promises for You writing her name and the date and “forgiven!’ on the inside. I gave her a Bible study and The Case for Christianity Answer Booklet and explained Strobel could also be found on YouTube. I got up to go and said I would pray a Bible verse to bless her each day from now until spring and one year after. “Thank you,” she said again. “So nice to meet you,” I said. She thanked me again and I said I would see her in Heaven. “Thank you,” she said and I headed off.

Kristina was sitting on the 3rd floor of the BIC in the lounge on the southeast corner that looks out toward the PE building. She had a pretty cute face and short dark brown chin length stick straight hair tucked behind her ears. She was average in stature. She had a really pretty warm smile. She wore blue years with tears in the knees and a grey old-school sweat shirt with some lettering on it. She was nice, shy. She wanted to travel. I asked her what she would say to God to get into Heaven. She said, “I don’t know I haven’t ever thought about that before.” I asked her if she ever went to Church. “I’m Orthodox. My parents are very religious; I go to church with them.” I said, “The last part of the survey was what you think about Christianity, it’s just some Bible verses so you say what you think.” I explained that Jesus blood cleansed her from her sin and that it was really how God gets paid. (Jesus parable in Matthew 18 there is a payment that is due to the Master.) Jesus tells us we are to be perfect in Matthew 5 and because we are not we are wrecking God’s stuff, hurting others and hurting ourselves and His creation. So we owe God something perfect to pay Him back for the damage we have done. But we aren’t perfect so we can’t pay so God pays Himself. When Jesus dies He pours out His blood, which because He is God is worth an infinite amount and it pays God back for all the imperfect things we have done that we owe God something perfect for. Jesus perfect life also earned the Righteousness of God and this is too our credit (Isa. 61:10 and Gal.  3:27) I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in Jesus and if she had ever asked for forgiveness trusting in what he had done for her. She explained that she did a lot of praying at Church as an act of faith. I said if she would like to be forgiven trusting in Jesus there was a prayer she could pray and I talked her through it. “I would want that yes,” she replied. I asked if she would like to pray it silently. “Sure,” she replied. And she prayed to receive Jesus. I explained living by the Spirit’s power and trusting in His righteousness. I asked if she had a Bible, she said she had a family Bible her father made her read. So I said that she could read in the Book of John. I gave her Bible Promises for You and I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I gave her a Bible study on passages where Jesus claims to be God. I also gave her The Case for Christ Answer Book. “Thank you so much, this is really nice,” she said taking the materials. I got up to go saying I would see her in Heaven and then said I would pray a Bible verse for her each day through the Spring and one year after asking God to bless her. “Thank you so much Bob,” she replied and I headed out grateful.

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

In Him,

Bob