Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with comfort and love coming down from the father of lights. Thanks so much for praying today if you had a chance. Noah and Nick prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray they both grow in their faith. I’m grateful for your help.  Their stories are below if you have some time.

Noah was sitting on some sofa chairs in the second floor of the foyer. These overlook the doors to the outside at the entrance to the bookstore on the ground floor beneath them. He was wearing a green hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and navy-blue sweats. He was waiting for some time to pass until class. I asked him if he’d do a survey and he said, “Sure I’m religious,” and we exchanged names. He was Italian and had relatives in Italy he wanted to visit, had a broad warm smile. He had indistinctive, smooth features like a caricature, his skin was a little rough, his hair coming out from under his hood, stick straight. Nice guy. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven if a bus hit him and he’d died. “I confess sins, before, I do somewhat regularly. He was 100% sure he would go to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with him and in asking him what Jesus had done to take away his sins he said, “He died on the cross.” I went through the atonement then with him and the righteousness of Christ. I said this was symbolized in the mass and the wafer symbolic of Christ’s body and the wine His blood so that when he took it he should just say “Thank you.” saying, “How do you connect with all this God has done for you so you know you will go to Heaven?” I then explained salvation by faith believing Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead. “Not just that you know the story but that you place your trust in this to be forgiven,” saying he needed to place his trust in that as an adult. So if someone asked him why God would let him into Heaven he’d say because Jesus died for me. I said the last thing was did he want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done for him? Then the Spirit would live in him giving him the strength to live the Christian life or did he think something else? “Probably be forgiven with in Jesus,” he replied. I said if he had not asked Jesus to forgive him based on what He did for him on the cross there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it and asked if it was the desire of his heart. He said, “Yeah.” When I suggested he could pray it silently he nodded and prayed to receive Jesus. I quickly talked him through the Christian life living by the power of the Spirit, inside>out. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I also gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible study on the Deity of Christ. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him each day for the next year and finally said the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100% trusting in the righteousness of Jesus. “Have a good one man,” I said getting up to go. “You too. Thank you,” he replied and we parted ways.

Nick is an Asian guy, good looking, almond shaped eyes and no eyelids, a classic face perfect skin. He was wearing a light blue hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and grey sweats. He was alone in the NW corner lounge of the second floor of the science buildings. He was laying on the couch and wasn’t sure he wanted to do a survey. He was about my size a little shorter. So I asked if he’d like to hear the one big question to think about. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it wondering how long it would take. He somehow really did not want to have a long conversation about religious things. I got the ok and quickly squeezed the question in somehow and he asked to hear it again. He then said he didn’t know what to say. So I asked if he would want to hear what the Bible said the answer was. “Ok,” he replied. I began to tell him Christianity was like a blood transfusion. “I have A+ blood so if you fill me up with B- blood by mistake I would clot up and die. God wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit, but first he has to make you His type. He has to take away your sin, to purify you, then you are perfect and Holy inside and you match God, then God can live inside you. So how does God take away your sin?” He thought for a second and then said, “You go in that room with the priest…. You confess,” he said finding the word. I said it was true that the Bible says that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I said that the Catholic Church teaches only God can forgive your sins. It’s like when you buy a car and you go to an insurance agent and buy insurance for your car. But when you crack up your car you call the agent and he tells you to take it to a body shop. But you don’t expect the Insurance agent to pay the bill. The company pays. So the Priest is not forgiving your sins he is telling you God forgives you and he can do that because he knows God got paid. “This is how it works,” I said and I took out a booklet. He sat up on the couch then so I could sit. I explained the gospel and the righteousness of Christ writing in the booklet and using illustrations and then saying he could be saved by faith. I said the mass was symbolic of this, the Body and Blood of Christ. I finished and asked if he’d want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done for him or thought something else. “Be forgiven, that one,” he pointed at the circle on the right. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it asking if it was the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he replied. I said he could pray it silently right now; I wouldn’t hear him but God would hear and he’d be forgiven. He agreed and I said “Just pretend I’m not here.” I got up to go to my back-pack and he said, “This right here?” he pointed at the prayer and I said “Yeah.” He prayed then to receive Jesus. I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. “Thank you,” he said taking the book. Then I gave him Strobel’s booklet. I gave him the Bible Study on Christ’s claims to be God. I explained how God walked on the water in the Old Testament and Jesus walked on the water I the New Testament, to tell them He was the same God as the God of the Old Testament. “Cool,” he replied. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him for a year. I got up to go and he said, “Thank you I really appreciate it.” “You’re welcome,” I replied and headed out.

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

Prayin’ for ya.

Bob