Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you had a blessed week serving the Lord with gladness, asking and receiving joy from the Holy Spirit. I had a good week on campus and 6 students prayed with me to receive Christ. Earlier in the week Nicole, Matias, Quelle, Gabe and D’Riyah, believed on Christ in prayer. Jomaine prayed to receive Jesus on Thursday and his story is below if you have the time. Thanks for your help in prayer if you had a moment this week.

Jomaine was sitting at the last counter height table in the hallway as I headed around the bend and south from the Book Store. He’s African American, possibly part Latino. Not a very big guy, circular face wearing a ball cap backward, zip necked fleece.  He had a small nose and mustache and goatee. I said, “Hi,” to him as I passed and though he had a laptop open. I asked if he’d like to do a survey. He said he’d like to. As we talked he was another guy who said he’d like to take care of his family. Family and even more so wanting to have one is a sign someone is a Christian or will likely trust in Christ in my narrow experience. I stood at the table and asked him questions and wrote things down. I asked what he would say to God if he died and were asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He thought a bit and said, “I don’t know what I would say to be honest.” He said he had not been to Church since he was a kid. He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. I asked him what Jesus had done to take away the sins of the world and he remembered Jesus had died. I explained how by the blood of Christ we are purified He paid for our sin debt because we owed God on the cross. So I continued to explain the Gospel. I told him Jesus had said “You are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. “When you borrow someone’s stuff you have to give it back to them perfect how you got it.” He agreed. “Everything belongs to God so if I hurt you or hurt me or hurt the world in some way I wrecked God’s stuff so I owe Him something perfect to pay Him back but I’m not perfect and I can’t pay. But God loves me so God became a man.” Jesus’ death and blood pays God back for all the imperfect things we did that we owe God something perfect for. I explained the righteousness of God that was our when God adopts us. I said all God had done could be his by faith. “So would you like to be forgiven for your sins trusting in what Jesus has done so God can live inside you and give you strength or do ya think something else?” I asked. “Be forgiven,” he replied. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it asking (reading) “Does this prayer express the desire of your heart. “Yeah,” he said after looking at it a second. So I said he could pray it silently and I wouldn’t hear him but God would hear and he’d know he was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked and he nodded and I handed him the booklet and he prayed to receive Jesus. When he had prayed I told him that now the likelihood he would go to Heaven trusting in the righteousness of Jesus and His Blood was 100%. I explained the Christian life to him and gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I gave him The Case for Easter as he said he liked to read. I explained the Christian life to him living “Inside > Out” by the Spirit’s power. He had a Bible but I gave him a Bible Study on the Deity of Christ. I read the prophecy that begins it in Isaiah 9:6 pointing out how the baby in the prophecy was also going to be God with one name and 3 persons. I said, “But that’s a big pill to swallow if someone walks up right now and says ‘Hi I’m God’ you’d be like, ‘Hold him down I’ll go get help,’ ‘cause he’s crazy. So why did people believe Jesus? Because he said things and did things that only God can do,” he nodded following me. “You know how Jesus walks on the water?” he nodded with a slight look of remembrance. “Cool miracle, but it doesn’t really help anybody or heal anybody. The guys in the boat are the disciples and they have seen Jesus do all this amazing stuff. So when they saw a guy walking on the water they should have said, ‘Oh that must be Jesus doing the next amazing thing, this is a strange ride.’ But instead they freak out. It’s kind of like a Dave Chappelle bit. The guys in the boat are like, ‘Oh it’s a ghost!’” I said in a high squeaky freaked out voice. “Then Jesus is like, ‘No it is I,” I said in a deep resonant voice. “They’re like, ‘No it’s a ghost!!’ Jesus is like, ‘No really it’s Me.’ Then Peter says, ‘If it’s really you let me walk out on the water,’ Jesus says, ‘Come.’ So Peter starts walking and then he sinks. Jesus is like, ‘Why did you doubt?’ and He plucks him out of the water puts him in the boat and everyone is all like, ‘We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!’ Jesus is like, ‘Whatever man,’ He makes the boat go right to shore like a motor boat, cool ending. But why did Jesus do that? It made everyone look stupid. The answer as to why He did it is in Job 9:8.” I showed him the passage then on the other side of the page. I said, “Job is the oldest book in the Bible and in it Job describes God and says, “Who alone stretches out the Heavens (you know how the universe is expanding God does that) and marches on the waves of the Sea.” So God walks on the water in the OT so Jesus walks on the water in the NT to tell them He’s God. I gave him the Bible study. I said I would pray for him each day until Spring and one year after. He said, “Thank you.” I said “Sure,” and I would see him in Heaven. He did not have any more questions so I said if I saw him I would give him a wave. I shook his hand and he was grateful and I headed off to teach a Bible Study.

So Thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism last week God truly blessed.

In Him,

Bob