Hey Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope you had a good day walking with Jesus by the Spirit. I had a good day on campus and Liam prayed with me to receive Jesus today. His story is below if you have some time. Please pray he grows in His faith.
Liam wore jeans, a green t-shirt and a PBR hat with stick straight reddish-brown hair poking out from under it. He had a pencil thin reddish mustache and was built pretty slight and was shorter than me. I asked him if he died what he would say to God if asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He said, “I’d say over all I’ve been a good person. I’m Catholic, I go to church and I act and listen and live by those values and rules, I guess.” He thought he had a 75% chance of going to Heaven. I told him that eternal life is to know God, this means that He lives inside you. So like a blood transfusion He has to make you His type to transfuse His life into you. I asked what the big thing was that Jesus did to take away his sins, “He was crucified,” he replied. “Right,” I replied and began to explain that the blood of Jesus cleansed us from all sin. “His blood is worth an infinite amount because he is God so when He pours out his blood it pays God back for all the imperfect things we have done that we owe God something perfect for so the real reason God forgives you is He got paid, by the blood of Christ. So He had to pay Himself. I explained that Jesus earned the righteousness of God by perfectly fulfilling the law and this was too his credit. “So you don’t go to Heaven because you’re good but because Jesus is good and your connected to Him,” I put in. Then I explained he was saved by faith: “That Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead, not that he just knew the story but that that was what you trusted in to be forgiven so that if someone would say to you, ‘Why should God let him into Heaven’ you’d say, ‘Because Jesus died for me.’” I asked if he wanted to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done, then he would live inside him and give him all the strength he needed to live the Christian life. “I definitely want to be forgiven he said, pointing at the circle with Christ on the throne of his life. I asked if he thought when he was praying to be forgiven for his sins was he thinking that he would try to do better and God would forgive him or was he thinking he would be forgiven because Jesus had died for him. “It’s had to say what I was thinking,” he said, pinching his chin. “I think when I asked for forgiveness I just took it for granted.” “Without a thought about Jesus,” I said. “Right,” he agreed. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven and had not asked God to forgive him before trusting in Jesus there was a prayer he could pray. I talked him through it, saying he could pray it silently and know he was forgiven. “Wanna do that?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I said he could keep the booklet and showed him the part about living the Christian life “Inside > Out” by the Spirit’s power. He said he did not read the Bible but had one. So I gave him Bible Promises for You and I wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. “Bob, thanks a lot!” he said reaching out and shaking my hand with a firm handshake. I gave him The Case for Christ answer Booklet and a Bible study. He was enthusiastic and grateful. I told him I would pray for him through Spring and all next year asking God to bless him. I said I would see him in Heaven. “See you there,” he said brightly. And I headed off. So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God truly blessed.
In Him,
Bob