Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with God’s peace today as you walked with Him. I had a good day on campus. 3 guys Phil, John and Erick each prayed to receive Jesus. I’d be grateful if you had a moment that you would ask they be blessed in their life in the Lord. Their stories are below if you have a chance. Sheily (shah lee) was close and thought she might pray later. She was a short Latina looking girl with jeans on and a white Gibson guitar t-shirt. She had a cute sort of round-cheeked face and long thin brown hair. She went to Church several times a week but had not seemed to know that Jesus died to pay for her sins.

Phil was sitting at the counter in the cafeteria looking outside. He had bright blue eyes but his hair was light brown and he wore a black t-shirt and black nylon shorts with some kind of print at the hips. He said he was Presbyterian. I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven. He said something about your opinion of yourself might not be very accurate. He thought for a while more and said, “I guess ’cause I care for everyone, not just humans, not just family, but everyone, even people I don’t agree with.” I said a lot of people would not say that, things are pretty messed up. He thought he had a 90% chance of going to Heaven. He smiled at some of the things I said, “God wants to live inside you but he can’t because of sin, you know the stuff that ticks off your mom.” And he smirked a smile in other places too. He knew Jesus had died to take away the sins of the world but he had not been trusting in that to be forgiven. So I explained it was Christ’s righteousness not our goodness that saved us. His blood cleansed us and it’s how God got paid. That way of putting it got another smile.  I said that your good things would not fix your bad things saying, “Say you had a girl friend for about 3 weeks. You thought she was pretty cool but then it turned out she was cheating on you and stealing your stuff. So you cut her loose. She comes around in about a week and says, ‘I know I did you wrong, I was even stealing your stuff and selling it for drugs but I just want you to know I’m gonna be nice to my next 3 boyfriend.’ You’d be like, ‘Yeah that’s not gonna help me at all.’ Because the good stuff you do over there can’t fix the bad things you did here.” He got that so I said all that God had done for him he could have by faith and finally asked him if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done for him to be saved or if he thought something else. He said he’d want to be forgiven. I said if he would like to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it saying, “It says here does this prayer express the desire of you heart, so do you think it does. “Yeah,” he said. I said if he wanted to he could pray it silently, I wouldn’t hear him but God would hear and he’d know he was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” “Sure,” he replied. “Ok, just pretend I’m not here. “Ok,” he said and prayed to receive Christ. I wrote something down and when I looked up he had finished. I told him he could keep the booklet and that now if he trusted in the Righteousness of Christ to be his righteousness the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100%. I explained that the Christian life was “By the Spirit’s Power” and gave him a Bible Study and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front of Bible Promises for You. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told him I would pray a Bible verse for him through next spring and one year after. “Thank you,” he replied. And I headed out.

John was sitting in the MAC arts building lounge on the edge of display pictures of giant heads of Olmec from Mesoamerica. Why they are on display in wall size posters in the MAC art building was not worth my time to discover. John looked a bit like the actor Bradley Cooper when he was in the show “Alias”. He had a mop of curly blondish brown hair, very short beard and white blonde mustache. He had the most wrinkled tan t-shirt I remember seeing at school. He was upbeat and when I asked him if he’d do a survey he said, “I can do that,” in a tone suggesting he was willing to do me a favor. He said he was religious though he had not been to church in a while and thought he’d like to have a religious experience. By way of an example I mentioned I had recently heard again that people who have an experience where they believe themselves to be abducted by aliens (from space), have claimed the name of Christ and the abduction stops. I asked what he would say to God to get into Heaven and he said, “I think I would say… you know… I have good intentions in my heart.” He thought he had a 50/50 chance of going to Heaven. I went through the Gospel and he knew Jesus had died. I felt like he had limited time so I was sticking to the things I always say about the blood and righteousness of Christ and he believed. I asked if he would want to trust in what Jesus has done and be forgiven for his sins where Christ would live inside him and he said, “I would hope so.” So I said there was a prayer he could pray and after talking him through it I asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “I would say so,“ he replied. I said if he wanted he could pray it silently and I wouldn’t hear but God would and he’d know he was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked. He nodded and took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I told him then that the likelihood he would not go to Heaven trusting in the righteousness of Christ and his blood was 100%. I explained the Christian life was living by the Spirit’s power. I also gave him a Bible Study and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front of Bible Promises for You. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told him I would pray a Bible verse for him through next spring and one year after. “Thank you,” he replied. “Have a good semester, :I said getting up to go. “You too, thank you,” he said and I was off.

I looked around a bit more and had been there for several hours. I had to sit a bit so my leg would stop aching (sciatica) and had a little time before an appointment I set up for treatments on it. I headed down the 2^nd floor south patio of the BIC from the PE building. Seeing a brown head of hair at the west end I thought I would ask him and then head to the truck. Erick was sitting there at a rubber coated wire mesh picnic table with attached benches. He had a dark mustache that stopped at a gap under his nose (like Charles Bronson) and a slight chin beard, looked Latino. He had skin like mine in college and wore a grey t-shirt with gothic lettering and blue jeans. He seemed very reserved. I asked if he wanted to do a student survey. “Is this for CRU?” he asked. They had a table all week set up at the doors getting names with info surveys. “It’s a little different it’s really the answer to the question, ‘You’re walking down the road, and you get hit by a bus. So you’re dead. And you stand before God and He asks, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?” He started to say, “I don’t…” and hesitated. “Do bad things?” I tried. It’s really asking what gets you into Heaven. “Just being a good person,” he replied. Well would you like to hear some Bible verses that give the answer. “Yeah,” he replied and making sure he was not interested in a survey I began to go through the Gospel. He tuned right in listening carefully without much expression or response. I was pretty tired so I just prayed God would work and went on explaining the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood to cleanse him and the righteousness of God to his credit received by faith. He knew Jesus had died for the sins of the world. He took it all in saying “OK,” here and there. I then asked if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done showing him the two circles.  I explained that Islam had a god who was on the outside of your life, “He does not come inside people, he’s not a father as he didn’t have a son and there’s no sacrifice for sin, so they have a different god.” I’m definitely on this side,” he said pointing to the circle with Christ in you on the throne of your life. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and read it through with explanation and asked, “It says here, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ would you say it does?” “UmHum” he replied. So I said he could pray it silently and I wouldn’t hear but God would hear and he’d know he was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. And he prayed then to receive Christ. I said I had some stuff to give him and asked if he had a Bible, he didn’t so I gave him one showing him some of the study helps and writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I gave Bible Promises for You and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I would pray a Bible verse for him “through next spring and one year after,” I said. I showed him the survey and told him that had he done the survey one question was “How likely is it you’ll go to Heaven?”. So now the answer for him was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. “I’m old so I have sinned way more than you as each year it adds up, God forgives me but all told you’ve sinned less than me but if we both died today we’d both go to Heaven. His blood is worth an infinite amount and his righteousness is worth an infinite amount so there is enough for us both. And since I’m old I’d die and be there first so you can look me up and I’d show you where all the cool places are.” He smiled at that and said he’d look for me 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