Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I hope you have been blessed today with good things from the grace of God. I had a good day on campus yesterday. I spent a few hours on Facebook messenger with a former atheist student from our time at Elmhurst college 15 years ago and lost the evening yesterday to write. His name is Kevin if you’d like to pray for him. He’s become a Free Mason and broadly speaking a theist of a sort. So we’ll see what God does. The conversation has been off again on again for a couple days. Meanwhile back on campus Mari and Julianna each prayed with me to receive Jesus yesterday. I’d be grateful for your prayers for them to grow. There stories are below if you have the time to spend. Today school was cancelled for election day in Illinois, which was fine with me as I’m a little sore from walking so much yesterday. Thanks for your help in prayer.
Mari was sitting in the hallway that heads down to the bookstore. It’s the longest stretch of seating at school. She was sitting by what used to be student activities and an open lounge that has been devoured by the ever-expanding bureaucracy at the college. She is a pretty faced Latina girl long brown hair past her shoulders, rounded nose, darker, slightly heavy set. She wore all black leggings and a black long sleeve shirt. She was attending a Church called Westbrook. I asked her what she would say to God if she died and stood before him and He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “I would say that… what would I say? At the moment I’m not [got] the relationship I want to have with Him. Day by day I’m trying to grow in that, so, ‘The changes I’m making’ I ‘d say that.” She thought the likelihood she would go to heaven was 75%. I told her that eternal life was knowing God and this meant that He lived inside her. I asked what it was that God had done to take away her sins. When she hesitated I said, “That Jesus did.” She only replied with a slight frown and shook her head a bit. So I said something like, “Don’t know, ok well this is how it works, you’re going to like this.” I began to go through the Gospel with her then and explained that the perfect life the Bible said she was required to live, and couldn’t, was lived by Jesus. His blood was a payment to God that cleansed her and so He could live inside her. This and His righteousness were a gift of God to her, “I love this,” she replied enthusiastically. She told me then, looking at her phone, she had 4 minutes until she had to run to class so I said, “OK I’ll hurry.” She was saved by grace through faith. I asked her if she would want to be forgiven for her sins trusting in what Jesus had done for her. “Yes. Most definitely.” She replied. So I said there was a prayer she could pray. She prayed each section after I explained it, silently, and then I said, “Amen?” “Amen,” she said with a smile. I quickly explained life in the Spirit “Inside Out”. I gave her Bible Promises for You and I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside. I also gave her a Bible Study and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet. I said I would pray a Bible verse for her each day from now until the end of Spring semester and one year after. I said if I saw her again I would give her a wave (and I passed her later in the day in conversation with someone and she gave me a little clandestine wave from her lap and smiled and I waved back). “Thank you so much,” she said getting up to go to class. I said she was welcome and she ran off.
Julianna was sitting on a balcony that overlooked the connecting lounge of the science buildings looking out the glass wall to the South. She looked like she had pretty much rolled out of bed, pulled on clothes and come to school. She’s a nursing student and it’s not like there’s any guys in your classes. Her straight hair was pulled up behind her head in a makeshift bun and she wore no make-up. She had a narrow pretty face and kind of intense blue eyes. Wore a blue hoodie and black leggings and had the look of someone who had been studying. She went to a Catholic Church but said her mom went to a church called Mission. I said I’d know some people who went there. I asked her one thing she would want to do before she died and she said, “Love.” “So being loving throughout your life?” I asked and she agreed. She thought the likelihood she would go to heaven was 100%. I asked her what she would say to get into Heaven. “What would I say?” She asked me. “Um hum,” I replied. She thought a moment and said, “”’Cause I’ve never given up.” I asked her what God does to take away her sin then added “What does Jesus do?” “His love,” she said sort of in question form. I said that it was true He loved us, “and this is how it manifests.” As I opened the booklet she said, “Thank you,” I think anticipating she was missing something. I began to go through the Gospel with her and explained the sacrifice of Jesus that cleansed and paid for her sin. His righteousness was to her credit and God adopted her and gave her the blessings of His family. “He gives you the sacrifice for your sins the blood that cleanses you and the righteousness of God that surrounds you.” She was kind of repeating what I said to her all through as if to validate it. I explained that Jesus was God and so His life was worth an infinite amount and His blood is worth an infinite amount so when He pours out His blood it pays God back for all the imperfect things we did that we owe God something perfect for. Jesus’ work was worth an infinite amount so it matters who does the work. “Say somehow someone I knew knew the owner of a baseball team and the guy said I could play for a day they would just stick me in left field and hope no one hit to me. My reward would be that I got to play in a baseball game. But there are lots of guys that if they pay they have to pay them millions because they are that good at baseball. It matters who does the work how much value the work has.” “So only God can do it,” she said. And I agreed (though no one actually gets paid millions a game to play in the MLB, I should have gone with a special teams roll in the NFL, anyway). I summarized and said, “So that’s Christianity. God loves you He wants to know and live inside you, but He can’t because of sin so the Bible says, “God demonstrates His love for us while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’ So this is the way God expresses his love to take away your sins.” I said she had to believe it or receive it [John 1:12]. “So if you believe Jesus is God, He died for your sins and rose from the dead. Not that you just know the story but that that’s what you put your trust in so that if someone says to you, ‘Why should God let you into Heaven?’ you’d say, “Because Jesus died for me.” I explained being saved by faith and her good stuff would not fix her bad stuff. “So you believe?” she said. “Yes you believe but you have to believe a specific thing,” I replied. I asked if she would want to be forgiven for her sins or thought something else then asked again if she would want to be forgiven trusting in Jesus. “Yes,” she replied. I said that if she wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer she could pray. I talked it through in explanation and said, “It says here does this prayer express the desire of your heart. “Yes it does,” she replied. I said she could pray it silently and know she was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” “Yeah,” she said with conviction. She took the booklet then and prayed to receive Jesus. I gave her Bible Promises for You that she liked and I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” on the inside and reminded her of the symbolism of the mass which was to remind her that Jesus had died for her so her sins were forgiven. When she took it she should just say, “Thank You.” I gave her a Bible Study explaining it and then gave her The Case for Christ Answer Booklet that she liked also. I told her I would pray a Bible verse for her each day from now until Spring and one year after. I got up to go and said, “Nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too. Thank you so much for chatting with me and giving me a break,” she replied. I said “God bless you,” then and she said “God bless you too.” 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