Hey Brothers and sisters in Christ,

How’s the life? Hope you are in the sun somewhere spreading the love of Christ. I had a good day on campus Thursday. And though I’m a bit post-surgery sore God is still doing the work and Cam prayed with me to receive Jesus. His story is below if you have some time. Please pray he grows in his faith. Thanks.

I came across Cam sitting on a stuffed chair on a balcony overlooking the foyer above the bookstore. He was wearing a fleece and had ringlets of hair (he tugged on one in front from time to time) the width of a pencil lead, pouring off the top of his head. He looked African American with perfect skin a smaller nose and the perfect lips of a closed mouth Mr. Potato Head. Good looking guy right down to the cheek bones. He was not that big and looked young. I asked if he wanted to do a student survey. He said he wasn’t a student yet; he was starting next semester and was only here to take a test. It turned out to be math placement and I believe he wanted to get into nuclear medicine. He wasn’t sure how he did on the test. (The math at COD is harder than U of Illinois at Chicago, judging from students I’ve talked to that have done math at both. It’s a cash cow it seems to have students stuck in not for credit prep classes.) But he said he’d do a survey anyway so I jumped in with him. I asked him what he would say to God if he died and was asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” “I mean I wouldn’t know what to say.” He thought some more and said, “Dang. I wouldn’t have a reason. I’m a sinner I sin every day. I guess you could say ‘You sent Your Son for us,’ that wouldn’t be enough by itself.” He thought he had a 50% chance of going to Heaven. I began to go through the Gospel with him saying Jesus said knowing God was eternal life. God wanted to live inside him but first he had to take away his sins, then he would be perfect and holy inside and Jesus could live inside Him. “What a weight!” he said and I agreed. So I asked what’s the big thing Jesus does to take away your sins. “He forgives you?” he replied. I tried to phrase it a couple other ways but it seemed he did not know what God had sent His Son to do. I began to go through the Gospel with him. When I explained the sacrifice of Christ, that the blood had cleansed him, I also explained how it was a payment to God. I told him the Bible said we had to live a perfect life. God could say if we stood before Him we owed Him that, but we hadn’t lived one, “Well everything here is perfect. I’m perfect and this is a perfect place you don’t fit in here,” But then everyone would go to Hell because no one is perfect. So God becomes a perfect man and then He goes around telling people the truth, they get ticked at Him and kill Him, now he’s dead. But that’s what Jesus wants, He wants to die, ‘cause the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there’s no forgiveness of sins. That’s cause life is in the blood and Jesus is the source of all life because He is God, so when He pours out his blood it becomes kind of a life force in the world and it makes life everywhere we made death. There’s death inside us from our sins. The Bible says the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. In 1John 1:7 “So now you are alive inside and you match God and God can live inside you.” I finished. “I’ve never heard anyone explain it that way before,” he replied. “It’s really how God gets paid,” I said. “Say you borrow your friend’s car and you dent the fender. Then you gotta take it to the body shop or a pops the dent place, they pop out the dent and you give it back to your friend and everything’s cool. So when you borrow someone’s stuff you got to give it back to them perfect how you got it. The problem is everything belongs to God… so if I hurt you or hurt me or hurt the world in some what I owe God something perfect back. But if I roll over your foot in the parking lot I don’t have an extra spare perfect foot to give to God, and there’s all kinds of stuff like that. So I owe God but I can’t pay. But God loves me so He becomes a man. And since He is God His life and blood are 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, so the real reason God forgives you is He got paid.” “I see that, that’s dope,” he replied. I explained the righteousness of God that was predicted and Jesus earned it and when God adopted him it was to his credit. To hook up with all Jesus had done he had to believe it or receive it. That would mean he had faith. By grace he was saved through faith. I asked if he wanted to be forgiven for his sins or thought something else. He said he wanted to be forgiven so I said there was a prayer he could pray. I read the first line and he read it out loud after me. So I read it and explained it in phrases and he prayed it. When we finished I said, “Amen” and he did too. I gave him Bible Promises for You then and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. I explained the likelihood he would now go to Heaven trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus was 100%. He had to pick up his mom.  So I quickly gave him a Bible study explaining it a bit and The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told him I would be praying a Bible verse for him each day from now until the end of Spring and one year after. He was grateful and thought he’d look be up when he was a student. So I wrote my phone number on the front of the Bible Study and told him he could contact me then. He was grateful and I headed off saying I would see him in Heaven.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism last week if you had a chance.  4 students prayed to receive Jesus.

In Him,

Bob