Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your week was blessed with good things from the hand of the Lord. I had a good last day on campus yesterday and Jack, Dajah and Aly each prayed with me to receive Jesus. Please pray they grow in their faith. Their stories are below if you have some time. Thanks for your prayers.

 I came across a guy named Michael in a vending machine lounge on the north side of the first floor of the BIC. He was Greek orthodox and had a few days’ worth of beard and a curly mop of hair. Looked like a teenage Cat Stevens. He was up for doing a survey and as we finished the survey but hadn’t gone into the Gospel his friend walked up and he introduced me, then asked he if he wanted to do the survey too. His name was Jack. He had a boxer’s flattened nose and a pointed chin and was clean shaven. His hair parted on the right and made a wavy sweep of bangs across his forehead broken into points. He had on a two-tone grey zip up jacket and Jeans. He was Greek Orthodox too. When I’d asked Michael what he would say to God to get into Heaven he listed numerous things he’d done serving at church. But he’d said he wanted to “have a big happy family” so I thought he’d trust in Jesus. Jack had said he’d like to travel to Greece and Eastern Europe. I think it was a, see the start of his gene pool and faith tradition kind of thing. Jack’s response to what he’d say to get into Heaven was different. “I’ve struggled in life with faith. Struggled a lot. Ultimately to let me into Heaven, it’s only by His mercy and love. I’m no saint, I’m a sinner I did the best I could here on Earth.” Hearing that reply Michael said, “That’s a good answer.” I asked if they had 5 minutes to go through the booklet. Michael then excused himself saying his class was starting. So I said, “Here’s a booklet you can take.” He cheerfully took it and I later told Jack he should talk it over with Michael to see what he’d say. I began to go through the Gospel with Jack who remained. I said God wanted to live inside him. So had to take away his sin, asked him what Jesus had done to take away his sins and he knew He’d died on the cross. As I went through the Gospel he was tuned right in accepting the blood and righteousness of Christ and that this had to be received by faith. I asked if would want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in what Jesus had done or thought something else. I then mentioned Islam and a few points of how they differed. He jumped on that saying he’d looked into Islam and there was not much there that could be validated, pointing out they said Jesus had not died and was replaced by Judas on the cross hundreds of years later. I agreed and explained that Muhammad had said Muslims were to read the  Injil—this was the Arabic name for the Gospels. They should then check it against what he said. “We have the entire New Testament in Greek fragments by 350 AD,” I told him. I pointed out Muhammad’s time was in the 600’s so the Gospel he recommended to his followers to read was the same one we read. His story did not match the New Testament, so there was no source for the Judas replacement theory until 600 years after Jesus ascended.  He also said he’d had a Mormon friend and found the Mormon faith less than credible. So I told him then that the entire book of Mormon took place in North Central and South America by 300AD. In the stories in the book of Mormon there are wheels, chariots, horses, barley for making beer and metallurgy for swords and coins but we know none of this existed on this continent until the Spanish and Columbus came to the Americas about 1100 years later. Mormons owned a mountain in NY where a battle that killed a million people took place, but there are no bones on it. Basically the book was made up. He agreed he’d found no archeology to support their claims. So I told him a couple claims that were validated concerning the Bible by archeological finds, the “House of David”, the Hittites and the now believe they have found Sodom. I asked again then if he would want to be forgiven trusting in what Jesus had done. “Yes,” he said emphatically. So I said there was a prayer he could pray and talked him through it. I asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “Yeah,” he said firmly. I said he could pray it silently, “Wanna do that?” “Yeah,” he said and he prayed out loud to receive Jesus. We were alone in the lounge but most students have wi-fi earbuds in these days and can’t overhear you.  We talked about some evidenced based stuff he could look into as well I recommended ICR for creation stuff and told him about Y-chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve. I gave him Bible Promises for You and wrote his name and the date and “forgiven! In the front. I explained that now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to and His blood the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100% (I had not asked him what the likelihood he’d thought he would get in was earlier.) I told him I would pray a Bible verse for Him for him each day from now until Spring and one year after asking God to bless him. He was grateful. I also gave him Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible study and compared some passages he’d not heard before. We talked about Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky; He liked the Grand Inquisitor passage in Dostoyevsky. I said the leap of faith Kierkegaard speaks of was really what he’d done though Kierkegaard was wrong about it. It might feel like a leap but as soon as you step off the Spirit comes in and you’re riding on one of Tolkien’s eagles. He smiled liking the analogy. We wished each other Merry Christmas and I said I’d see him in Heaven and he said he hoped so.

 Aly and Dajah, a couple of black girls were sitting at a counter height table in the hallway that runs past the bookstore. I walked past them as they had just sat down with bags of food for lunch but then thought they might be up for hearing something while they ate, (they did work on their salads as I taught them). Aly had Asian eyes and a flat face that seem to scowl a bit but lit up pretty when she smiled, smaller nose. She wore a black zip up fleece and jeans and had straight hair past her shoulders, it was growing out a bit curly at the top. Dajah had stick straight hair but looked like she’d just left the salon, it was the same length. She was pretty and wore a black sweater and slacks and seemed a bit more social. They weren’t sure about the survey so I kind of weaseled in the big 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?” Neither of them had an answer that included what Jesus had done for them in the atonement, they hemmed and hawed a bit. So I said as I have hundreds of times, “Well Christianity is like a blood transfusion. I have A+ blood if you fill me full of B- blood I would clot up and die. So God wants to fill you full of His Spirit and live inside you but the problem is everyone is sinful. God can’t be in the same place as sin so he has to take away your sin. So do you remember how Jesus takes away your sin?” Ally answered, “Baptism,” and then Dajah said the same thing. I explained Baptism a bit saying Peter says in the Bible, “this is how baptism saves you as an appeal to God for a clear conscience.” So when you are baptized you are asking God for a clear conscience. You have a clear conscience when your sins are taken away. I asked, “What happened that you are appealing to in Baptism to take away your sins?” Neither of them knew so I said “Well here I can show you the Bible verses real quick” and they were fine with that so I took out the booklet and went through it all. When I came to finish explaining the blood and righteousness of Jesus I said, “So this is what you are appealing to in a Baptism.” I said the person baptizing you should ask if you believe Jesus was God died for your sins and rose from the dead and then ask you if you trust in that. Then at some churches you would go under the water like buried with Christ in death and come out of it like a rising from the Dead like He did. Some Churches might also sprinkle you and water is purification in the Bible and so they emphasize that,” trying to keep it simple. I explained that they then would not go to Heaven because they were good but because Jesus was and they were connected to him. I said all Jesus had done was received by faith in Jesus and what He had done. Their good stuff did not fix their bad stuff and used the idea of Aly having an old boyfriend who was cheating on her and stealing her stuff but thought he could make up for it by being nice to his next 3 girlfriends. Your good stuff does not fix your bad stuff. I asked if they would want to be forgiven for their sins trusting in Jesus. They each did. I said there was a prayer they could pray, explained it, they agreed it expressed their heart’s desire.  Asking if they wanted to pray it silently Ally said, “Yes” emphatically and Dajah agreed with an Uum hum. They each took a booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. When Aly was done she asked, “Couldn’t someone just say they prayed this and that’s all they needed to do?” “‘Could they lie? Yes.” I replied. I explained that if someone was sincere about asking for forgiveness they would look like it and that the Bible says you should bring froth the fruit that comes from repentance. I explained if someone was married and hitting on them they’d know they did not really mean the vows they took to be loyal to their wife. I said that no one was perfect and if they saw someone struggling they knew who was a Christian they should pray for them. Christians are transformed by the Spirit inside them and I explained living by the Spirit’s power “Inside Out.” “You should look like who you are,” I said. Dajah asked if she should get baptized again if she was only baptized as a child. I explained how Baptizing children went and a bit more and said she should do what the Church she was attending was saying. I said as long as a church was not saying Jesus did not die for your sins or saying the Bible was not true it was probably OK but that they might not agree with absolutely everything at a church. I offered them Bibles. It seemed Aly had recently been going to an Orthodox Church and said she did not want one as she wanted to buy an Orthodox study Bible. I said I had one but it was only the New Testament. Dajah took a Bible from me however and I wrote her name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front of it. I also showed her some things in it. I wrote Aly’s name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front of Bible promises for You I did it again in the front of that book for Dajah. I gave them each The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and a Bible study. I talked to them about how it was not what they had done but what Jesus had done that would get them into Heaven. They each said, “Thank you.” I said,” God bless you.” They said God bless you too and when I said, “Merry Christmas,” they echoed that as well. I went back and explained that the likelihood they would go to Heaven was now 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. And we wished each other a Merry Christmas a second time and I was off.

 So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism last week if you had a chance. God truly blessed.

 In Him,

Bob