Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I hope your Holiday season has been a blessing so far. With thankful hearts we are grateful for fruit at College of DuPage. We’ve had a good year on campus and 96 students have prayed with me to receive Jesus this semester. I thought I would send a list of some things I often say to students, in case they come up for you in seeing people over the Holidays. So here are a few:
>We have a different God than the god of Islam. God is called Allah in the Arabic-speaking Middle East, regardless of the faith. But just like you might know a guy named “Alex” and a girl named “Alex” who are obviously not the same person, they are not to be confused because they share a name. I often say: 1) The god of Islam does not live inside you (His Spirit is in the world but not known by you, indwelling you). 2) He is not a father, because he didn’t have a son. 3) Allah of Islam requires no sacrifice for sin. So Islam has a different god. Several years back, Wheaton College seemed to have a controversy over this when one of the professor’s said Christians have the same God as Islam. Other professors said the question was “complicated.” But the answer is actually quite simple; they have a different god.
>Quick, imperfect definition of the Trinity: We are in parts, or plural beings (see the words in blue): Mark 12:30 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” I will tell students, You are something like a Trinity in that there are parts to you. When you talk to yourself when you are alone, who is listening to you, who are talking to you? There is another you inside you. You are a plural being, a life or a “soul.” You have a body—your soul and strength—like Jesus. You have a will or a mind, like the Father. You have a heart or emotions, like the Holy Spirit. Though the pieces of you are not complete in each of the others as in God. So you are kind of like a dysfunctional trinity inasmuch as someone could say something rude to you and it could affect your ability to concentrate, your emotions or heart upsetting your mind. Or you could get injured and become upset from the pain, your body affecting your heart. But God is a complete Trinity; 3 in one, where He loved Himself and was in agreement within Himself. The Scripture says God is love. The god of Islam cannot be love from eternity past as before he created he could not love. Love is an action acted upon another. The Christian God loves Himself, loves the other persons of the Trinity. Allah is alone.
>Students have said to me they feel like they already have a relationship with God after I explain the Gospel (and then ask if they want to be forgiven for their sins). So I’ll say, “I’m not asking you if you “have” a relationship with God. Everyone does because He is your creator (Offspring, Acts 17:28). I am asking if you want to be “in” a relationship with God, where He lives inside you (knows you John 17:3) and is your Savior. In the Old Testament the Spirit came “on” people not “in” people. Because their sins were not paid for yet, God could not truly be one with them. John 14:17 “…that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” As soon as you believe, the Spirit enters you and seals you (Ephesians 1:13). But David feared to lose God’s Spirit (Psalm 51:11).
>Some quick thoughts about evolution. 1)Michael Behe once said in an interview, “Darwin thought the cell was as complex as a jellybean with a ball bearing in the middle of it. We now know one cell is as complex as the city of NY at rush hour.” We each have 30-40 trillion cells in us. The body is too complex to have evolved. Because every set of human parents pass on between 60 to 200 mutations to their offspring, scientists can know by approximating the number of total mutations in the human body, and working backward, that the human genome is about 10,000 to 6,500 years old. It can be demonstrated through Mitochondrial Eve genetics that all women alive today inherited their mitochondrial DNA from a common single ancestor. All women are related to one original woman. Similarly, science has discovered Y- chromosomal Adam. He is the male from whom all living men are descended. Scientists would maintain that there were other humans who existed at the same time, but have no genetic evidence this was true. So it is scientifically justifiable to say everyone came from Adam and Eve. Darwin could not pass a Junior High Science test and knew little science. 2) They now find soft tissue they did not look for before in dinosaur bones and find fragments of DNA in this tissue. These bones are dated sometimes to millions of years ago based on the rock level they find them in. But DNA will only last 15,000 years in lab tests. So we know they have wrongly dated bones in over 100 examples they have found.
>The Bible says God remembers your sins no more. The Bible always teaches God knows all things and that we are sinful; such that even the good things we do have no value (Isaiah 64:6). So how does God remember us if so much of what we do involves sin? The Bible also teaches “All thing work together for good.” So God does not remember us as the evil we did, but as the good He made out of it.
>It matters who does the work. Say I somehow become friends with a billionaire and it turns out he owns a baseball team. I say to him, “You know I’ve always thought it would be great to play baseball but I’m not any good at it.” “Well, it’s your lucky day,” he replies. “I own the worst team in the league and the last game is this weekend. I don’t care if we win or lose the game. We already got the top draft pick. I’ll stick you in left field. You might not see a fly ball but it doesn’t matter if do and you catch it. You can have an at-bat but it’s an American League game and we can use a designated hitter.” So sure enough I play. What’s my reward for playing in that game? It’s just that I actually got to put on a uniform and stand in the field. But if they were bringing a guy in who was a free-agent after being injured and just wanted to see him pitch under pressure for an inning, to see if they would sign him in the Spring, they’d probably have to pay him a hundred-thousand dollars. They’d pay the pitcher more because it matters who does the work. Jesus does the work to earn God’s righteousness for us, so the work is worth an infinite amount because He is God.
>I’ll tell a student to look down the hallway and look at the carpet line or look out the window and look at the line on the horizon, then to pretend that is eternity. But your life here on earth is only as long as the white edge of my fingernail. This life can be hard, but the next life will be worth it if we trust in Him here.
>Muhammad had said Muslims were to read the “Injil”—this was the Arabic name for the Gospels. They should then check it against what Muhammad said. We have the entire New Testament in Greek fragments by 350 AD and some from quotes of the Church Fathers, so they used them. I point 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. Muhammad’s story did not match the New Testament they read when he was alive.
>The entire book of Mormon took place in North Central & 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 these things existed on this continent until the Spanish (Columbus then Cortez) came to the Americas more than 1,000 years later. Mormons own a mountain in NY where a battle that killed a million people took place in their book. But there are no bones on it. Basically the book was made up.
These are the names of the students who prayed with me to receive Jesus or in a couple cases said they would pray later and I bumped into them and they said they did pray. We’d be grateful if you might mention them in prayer and ask God to bless them.
David, Jonah, Skylar, Rosslyn, Phil, John, Erick, Lilly, Erick, Matt, Sergio, Jaydi, Brandon, Adrian, Lauren, Camille, Ella, Madi, AJ, Charles, Jomally, Ellie, Madison, Odalys, Jess*, Rebecca, India, Jorie, Markail, Monse, Ethan, Kevin, Kai, Alijana, Michael, Adam, Rita, Arielle, Samantha, Michael, Josh, Reanne, Danielle, Marisa, Tamara, Annette, Ellis, Savannah, Lena, Joseph, Kaycee, Alexa, Malcolm, Daniel, Abbie, Ozzy, Michael, John, Roger, Connor, Q, Brandon, John, J, Diego, Damo, Roy, Victor, Daniel, KD, Charlie, John, Areli, Tamryn, Pablo, Mari, Julianna, Alijah, Cam, Keith, Matthew, Julia, Jessica, Panos, Dailen, Max, Jon, Moe, Salvador, Keri, Yace [ya say], Gianna, Jude, Donte, Jack, Dajah, Aly
Thank you for your prayers and financial support this year. We trust the Lord to provide for our needs. Your partnership let us bring the Good News to students who need Jesus.
In Him,
Bob & Ellen