Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed with good things from above, like manna in the wilderness the snacks of Heaven. It’s too cold today to envy gathering any manna but I had a good day of evangelism on campus and Zach and Stepan (not a spelling error but related to a similar English version of Stephen) both prayed to receive Jesus. Their stories are below if ya got some time, please pray they grow in their faith. I also spoke with a Wheaton College student for a while at a table set up by The College Church in town (it’s not connected to the academic school at all it’s just across the street). The school had become so woke he said was thinking of a transfer out of it.

 Zach was sitting in a lounge at a table up on the 3^rd floor of the BIC. He had a grey poly long sleeve shirt on and black sweats. He was a lean well-built kid about my height, dark brown hair and a black ball cap turned backwards. He had a couple days growth of beard. Good-looking guy. He reached out and shook my hand as I sat down. He hadn’t been living the Christian life but seemed to know the Gospel a bit. I asked him what he would say to God if he died and God asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” He thought a while and finally said, “Probably say You shouldn’t. I was baptized as an infant and in the last years I’ve let it slip away from me. So my honest answer would be you shouldn’t.” “Yeah, no reason to lie,” I said. He agreed. He said he had gotten busy and he’d had a girlfriend, she seemed to be past tense. I began to go through the Gospel with him and he believed in Jesus and seemed to know Jesus had died to take away the sins of the world. I explained all of the Gospel I usually do and he tuned in following very closely. He seemed interested to hear the way I explained the blood that cleansed him and the righteousness of Christ to his credit. He took salvation by faith to heart and I asked him if he would want to trust in what Jesus had done for him or thought something else. “Definitely,” he replied. So I explained that if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray and after talking him through it I asked if it was the desire of his heart. He said it was. I said he could pray it silently and he said taking the booklet, “Can I have this?” “Sure, but if you wanted you could pray right now and know you were forgiven,” I replied. “OK,” he said and prayed then to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life to him about reading the Bible and he said, “A friend of mine at the gym said he was starting a Bible Study this week and I said I would come.” I was grateful to hear that and said that was “Great”. I said that the Christian life was “By the Spirit’s Power”. I continued saying, “Say you go to Church and they say, ‘you should do this you should do that’ and you are like, ‘This is great but I’m going to forget this by Wednesday.’ But if you wanted to you could ask God, ‘Make me this kind of man.’ Then if you forgot by Wednesday God is already at work.” I explained that Christianity was “Inside Out not outside in”. “You ask God to transform you on the inside you become a good man and God transforms you on the outside.” I gave him Bible Promises for You showing him some of the topics and writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told him Strobel’s story. I also gave him a Bible study on ways Jesus claims to be the same God as the God of the Old Testament. I said the likelihood he would go to Heaven now was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I told him I would pray a Bible verse for him each day from now until a year from Spring asking God to bless him. We talked some more and I got up to go. He reached out and shook my hand and said, “Thank you. I appreciate you coming and sitting down and talking to me. Thank you for everything.” I said, “Your welcome.” And I headed off grateful.

 I came across Stepan sitting with his legs swung over a chair in a lounge on one of the arbor patios on the 1^st floor. He was up for doing a survey and I sat down next to him and he swung around to talk. He had an oval face like of the Pillsbury Dough Boy look. He wore clear rimmed classes semi round frames. He had on a white T-shirt and faded blue jeans. He had stick straight light brown hair the bangs were no more than an inch and pointed out. He had a bit of facial hair trying to make it, mustache and chin.  He was a kind nice person.  I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven if he died and he said, “You shouldn’t.” “Is there a ‘but’ in there or anything?” I asked. Well to me it’s mediocrity [the problem]. I don’t know if I’m worthy or what it takes.” He thought he had a 100% chance of going to Heaven nonetheless. He said J Cole (the rap artist) had a song “Snow on the Bluff”, where he said, “Well maybe ’cause deep down I know I ain’t doing enough.” He said it was about Cole thinking he thought he was trying but maybe he was not using his celebrity to do enough to change things socially. I read the lyrics on line when I got home and I think he’d gotten the point of the song. And when it comes to the message that you have to earn salvation, how would you know you had ever done enough with what God gave you? I began to go through the Gospel with him and he knew Jesus had died. He would say, “OK” a couple times as I went through following along. We were alone in the lounge. I finished talking about the blood and righteousness of Christ cleansing him and paying for his sin and too his credit. “Makes sense,” he said. So I said all Jesus had done for him could be his by faith, believing Jesus was God had died for his sins and rose from the dead. Then I read that it was grace, he had been saved by faith. Not then by works, his good stuff could not fix his bad stuff. I explained that thinking it would was really a category error in logic, you can’t do a different kind of good thing unrelated to another and repair the bad you had done. I asked if he would want to be forgiven for his sins trusting in what Jesus had done. Then He would live inside him giving him strength and take him to Heaven when he died. Or did he think something else. He said he would want to be forgiven. So I said if he wanted to be forgiven there was a prayer he could pray. I talked him through it and asked if it expressed the desire of his heart. “I think it does,” he agreed. I said then he could pray it silently, I wouldn’t hear him but God would hear and he’d know he was forgiven. “Wanna do it?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied and he took the booklet and prayed to receive Jesus. I explained the Christian life then to him, he had a Bible to read. I explained to him also living “By the Spirit’s Power” “Inside Out”. I gave him Bible Promises for You writing his name and the date and “forgiven!” in the front. He was grateful. I gave him The Case for Christ Answer Booklet and told him a bit of Strobel’s story. I gave him a Bible study also. I said the likelihood he would go to Heaven now was 100% trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus. I told him I would keep him in by prayers when I scribbled something down to remember him saying I’d pray a Bible verse for him each day until a year from Spring asking God to bless him and that I might not be able to picture him by this time next year but I’d try. “I’ll return the favor,” he replied and he wrote some notes in the booklet of what I looked like saying he’d pray for me and I thanked him as he noted I had blue eyes. His were grey. We talked about AI. He wanted to be an accountant. He said his dad drove a truck sometimes (an owner operator) and crossed state lines when I explained Ellen’s job. I finally got up to go and said, “Thanks for talking with me, it was really nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too Bob,” he said. “Have a good one.” I said, “You too,” and headed out.

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

In Him,

Bob